Byron Allen on replacing Colbert, political comedy and Black ownership

have you had any conversations with anybody at cbs or at paramount about boundaries not to cross or topics to avoid on comics unleashed absolutely not okay how about down the road no no you asked a question i want to be clear cbs has not given me any notes any feedback about don't be political don't remember i started the show 20 years ago and we've been crushing it for 20 years this is newsmakers npr's biggest interviews i'm steve inskeep we question some of the most influential people of our time new episodes drop whenever they're available and the best way to stay caught up is to follow or subscribe to this show on spotify youtube or wherever you watch or listen you can also find us in the npr app today npr's elsa chang is your host there's a new late night host taking over stephen colbert slot on cbs byron allen he's a businessman a media move but he's also had deep roots in stand-up comedy for the past 20 years he's been hosting a comedy roundtable show called comics unleashed and now it is that show that has shaped the world of comics unleashed and now it is that show that has shaped the world of comics unleashed and now it is that show that has shaped the world of comics unleashed and now it is that show that has shaken up late night's comedy lineup i wanted to talk to byron allen about that so i met him on the set of one of his productions in culver city california so we are talking on the eve of the day that your show comics unleashed is taking over the stephen colbert slot on cbs how are you feeling i feel great i feel amazing you know i tell everybody i have been pursuing this for 51 years i am a colbert has been on for 51 years you've been pursuing his slot 11 30 i don't i'm not looking at like i'm taking his slot or i've been pursuing that time period for 51 years i'm like i'm i'm 65 i'm a you know elsa yeah i'm a 65 year old overnight sensation okay nice so when you know so i've been doing this since i was 14 i know you were writing for comedians like jay leno and david letterman back then well no i was writing for jimmy walker i was writing for jimmy walker and on his writing staff was a guy named david letterman and a guy named jay leno and david letterman was getting 200 a week jay leno was getting 200 a week and david letterman was getting 200 a week and what was byron allen getting you don't want to talk about that i was getting byron allen was getting so here you want to know the truth what david letterman was getting 200 a week jay leno was getting 200 a week byron allen was getting 25 a week dollars a joke now that's big money for a 14 year old back well see why do you have to qualify it like that 14 how come just i wrote the same funny jokes as dave and jay so they got 200 a week why would i get 200 you should have had equal pay back then bingo okay how you gonna come and hit me with no equal pay elsa straight up oh that's good money for a 14 year old but by the way i and i used to throw the los angeles herald examiner and i had to when i yeah i would deliver one newspaper and guess what elsa i would earn half a penny i had to throw two newspapers to earn one penny i had to throw 200 newspapers to earn a dollar all right so you know the value of the penny of the dollar thousand newspapers to earn 25 dollars elsa let me tell you my arm my shoulder's still hurting elsa you don't care hard earned money no i care i want to ask about your present day earned dollars because i want to understand i get half a penny of paper today i want to understand i want to understand how this deal with cbs makes sense for you and your company right now what was the appeal for you right now elsa don't tell anybody i'm trying to figure that out no really you want to know yeah oh my goodness elsa i'll tell you anything because i like you you're amazing so elsa here's the deal uh-huh all right now i created this show called comics unleash 20 years ago wait let me give you the proper title okay comics unleash with byron allen i created this show 20 years ago right and i said you know and a number of the comedians back then 2006 were upset they were frustrated felt like we weren't getting exposure we weren't getting invited on the talk shows and i said to my fellow comedians don't be bitter be better so i said i'm gonna do a talk show where i only have us on it's just gonna be us right nobody else just comedians you have to be a comedian to be on the show we're gonna have our own show we don't have to worry about other people inviting us on we can do our own thing they go really yeah so i told i called up all my buddies and i said meet me at the studio and we shot i think four maybe six episodes of comics unleash 20 years ago couldn't afford to shoot them because right around that time it was going from sd to hd high definition and i was like oh man we got to go buy this extra equipment but you know let's just do it in sd i'm like no because it'll be obsolete let's do it in hd so we shoot the four or six episodes my friends come over immediately the show works right just having fun and i got the idea well that's what i want to talk to you about because because this show has had hundreds of episodes since you started it about 20 years ago that's right and let's be honest byron your show comics unleash is nowhere near as popular as a show that it's replacing colbert i never said it was for years your show has not gotten great reviews like people on imdb gave it a rating of 4.3 out of 10 that's too many that's that's not a great rating by 4.3 so i want to ask you i want to ask you are you doing anything different with this show this time around so you can make it better okay do you want to make it better okay so we're going to talk about better yeah let's talk about better am i going to do anything different yeah absolutely not wait but byron the reason i'm asking you if you're going to meet the moment all right do that okay he loves it all right the reason i'm asking you if you're going to meet the moment is you have an opportunity here you have an opportunity to capture steven colbert's audience which is wrong which is more than two and a half million viewers per episode but you have no interest in their eyeballs you have no interest in appealing to those people i'm gonna take you through you ready you ready i'm ready i'm asking you else is ready to go boy else is like let me read your comment section i've never been on show before they were like let me tell you what this person said about you you suck okay here we go our 20th anniversary 20 years yeah you tell me what show could stay