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First on LateNighter: Preliminary ratings are in for Byron Allen’s 11:35 p.m. Comics Unleashed debut on CBS Friday night. As for how the show performed… well, it depends on how you look at it.
According to initial panel-only Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings data, the first half-hour of the show, which was a first-run episode, drew a national audience average of 995,000 total viewers and 116,000 viewers in the 18–49 demo.
The show’s second half-hour—a repeat from September 2025—drew 600,000 total viewers and 55,000 viewers in the demo.
Against the prior night’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert finale—which logged a series high of 6.7 million total viewers and 1.1 million demo viewers by the same ratings measure—Comics Unleashed was down 85% in total viewers and-95% among younger viewers. Versus the previous week’s Late Show repeat in the same slot, the show fell -46% in total viewers and 65% in the demo.
The show’s debut also wasn’t able to beat its 11:35 competitors. A first-run episode of NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon—which aired a half-hour later than usual on the East Coast due to an NBA overrun earlier in the evening—averaged 1.5 million total viewers Friday night and 319,000 viewers in the demo, while a repeat of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! drew 1.6 million total viewers and 208,000 in the demo.
That’s the national picture. Locally, Allen Media Group is telling a different story.
According to ratings data released by Allen’s company, Comics Unleashed outperformed Fallon and/or Kimmel in more than two dozen local markets Friday night, giving Allen a more favorable set of numbers to tout as his long-running comedy showcase begins its new CBS run.
Whether the show’s ratings performance was affected by Friday being Allen’s 11:35 debut, from Kimmel being in repeats and Fallon airing later than usual, or some combination of the above remains to be seen. Also still to be seen is how many viewers Comics Unleashed and its competitors add once delayed-viewing data comes in over the next several days.
It’s worth noting that Comics Unleashed is produced at a fraction of the cost of a traditional late-night show, and is built on an entirely different financial model. Allen pays CBS for the time and sells the commercial spots on the show to advertisers directly.
Though Friday’s episode marked the 11:35 p.m. debut for Comics Unleashed on CBS, viewers saw an otherwise normal episode of the long-running series. Allen did mark the occasion during the show’s first commercial break, appearing from the show’s set to pay tribute to the late-night figures who came before him—and to call out one of his sponsors, Procter & Gamble, which appeared to subsidize the message.
Allen Media Group’s 12:37am entry, Funny You Should Ask, also made its official CBS debut Friday, coming in behind a time-delayed Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Complete national ratings charts for Friday May 22, 2026 follow below:
Live+SD ratings (Panel Only, All Viewers 2+)
| Avg Share (%) | Avg Viewers (000s) | Vs Wk Ago | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 PM | |||
|
Gutfeld! (FNC)
| 4.52 | 2,213 | -7% |
| 11:35 PM | |||
|
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Repeat | 5.79 | 1,647 | +24% |
|
COMICS UNLEASHED 1
| 3.28 | 995 | — |
|
COMICS UNLEASHED 2
Repeat | 2.43 | 600 | — |
|
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC)
Aired at 12:07 AM this day | 6.54 | 1,519 | — |
| 12:37 AM | |||
|
FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK-1
Repeat | 2.35 | 489 | — |
|
FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK-2
Repeat | 2.46 | 430 | — |
| Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC) Aired at 1:09 AM this day Repeat | 4.37 | 709 | +11% |
Live+SD ratings (Panel Only, 18-49 demo)
| Avg Share (%) | Avg Viewers (000s) | Vs Wk Ago | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 PM | |||
|
Gutfeld! (FNC)
| 1.51 | 162 | +26% |
| 11:35 PM | |||
|
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Repeat | 3.47 | 208 | -8% |
| Comics Unleashed-1 (CBS) | 1.82 | 116 | — |
| Comics Unleashed-2 (CBS) Repeat | 1.06 | 55 | — |
|
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC)
Aired at 12:07 AM this day | 6.53 | 319 | — |
| 12:37 AM | |||
| Funny You Should Ask (CBS) Repeat | 1.13 | 50 | — |
| Funny You Should Ask-2 (CBS) Repeat | 1.39 | 51 | — |
| Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC) Aired at 1:09 AM this day Repeat | 4.1 | 139 | +54% |
Ratings Data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.
THIS is the only time I’ll ever admit this, but MAN am I happy Fallon outperformed a CBS show with his new Friday episode
Don’t be surprised if CBS drops Byron after one year if the results indicate the inevitable~ And just cuz Byron gets a late night time slot doesn’t mean he’ll do diddly shit; his show isn’t transformative, he only placates to an audience of 1~ Businessman above all titles, he is the epitome of anodyne~
He paid for one night you idiot. See, here’s your proof right here how you boomers live on here and watching tv yet you don’t know basic facts because you’re too lazy. Instead it’s all about your stupid feelings.
You do realize he’s gonna be paying for a whole year, right? Not just one day~
But if the numbers prove anything, moving that show into a new time slot doesn’t change the fact that the show still and will suck~ It’s designed to be bland, repeatable and pandering to no one~ This benefits no one but CBS, who get all of Byron’s money~
Also no one is buying whatever numbers the biased Allen Media Group try to spin~
BTW, I’m a fockin Millennial, you spineless contrarian~
Nobody under 70 cares about this garbage.
Maybe can give your aging pussy to your creepy friend who spams pro-Colbert propaganda on here.
Well, you are right on one thing, that nobody cares about the garbage that is Comics Unleashed; the comments below me are proof~
And CBS deserves all the viewership drops, cancellation boycotts and its frequent downfall press coverage even if they get Byron’s money~
Maybe they could give the time slot to the affiliates, but the problem is that the model of TV that we know is collapsing. For networks is getting more and more difficult to justify investment in any type of original programming. And as someone that knows TV outside the US I can attest that there are good reasons why TV overseas doesn’t usually have late shows on a daily basis(I also can attest that there are no good alternatives for the time slot that are cheap). And without good late nigh programming people are far more likely to simply stop watching the network. Even if they manage to renew their NFL contract.
