CBS Replaced Colbert With Byron Allen. Here’s Why He Says It Will Work

WALTER ISAACSON: Byron Allen, welcome to the show.

BYRON ALLEN: Well, thank you, Walter. Thank you for having me.

ISAACSON: Congratulations. You’ve taken over the time slot on CBS that long was held by Steven Colbert. How long have you wanted to do that?

ALLEN: I’ve been chasing that for over 51 years. Since I was 14 years old and I met Johnny Carson at the NBC studios in Burbank. So I tell everybody, Walter, I’m a 65-year-old overnight sensation.

ISAACSON: And tell me about those early years in comedy.

ALLEN: Well, you know, my mom, you know, who’s not only beautiful, she’s brilliant. She got pregnant with me when she was 16 and had me 17 days after her 17th birthday. And I tell everybody, I have two high school diplomas.

And – so, you know, I was born in Detroit, Michigan in April of ‘61. And Martin Luther King was assassinated in April of ‘68. And the riots broke out. You know, Detroit got lit up like a Christmas tree. And my mom and I decided to come out to LA and visit friends and family for a couple of weeks in summer of ‘68. And we ended up staying. And we – it was slim pickins when we got here, sleeping on a lot of floors and a lot of sofas and spare rooms where we could find it. And my mom ended up getting into UCLA and getting her master’s degree in cinema TV production.

And because she got her master’s degree in cinema TV production from UCLA, she was able to go all over town and ask for jobs and knocked on a lot of doors, got a lot of nos. And she finally went to NBC and said, Hey, do you have any jobs? And they said, no. And she asked, do you have an intern program where I can work here for free? And they said no. And then she asked a question that changed our lives forever. She said, will you please start one with me? And they said, yes. And because she could not afford childcare she took me to work quite often after school and during the summer, and I would go from studio to studio to studio waiting for my mom to get off work. And I’m standing there and I see Johnny Carson do the Tonight Show.

And I would go across the hall and I would watch Red Fox tape his show, Sanford and Son and Freddie Prinze tape Chico and the Man and Flip Wilson tape his show and Bob Hope do his specials. And I thought, what a wonderful way to go through life making television and making people laugh. So I started doing standup comedy when I was 14.

ISAACSON: And you started getting paid per joke, is that right?

ALLEN: Yeah. You know, I was performing at the comedy store my first time at the Comedy Store. I was 14 years old. It was Monday night tryout night. And they said, get there early. And they said, the doors open at seven o’clock. People line up to try out. So I got – I took the bus. I was 14, I took the bus. I got there at nine in the morning, and I sat there on the curb and I wrote jokes and waited for them to open the door. And I went on stage and this guy, I was, it was basically four people in 200 chairs. So I had to figure out how to make 200 chairs laugh. And I went on stage and performed.

And this guy said, Hey, who wrote those jokes? He came right up to me. I said, I wrote ’em. He said, you know, those were funny. I said, thanks. That was the idea. He said, let me get your number. I know somebody may wanna work with you. I said, no problem. And a week or two later, I got a call and this guy says to me, can I speak to Byron? I said, this is Byron. He said, this is Jimmie JJ Walker, Kid Dynomite. And Jimmy Walker was the hottest comedian in, in, by far on the planet. You know, he was the star of “Good Times” on CBS. And he said, my man, Wayne Klein says you’re funny. And if my man Wayne Klein says you’re funny, then you must be funny. And I said, yes. Tell Wayne thank you. I appreciate that. He says, I’m sitting in a writer’s meeting. Do you want to come and write some jokes with me and my boys? I said, let me ask my mom. My mom says, yes. She drops me off at Jimmie’s apartment. I walk in and sitting there is Jimmie Walker, the biggest television star in America at that time, Jay Leno, who was sleeping in his car, and Dave was Dave Letterman, who had just driven out from Indianapolis in a red pickup truck. And –

ISAACSON: Those were the joke writers for him. Right?

ALLEN: Those were the joke writers.

ISAACSON: And tell me real quick, how do you create, how did you create jokes at 14? What was the method?

ALLEN: You know, observational comedy for me, you know, I was talking about my life, you know, I was just really just studying what was going on in the world. You know, just really appreciated a lot of the comedians. Very clean, family oriented back then. You know, this is the mid seventies, you know, this is 1975, summer of ‘75, you know. So I was just really just sharing my experiences, my experience, you know, dealing with my mother, my father, my friends.

