Don’t hold your breath, but for the first time in its 20-year history, Comics Unleashed is officially in Emmy contention.
The Byron Allen-hosted and produced comedy panel show—which bought its way onto CBS’s late-night lineup in the 12:37am slot in September 2025—is among the 18 programs submitted for Outstanding Variety Series at the 78th Emmy Awards. Nominees will be announced July 8.
That puts Comics Unleashed in the same race as the show it recently replaced at 11:35 p.m. on CBS: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Also in the mix are Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Daily Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Real Time With Bill Maher, Have I Got News For You, and YouTube sensation Hot Ones.
It is, to put it mildly, a long-shot bid. Comics Unleashed has never been nominated for a Primetime Emmy, and its CBS run has been less a prestige play than a scheduling solution: a low-cost, repurposed late-night entry from Allen Media Group filling the post-Colbert slot after CBS pulled the plug on After Midnight.
The category itself is newly reconfigured for 2026. The Television Academy merged the former Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Scripted Variety Series categories into a single Outstanding Variety Series race, citing a reduced number of submissions in both fields. The Academy has also made the category an “area award,” meaning nominees are judged individually on whether they merit an Emmy rather than competing in a traditional winner-take-all vote.
That wrinkle probably won’t do Comics Unleashed many favors against the likes of Colbert, Oliver, Kimmel, Meyers, Fallon, SNL, and The Daily Show. But for a show that has long existed well outside the Emmy conversation, Comics Unleashed has arrived.
The full list of submissions in the Outstanding Variety Series category follows below:
Comics Unleashed
Have I Got News For You
Hot Ones
It’s Florida, Man.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
Late Night With Seth Meyers
The Daily Show
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Real Time With Bill Maher
Royal Court
Saturday Night Live
Studio C
TBPN
Very Important People
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen
Ziwe: You’d Be An Iconic Guest
First-round Emmy nomination voting runs June 11–22, 2026, with nominees set to be announced July 8.
Get stories like this in your inbox: Sign up for LateNighter’s free daily newsletter.
Hey, there is nothing wrong with trying. LOL.
Byron Allen has about as much a chance at winning an Emmy as I have getting a girlfriend.
Nothing is funnier.
Now watch the loser reply with FREE PALESTINE, because it can’t take it!
That is hilarious….but in this case, a successful self-made Black billionaire replaced a mediocre white male like Colbert
Your racist hero Drumpf wanted him taken off the air for saying hard truths about him! You can try and spin this to your heart’s content. But it doesn’t hide the fact that your racist hero Drumpf is a fucking overgrown baby that can’t take it!
Now what sort of whiny assed lied will Mucky Boy cry out this time? Something very predictable from him, I betcha!
Who wanted Byron Allen off the air? Are you going mental again? LOL.
What happened to Colbert? He seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth.
Oh wait, Scott Pelley replaced Colbert with the “pity-CBS got rid of me tour” LMAO
Dude, I still don’t buy that you’re really into Byron or his show, other than he is living the dream that you will never have.
It’s pretty telling you’re just using him as an excuse to own other people who don’t share the same ideology as you.
And to remind you one more time, just cuz someone made a lot of money doesn’t mean he‘s the funniest, most creative, and most ethical. His mind is all about profit and property, not about entertaining viewers.
That’s pretty racist of you to say Byron Allen only thinks of money and profit. And to say it when Juneteenth is only one week away.
Have you ever read anything from me about Byron Allen? Of course not, because I haven’t said anything about him! Because I don’t have an opinion of him!
And Colbert has some options open for him, as people would love to have him work for them! But you wouldn’t know because you’re a pathetic hater of a loser begging for the worst of him!
Your attacks on him only show just how sad and pathetic an eternal loser you are, Mucky Boy!
You’re gonna accuse Corrie-luv of racism? You, the loser who called the 44th President of the United States ‘Obamababoon?’
You’ve got nothing on her! All you’re doing is showing us, again and again what a racist and a hypocrite you are by accusing someone of that which they are not guilty of!
Do you get a big thrill of showing everyone what a stupid pathetic hater you are, Mucky Boy?
You don’t have an opinion about Byron Allen, but didn’t acknowledge Arsenio Hall and his contributions to late-night. Hatred of Black males is in the mother’s milk for KKK Viktor the Crab from lily-white Canada.
As for Colbert, he disappeared. His pity tour has been replaced by Scott Pelley. Poor Colbert, already forgotten in less than one month. lol
Corrie wrote that: “Byron Allen only thinks of money and profit”
So, he doesn’t think about his family? Pretty racist of Corrie, almost as bad as KKK Viktor the Crab from white-faced Ottawa. Just terrible.