Since Byron is paying for the time slot CBS has the incentives to keep it as it is, but they don’t have good alternatives(And it’s naive to not think that the same forces that sunk Colbert aren’t going to sink Fox News one day).
Csi reruns, “The Price is Right” Late Night.”
Byron will play his race hustling game to avoid it.
Lmaoooo get fucked Byron Allen.
You make some great points. CBS did not have full affiliate clearance when David Letterman first premiered. This is why I see this as a “band-aid” until the CBS Network devises something new and profitable. Ceding valuable time slots to affiliates is unwise for the Network’s long term plan.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!
This is funnier than anything Byron’s ever said as a comedian or created as a producer.
Wonder if Eric P. will be emailing this news item to the entire Allen Media Group email list tomorrow.
Oh holy shit this makes me so happy
Fuck you cbs and fuck you too Byron “do you like making money, cbs?” Allen
Csi reruns, “The Price is Right” Late Night.”
If these are the options people will do anything else other than watching TV, it’s going to become a death spiral.
This DEI comedian actually paid for the slot, while Colbert cost CBS $50 a year in losses. Totally unsustainable and unjustifiable.
I’m sure you meant $50M, and you couldn’t edit the post.
Somehow the losses jumped by $10M since the CBS statement last year? OK.
In any event, we’ll see how sustainable CU is once the initial… um… interest in the show wanes after its bonanza debut. I’d like to see how many affiliates opt to not carry the show one year from now, and instead show reruns of current CBS shows or syndicated sitcoms like FOX.
Assuming the claim is true, and I know you more than just assume it, $50M is a lot of money to people, but not to companies like Paramount— as I’ve posted elsewhere, $50M is 0.2% of Paramount Global’s revenue in 2024. There are some Paramount movies that spend tens or hundreds of millions more in advertising alone. And to CBS/Paramount, that’s pretty much what The Late Show was, an advertising spend for some of their other properties on CBS, Paramount Minus, or their theatrical films. There are some movies from the Mountain that wish they *only* lost $50M.
When Paramount/Skydance can spend the equivalent of over 1,600 years of $50M annual losses for the “Late Show” in their bid for Warner Brothers, $50M just sounds like a smokescreen.
Also, Byron Allen isn’t a DEI comedian. He’s a billionaire that owns the Weather Channel, Buzzfeed, and a bunch of TV affiliates.
If the Paramount-WBD acquisition is approved they’ll are going to have at least 80 billion of debt(The same type of debt as Pemex, the Mexican state owned company, the debt of Pemex is so big that’s a drag for the Mexican government). They are going to need any penny.
(I think that’s likely that they simply give the time slot to affiliates, but I think that local news or syndication will make people stop watching TV and doing something else before going to bed. I know TV where late shows on a daily basis weren’t a thing, I think that’s inevitable)
Eventually, CBS will pay the price. Hopefully, sooner rather than later. I watched Colbert every night, as well as his finale and I haven’t watched anything on CBS since.
Ditto. I’ve started watching Kimmel. The Saudis are funding the WB Paramount take over. it doesn’t pass the smell test. I’m a WB stockholder and I voted for Netflix. It was the better deal.
110 is GREATER than 82 or 89.
Nobody else did.
“That’s worse than even WE thought!” – David Ellison
Allen pays CBS for the time slot. Allen sells time to advertising
He gets to keep that money. CBS doesn’t care how many people watch the show. Only the advertisers care how many watch. if nobody watches the advertisers won’t buy the time and Allen will leave CBS
Indeed. The network will stick with CU even if the show somehow gets negative ratings. They’re running the network in the late night day part like a UHF station in 1986.
And both Kimmel and Fallon were repeats. I can hardly wait to see this week’s numbers.
Fallon was new on Friday (they taped a show on Thursday, but held on to it so they could run a rerun during Colbert’s last episode).
“The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” will be in reruns until next week, though.
Allen pays CBS for the time slot. Allen sells time to advertisers.
He gets to keep that money. CBS doesn’t care how many people watch the show. Only the advertisers care how many watch. if nobody watches the advertisers won’t buy the time and Allen will leave CBS
Also, how much is this going to cost CBS stations (including their own O&O) in ratings and ad revenue for their late news? I’m sure those ratings will also drop.
That’s usually the case if the lead-in to the news is bad, like when “The Jay Leno Show” was on every weeknight in 2009–early 2010. Not too sure if there’s any research about lead-outs. People will still watch the news, and then switch to someone else if they were watching CBS up until then.
In 2009 modern smartphones were on its infancy and streaming on TVs was at best a novelty. Today, people simply stopping watching TV and then doing something else is a much bigger problem. I think that TVs have some awful choices there, but yes, running YouTube level programming creates a death spiral. There is a lot of Youtubers with people simply talking to the camera, they are less likely to feature reruns.
Yes, very few people under 50 watch anything on the networks other than the NFL, but simply selling the time slot is going to cost them on viewers as a whole.
I watched it for five minutes before I started to feel like I was going to vomit. It’s a bunch of lame completely un talented people who think they’re comedians and they were just laughing at each other’s jokes. I just can’t imagine what in the hell CBS was thinking quite frankly. I hope they go completely bankrupt and Bari Weiss should be. Fired without pay.
CBS. You totally screwed up!
[Price is Right losing horns]
CBS should also review their evening News. I watched it because Stephen Colbert followed the News. Now I’m changing .
In the words of Norm Macdonald: “You couldn’t be more leashed.”
Looking at the whole hour, CBS was still competitive with the other shows.