ISAACSON: But it was a very political period, and you tended to steer clear of political jokes, even to this day, why? And am I right?

ALLEN: You know what, I’ve never done political humor, you know, it was just, it wasn’t my thing. I mean, there’s a great place for political humor. There are folks who love it, who appreciate it. I my entire career has been about evergreen comedy. Comedy that you can listen to today, 20 years from now, 40 years from now, 60 years from now. When I started doing “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” 20 years ago, I said to the comedians 20 years ago, I said, listen, this is, we’re doing “I Love Lucy.” It’s evergreen. I don’t want you to do anything that’s political. I don’t want you to do anything that’s racist or sexist or anti-Semitic or homophobic. Just talk about your lives, you know, just be relatable. Include everybody, make everybody feel good. We’re here to help people laugh.

ISAACSON: Well, wait, that’s really different from the way late night comedy has been recently. And especially of course with Colbert, there were controversies about him being political and controversies of that, whether CBS sort of pushed him out because he was too political. Do you think that there’s a particular place now to just get rid of politics, or is that avoiding the issues?

ALLEN: No, no. I think there’s plenty, there will always be plenty of political humor that’s not gonna go away. You know, you know, there are easily seven comedians doing political humor. You have Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher, John Oliver, John Stewart, Greg Gutfeld. That’s just seven to name a few.

ISAACSON: But do you think CBS felt more comfortable with you because you weren’t political, given all that they’ve been through?

ALLEN: No, I think it was purely an economic decision. You know, the ratings are slipping across linear television. And when, when the ratings slip, the ad dollars move. Advertisers don’t print money, they shift money. So, you know, you can’t ignore the fact that approximately 50% of all viewership is now sitting with streaming.

So people forget that Jay Leno took a 50% pay cut, people forget that Seth Meyers, they cut his band. There are a lot of folks where they have said to the late night, you know, comedians, Hey, the ratings aren’t what they used to be. We now need to adjust this financially. People should remember that. It’s not show business, it’s business show.

Now, if you look at the ratings and you approach it as business show, what you’ll notice is that Colbert’s ratings – and not just Colbert, anybody doing political humor, they’re – but in the case of Colbert, his repeats were negative 52%. Because when you’re doing political humor, you’re talking about the news from eight weeks ago, 12 weeks ago, when you repeat the show, because we didn’t do political or topical humor, our repeats were only negative 14%.

ISAACSON: So you are using a lot of repeats and this helps the business model is what you’re saying?

ALLEN: No, I’m not using a lot of repeats. I was just saying that when, you know, when you do political humor it doesn’t repeat as well versus not doing it. Because when you do political humor, it’s very topical. We wanted to have something that was more sustainable, that you could play it, you know, a year from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now.

ISAACSON: So tell us about your new show and what can viewers expect during this rollout?

ALLEN: You know, our show is simple. We are here to make you laugh. That’s all we want to do, make you laugh. And I’m sitting there with four other comedians, two to my right, two to my left. And I have to tell you, in the 20 years I’ve been doing the show, I’m so impressed with the comedians I’m seeing today because they grew up having access to every comedian. When I started standup in ‘75, I saw the comedians at the Comedy Store that showed up. That’s it. And now? They are on the internet and they see every comedian that is ever engaged in the art of comedy.

ISAACSON: You talk about it being show business. You talk about it being show –

ALLEN: Business show, business show. Business show, not show business.

ISAACSON: And you’ve created a really big business empire. I think people probably don’t quite realize that you come at this as an entrepreneur and as a builder of a big business. Tell me how you decided to become a media baron in that way.

ALLEN: Well, first of all, thank you for asking. You know, here’s what I would say, Walter, you know, I learned early on, you know, ideas are a dime a dozen. The key words are execution and distribution of those ideas. I invested a little over a billion dollars buying ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox Affiliates. And I sat on the CBS affiliates board. I gave up my seat to my president of broadcasting who works for me, and I sit on the board of the National Association of Broadcasters. But when I sat on the CBS affiliates board and these other stations that we own and control, I said, look, I don’t know why we’re spending so much money to win late night, because even though you win, All you’re doing is handing me an audience at 1:30 in the morning that I’m going to use to, you know, go right into a 1-800 spray-on hair, 1-800 infomercials, right? 1-800 ads in 24 hours. And I said, I understand why you would invest a great deal of capital to win in the morning; seven to nine, in the afternoon with your game shows and your soap operas; in the evening with the evening news, and in prime time. But we don’t need to deploy resources to win late night to go into 1-800 spray-on hair infomercials. I said, save that money.

