After serving as custodian of NBC’s late-night for years, George Cheeks, Paramount’s Chair of TV Media who oversees CBS, became the executive who last year canceled CBS’ venerable late-night franchise The Late Show.
Cheeks brought up his background as NBC executive in charge of late-night when asked about CBS’ recent decision to replace the outgoing Late Show With Stephen Colbert with Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen as a time buy, meaning that the network is paid a fee by Allen for them to carry his show, with Allen’s team selling the ads as a way to try and make profit.
Profitability was CBS’ goal with the switch too.
“We landed on it for a couple reasons,” Cheeks said at at CBS’ fall 2026 schedule reveal. “One, we did a one season deal. So, we are still going to develop other ideas, other concepts. But to go into immediate profitability in that slot made a lot of sense for us right now.”
Comics Unleashed already has been airing at 12:30 AM, also as a time buy; it replaced After Midnight last year.
“Byron’s been a great partner to us at 12:30 so we feel confident he will continue to be a great partner for us at 11:30 as well,” Cheeks said. “We will continue to develop.”
He then echoed previous comments he had made about the economics of late-night and made it clear that any return to late-night would be done on a modest budget.
“I do want to say one thing: I started in late-night. I grew up in late-night. I believe in late-night,” Cheeks said. “I think the reality is that the reach is still there, but the reach is there primarily on YouTube, which is under monetized. So, if we’re going to go back into that space, we have to go back into that space with a different financial model.”
As for what areas/genres the development ideas are in, “they’re in all areas,” CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach said but cautioned, “We’re not in active development on anything. They’re just conversations at this point, but it has to be a model that makes sense for us financially.”
Cheeks defended the quality of Comics Unleashed which is done on a budget that is fraction of what a network late-night show costs.
“I actually think that the shows are strong,” he said. “I think that that they have a point of view. It’s comedy, it’s a lot of incredible comics that he’s able to bring in who participate in it. So I think it’s a, it’s a change in format. I agree it’s a change from what people are used to, but I would stand by the quality of those shows.
Colbert’s predecessor and original Late Show host David Letterman also recently weighed in on the switch.
“They don’t want to spend any money, so they’re going to make money,” he said. about CBS “[Comics Unleashed] is a pretty good idea. It’s all panel. Nobody’s doing any stand-up, except they’re seated doing stand-up.”