Dude, I think I’ve made a point in a previous article that I don’t have any issues about his race, but moreso that he can do better with his power beyond just giving comics a platform. Instead, he’s just using the diversity angle as a fallback cover-up for his unethical business tactics (i.e. one time checks and 0 residuals).
Hell, Roy Wood Jr. has spoken up about Byron’s lazy, anodyne format. Much like Byron, don’t use the DEI excuse for your own benefit~
Go watch Steve Shives’ take on Byron Allen and his NPR interview and you’ll understand why business and finance and EGO is above the diversity agenda~
Also…. You’re a hypocrite if you’ve made racist remarks before about Obama and failed to acknowledge other black late night hosts like Arsenio, Trevor, Amber, and hell even Larry Wilmore. Even Roy Wood Jr. has his CNN show! They’re not rich and on a big network, but they are more highly regarded and funnier than whatever this Byron guy thinks funny is.
Stop spinning and making gotcha accusations when you gotta hold yourself accountable and be more familiar with late night television, which clearly shows you’re NOT.
Because you’re a far bigger racist than you can ever accuse anyone of being! Your ‘Obamababoon’ labelling is the smoking gun!
Again, your illiteracy and ignorance is on full display, child!
Nobody accused you of being from Canada and from Ottawa. I was talking about Viktor KKK Krab who used to post here last here. He was a racist SOB that hated Arsenio Hall….I think he got monkeypox from his lover and wasted his brain away.
Also, nobody accused you of having a brain. lol
Sorry KKKourie-luv, but you accused Byron Allen of loving only money, and not his family. Allen did not get rich from these late-night shows, but become self-made billionaire due to sheer talent and intelligence, something a mediocre like Colbert wish they have.
Saying Allen only loves money and not his family perpetuates a stereotype that Black men are absent fathers. For shame, KKKourie!
Oh, and for some reason I am still posting here. What happened? Why didn’t you stop me? lmao
Much less anything racist! Once again, you’re making shit up in order to make yourself look good, when, in reality, you project your racism onto others, rather than take a good hard look at yourself!
What the fuck is wrong with you, Mucky Boy? Why the need to lie, bitch hole?
Because you’re accusing me of having gay sex, as an attack! Not only are you a racist, you’re also a homophobe too!
How fuckin’ old are you, Mucky Boy? Ten? You really need to grow the fuck up, boy!
“DUUUH, saying Allen only loves money and not his family perpetuates a stereotype that Black men are absent fathers. For shame, KKKourie!”
Again, you’re taking Corrie-luv’s post and twisting it into something racist, which she never implied! Thereby projecting your racism onto others! AGAIN!
Give us one good reason why you don’t deserve to be beaten to a bloody pulp, Mucky Boy!
Again, I was talking about Viktor KKK Krab who used to post here last here. He was a racist SOB that hated Arsenio Hall….I think he got monkeypox from his lover and wasted his brain away.
However, it looks like you probably gave him the monkeypox because you have trouble reading.
As for KKK Korie, she said that Byron Allen only thinks about money, and doesn’t love his family. Only racists like her would write such an awful thing with Juneteenth right around the corner.
It’s clear that this fucking suck is losing it! Every response he gives is more unhinged and further from the truth than the previous response! He accuses others of what he really is – like calling others racist when he himself has called the 44th United States President ‘Obamababoon’ and claims it’s not racist!
Isn’t Mucky Boy hilarious, peoples? And by hilarious, I mean a fucking loser that needs to get a life!
Be real, are you only using DEI as an excuse to bash the other hosts who actually say something about politics and culture, regardless of race??
Did you even enjoy at least 1 episode of Comics Unleashed to justify your title? 🙄
I just love rubbing your globalist face in it. I truly feel happy seeing you wicked people so miserable.
There has never been a more deserving people than you. The last decade has proven just how evil you satanists are and I will never forgive you for it, especially your 2020-2022 nonsense.
This is what I mean about ‘us’ Zero! Nobody here, like Corrie-luv, is impressed with your unhinged, hate fuelled posts that attack late night and older people! Go get the fuck away from your mommy’s computer and go get some fucking help for your psychosis, child!
CBS has lost its way. Our kids make fun of the comics unleashed show (that’s an oxymoron), and we don’t want to invest our time with the channel anymore.
We hope the managers don’t work for paramount after the merger or whatever you call it.