They were losing over $40 million a year on Colbert. The show was costing $110, 120 million according to CBS. I said, okay, you’ve decided not to go forward with Colbert. I can save you that $40 million plus pay you $15 million for that hour. So that’s a $55 million positive swing in your direction. And I will put a show in there where the ratings will be comparable. And the ratings are comparable when you compare our May 22nd to May of 25 for Colbert. Our ratings were 5% less than his, and that does not include the cord cutting, the cord cutting in the last year of 5 to 10% of the audience going away.

So they have received a $55 million positive swing. They’re not spending $110 to 120 million plus they’re getting $15 million from us.

So it’s a big win, and it’s gonna be a model it’s gonna be a model that’s going to revolutionize network TV forever, because the networks are spending an enormous sum on live sports. And once again, you don’t print money, you shift it. And as they all have to get their live sports to be competitive, they have less for entertainment content. And as an owner of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox Affiliates, I had a front row seat to that, and I said, this map doesn’t work. And the way I can be helpful is to start providing content that is competitive and at the same time can save you an enormous sum of capital.

ISAACSON: So you’ve explained that you’re paying $15 million, right, for leasing, let’s say that hour of CBS.

ALLEN: Yes.

ISAACSON: That helps them economically.

ALLEN: And they save – they don’t, and they don’t lose 40 million ’cause they were losing 40 million.

ISAACSON: So explain how that works. You just go to them and say, I’ll pay you for this hour, and then you collect the revenues from the advertising and things, and you think that can be a template going forward?

ALLEN: Yeah, I bought the entire two hours. I also bought the hour behind the, you know, the 11:30 hour. So I bought the 11:35 hour, and that’s Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, two half hours back to back. And also right after that, I have two half hours back to back of Funny You Should Ask, our comedy game show. So I bought a two hour comedy block. So we have two hours per night, 10 hours per week, 520 hours per year on CBS making us the largest provider of network content to the number one network in America, providing more hours than all of the studios combined.

Now with that, Walter, we have 14,000, a little over 14,000, 30-second spots that we have to go sell to advertisers, and those advertisers buy our spots. That’s how we fund the production of the show. And we fund the acquisition of the 520 hours over that one year period. That is a revolutionary business model that I created. And I’ve created this new platform, and I knew that the network and all the networks (quite frankly) they need it because they’re spending billions on top of billions to acquire the rights to live sports. So –

ISAACSON: Now, could this model spread either by you doing more, and would it have to be with CBS? Are you exclusive to them?

ALLEN: No, I’m not exclusive. And I can tell you that pretty much all the networks have come to me and said, what can you do for us? So all the networks are definitely saying, how can we work together?

Now, keep in mind I have the infrastructure. You know, I own the Weather Channel. I own, you know, 11 other cable networks and digital platforms, you know, Buzzfeed, Huff Post. I have 74 shows and syndication. I am the largest provider of first run television shows. Once again, providing more first run shows than all the studios combined. I have close to 2,000 employees. I started the company from my dining room table just me and my mom and a talent booker. And we’ve built it up to now what is approximately 2,000 employees. And hundreds of them, hundreds of them sell advertising. So this is what we do every day. I’m in business with hundreds of advertisers directly, So my infrastructure puts me in this position to produce the content at a very efficient price. And I have the ability to buy the time period and sell the advertising because I already have, you know, a platform that employs 2,000 people, approximately 2,000 people, and this is what they do each and every day.

ISAACSON: Are you worried about the fading of linear TV even to this business model that you’ve done? And how have you hedged against that in your business?

ALLEN: Great question. You know, I’m not worried about it. You know, nothing ever really goes away. You know, when the movie industry came along over a hundred years ago everybody’s like, okay, this is the movie industry you can now say –you know, and then radio came along, and then everybody said, well, that’s a wrap. The movie industry’s gonna now suffer. And then TV came along and they said, well, goodbye movies and goodbye radio. And that didn’t happen. And here comes cable, and here comes, you know, VHS and DVDs. Everything became additive along the way. Nothing replaced it. It enhanced everything. It made it better, you know, television made the movies better. It was another place to go and monetize the movies. DVDs made the movies better, cable, everything made it all better. But the landscape becomes more textured. So none of it’s gonna go away. Linear will always be here. Linear TV will be here.

ISAACSON: Byron Allen, thank you so much for joining us.

ALLEN: Thank you Walter. Really appreciate it.