David Letterman didn’t hold back his criticism after CBS decided to replace the current host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert.
With the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert scheduled to air on May 21, the network revealed that the successor to the late-night program will be Byron Allen’s comedy talk show, Comics Unleashed.
Letterman spoke about the change during the April 10 episode of the podcast The Barbara Gaines Show. “They don’t want to spend money, so they’re going to make money,” explained Letterman, who helped found the The Late Show franchise 33 years ago.
“They charge a reasonable price for Byron Allen. He sells all the advertising for his Comics Unleashed, and it will be, I think, 90 minutes or two hours of comedians talking about funny things.”
The former host, who led The Late Show for 22 seasons before handing the reins to Colbert, added that Allen’s show is “a very good idea,” since “no one is doing stand-up, except they’re sitting down doing stand-up.”
Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen will take over the network’s 11:35 p.m. time slot starting May 22. The roundtable talk show will be followed by another series produced by Allen, the comedy game show Funny You Should Ask, at 12:35 a.m.
Last year, when announcing that the current season of The Late Show would end in May 2026, the network emphasized that the decision was “purely financial” and had nothing to do with the show’s performance, its content, or issues involving Paramount.
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