CBS says that it now expects to turn a $15 million profit on late night, thanks to Byron Allen‘s time buy of the former Late Show timeslot.
In a statement late Thursday, a CBS spokesperson said that late night had become “cost prohibitive” to continue programming on its own, which ultimately led to the decision to cancel Stephen Colbert’s Late Show.
“We’re proud to partner with Byron Allen on a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost prohibitive to continue,” the CBS spokesperson said. “With this ‘time buy’ model, we have shifted an hour that was losing roughly $40 million annually to $15 million in profit — a $55 million swing.”
The comments come as Allen’s Comics Unleashed debuted to about 1.1 million viewers, a significant decline from the Late Show, which averaged 2.7 million in its final season. The time buy model, however, means that Allen’s company is covering all the production costs, and paying CBS for the privilege of running in the time period, effectively making it instantly profitable for the network. Allen’s company sells advertising for the timeslot, which can help it recoup those costs.
Allen had told The Hollywood Reporter of his talks with CBS, “I have a show called Comics Unleashed, it’s been in syndication on the air for 20 years. We’re celebrating our 20th anniversary. I said, ‘Let me put that show there and let me buy the time period. I can save you $30 million-$40 million.’ They said, ‘Brilliant idea, let’s do it.’”
Meanwhile, a week after his final broadcast, Stephen Colbert’s Late Show has officially shuttered, with staff sharing photos of the struck set on social media.
Allen has been embarking on an aggressive and quixotic media strategy, not only taking over CBS late night but inking a deal to acquire BuzzFeed, a deal that closed Wednesday.
“Our vision is to build on the iconic foundation of BuzzFeed and HuffPost by expanding into free-streaming video, audio and user-generated content,” Allen said in a statement. “As of this moment, with the power of AI, BuzzFeed is officially chasing YouTube to become another premier free-streaming video service.”
