New York
Byron Allen bought his first huge break as a teenage comic on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show.” Nearly 5 many years later, he’s returning to late night not simply as a comic book, however as a billionaire media mogul with a sprawling and unconventional empire.
Allen owns The Weather Channel. He just lately purchased a controlling stake in BuzzFeed. He has made splashy, unsuccessful bids for Paramount, ABC, BET and Tegna. He has even expressed curiosity in shopping for NCS.
On Friday, the comic-turned-media mogul is taking over CBS’s 11:35 pm slot, the storied perch as soon as occupied by David Letterman and Stephen Colbert, with “Comics Unleashed,” a low-cost, politics-free comedy present that displays each his roots as a stand-up and the enterprise mannequin that made him one in all the most uncommon figures in American media.
The transfer marks a dramatic shift for CBS late night: from Colbert’s topical, Trump-era comedy to a syndicated-style comedy format constructed round fast jokes and minimal controversy.
“We don’t talk about politics,” Allen instructed NCS’s Michael Smerconish earlier this month. “We don’t talk about anything that’s topical. We don’t do anything that’s racist, sexist or antisemitic or homophobic.”
He added: “Just be funny and don’t offend.”
According to Allen, 65, a comic has two birthdays: One is the day they have been born, and the different is their first time on Johnny Carson’s present.
At 18, the Detroit native was one in all the youngest comedians to carry out stand-up on Carson’s present, making his debut on May 17, 1979, every week earlier than graduating high school.
“I watched him like clockwork,” Allen bought Smerconish, reflecting on his admiration of Carson, who hosted NBC’s “The Tonight Show” for 30 years.
“This is what I want to do for the rest of my life: I’m going to make people laugh,” he mentioned on NCS.
So, he did simply that. His first huge break got here in 1979, when he hosted NBC’s “Real People,” a newsmagazine present that profiled eccentric folks throughout the United States.
Allen mentioned he selected it due to the publicity it gave him, since the distinctive present aired throughout primetime on a broadly watched broadcast community. Learning about how a TV present works sparked the comedian’s curiosity in being on the different aspect of the digicam.
“Early on I figured out it’s not show business, it’s business, show,” Allen said on The Breakfast Club this week. “I started approaching it as a business.”
He quickly developed a enterprise mannequin that will outline his profession: producing actuality exhibits and promoting them on to native stations.
In 1993, he created Entertainment Studios, serving to set up his dominance in syndicated TV. The firm produces cheap actuality packages centering round courtrooms, comedy and life-style and affords them to native TV stations without cost in change for splitting advert income.
He recalled to Smerconish a time when he spent a yr calling tv stations from his eating room desk in his pajamas, convincing executives to hold his packages. He initially acquired a whole lot of no’s earlier than he was profitable.
“I literally wore holes in my dining room table of sitting there from sun up to sun down,” Allen recalled, earlier than launching “Entertainers with Byron Allen,” which nonetheless airs in the present day.
In 2006, he then created and continues to host “Comics Unleashed,” the present that’s taking over the CBS time slot. The program is a “time buy,” during which a producer leases a time slot from a community and recoups prices by promoting advert time throughout the present.
But Allen had larger media ambitions than syndicated discuss exhibits, making some huge acquisitions over the years, most notably The Weather Channel for about $300 million in 2018. He controls greater than two dozen native TV stations, and his firm purchased a nearly 11% stake in leisure firm Starz earlier this yr.
Forbes has estimated Allen’s web value in the billions.
Now, he’s making a much bigger push into the digital house. Earlier this month, he paid $120 million for a controlling stake in BuzzFeed, the as soon as high-flying media firm that has collapsed after going public in 2021. Allen plans to revamp BuzzFeed with a give attention to video and fold it into his streaming service referred to as Local Now.
Allen mentioned the period of the web and streaming has democratized the kind of voices that may discover success.
“Technology is a great way for everyone to get very wealthy,” he instructed The Breakfast Club. “If you are talented, if you have a great idea, if you have something good, you have global distribution. Your chances of success are far greater than it’s ever been.”
Entertainment Studios, which was renamed Allen Media Group in 2020 to replicate the firm’s rising ambitions, together with some that haven’t panned out.
In 2024, he offered $30 billion for Paramount Global, and in 2023, he provided Disney a reported $10 billion for ABC and a few of its cable networks and regarded a bid for E.W. Scripps. He’s additionally provided multibillion-dollar bids to purchase Tegna and BET. None of the affords have been accepted.
He has additionally sparked controversy over how he operates his native TV stations. Last yr, he gutted the weather departments at about 24 native associates and deliberate to put off about 50 meteorologists in a transfer to “hub” the forecasts at bigger stations and inside The Weather Channel. The plan was dialed back after viewer outrage.
Allen hasn’t mentioned how a lot he’s paying CBS for the 11:35 pm time slot, however he has depicted it as a win for each events. He told The Wrap that CBS will save “approximately $150 million+ per year just on production and marketing.”
“People were surprised that I bought the time period,” he admitted to Smerconish, including that “all time periods are bought,” referencing previous packages like “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and “Texaco Star Theater.” Both of these have been sponsored selection exhibits on broadcast networks that aired greater than half a century in the past.
As for “Comics Unleashed,” viewers will see completely different present in contrast together with his predecessors. The half-hour present options comedians telling jokes and was impressed by his meetups at Los Angeles eating places with different comics after their exhibits.
Friday’s premiere date for his present isn’t a coincidence, both.
“My hero, Johnny Carson, his last night was on Friday, May 22nd, 1992,” Allen instructed Smerconish. “Let’s keep America laughing.”