on the air that long right you have an audience we've had on over a thousand comedians and when i shot the show i shot i shot the show i so i showed it to the head of comedy central and he said the show's funny but it's not our kind of comedy this is 20 years ago i go really i go what are you talking about funny is funny he says no he said my audience for comedy central's audience young white boys with a bong on their coffee table and he said that's who we are and i said okay you know i'm just going to do this show i'm going to do it for syndication and i'm proud of it because we've had on over a thousand comedians and we've had on every shape size color black white asian hispanic gay jewish muslim uh disabled everybody has come to your answer are you going to because the people who've been watching this slot religiously while colbert has been on right they've been coming to this slot because they want to see you on the air and they want to see you on the air and they want to see comedy speak truth to power right let me is your show going to do that well let me get to you i'm going to come to you you're asking me to cry i'm trying to give you the answer have faith in me as my wife says trust the process so here's what how long is your process going to take we have time we have time oh i got about half an hour to 45 minutes with you okay okay i'll give you more time so as i was saying right yeah so we've had on all these comedians disabled you name it every comedian has come through the show comedy always wins if it's just simply pure comedy so we do this show with nothing but comedians they don't plug anything they don't do anything political because i said 20 years ago 20 years ago yeah don't do anything political don't do anything right racist sexist india right 20 years now right right right i'm going to jump in because i have a very direct question about that you don't want to do anything political so my question to you is i gotta answer the question well but i really want to stay on this but give me a chance okay i really want to ask a question about the political part because i want to know do you think you got this slot from cbs which is owned by paramount because you have said all along that the comedy on your show is not going to be political it's not going to be controversial it's not going to go after say president trump do you think that's why your offer was appealing in part to cbs and paramount because you're you have been maintaining that your comedy is not going to punch anyone all that hard absolutely not can i give you the answer as to why. Okay. You sure? Yeah. You ready, Elsa? You ready? You sure? Okay, good. I'm gonna try and finish that other thought. Okay, so now we take, we tape all of these shows, okay? The show goes on the air, and it does extremely well. Now, let's remember this. I started the show 20 years ago. James Corden decides not to go forward, and when he stepped down, there was a 19-week gap between James Corden and the start of a show called After Midnight back in 2023. I said, look, you know what, CBS? I have this show called Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, and I said, why don't we put these episodes in? I think they will do very well for you, and I said, I will pay for the time period, so we did that 19-week buy, and the show did very well, but they had already committed to After Midnight, and they were blown away by the numbers we were getting, and I said to them, comedy always wins, especially when you have such a diverse group of comedians coming through and doing the show. They said, wow, we already committed to After Midnight. Taylor Thomason said, you know what? I want to go on and do my Netflix specials, and I want to go on the road, and so she dropped the show, and then I said, well, we have that success back in 2013. Why don't we go ahead and do the show at 1230 and put it in that time period after Colbert, and then we put it in that time period, and guess what happened? The ratings went up 36 percent. A new show. Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen went into the time period in September, and from September through this past April, which is the latest numbers we have, the ratings are up 36 percent. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. 36 percent in household and key demos. Also, we have to speak numerically, right? There are, according to Nielsen, 56 metered markets, and according to Nielsen, the show, Comics Unleashed, is beating Seth Meyers in 43 of the 56 metered markets. Okay, I'm going to ask you a direct, let me jump in here. I'm so sorry, Byron. I let you jump in last time. It goes back and forth. I let you jump in. I need to finish up. Well, at some point, I got to jump in. I need to finish up. You can jump in, but I got to finish up. Because I'm curious if you had any conversations with Paramount or CBS. No, no, no. I'm going to answer. I'm going to answer, but I want you to get the numbers. Let me give you the numbers. So we're beating Seth, because this is really what's because you asked me how the deal happened. We won in those 19 weeks. We won. Since September, we're beating Seth Meyers, who's been on way longer than my 18 months. Now what's happening, you have to look at this, because we go by the numbers. Remember, Elsa, it's business show, not show business. The repeats on political humor, when you do a show, the repeats are negative, negative 52%. The talk shows that are doing political humor, the repeats negative 52%. The repeats on Comics Unleashed, negative 14%, according to Nielsen. Why? Because I'm not talking about something that happened eight weeks ago or 12 weeks ago. Now, if you're in show business- With anybody at CBS or at Paramount about boundaries not to cross or topics to avoid on Comics Unleashed? Absolutely not. Okay. How about down the road? No, no. You asked the question. I want to be clear. I have absolutely not had any conversations with anybody at CBS or Paramount about what to say or not to say, politics or boundaries. Do you know that I've been taping this show here since July or August, and somebody, somebody from CBS just came by to say hello and thank us. Visited the set one time, came by to say, we just want to see a taping because we haven't been here. No one has ever. As a matter of fact, when we've sent the episodes over, they barely give notes as a part of- I love that you're talking to me in the camera. No, because I want the audience- No, I know. You're a total TV guy. I get it. You're drawing limits. I want the audience to know that, because I want all this time out, all these shenanigans. CBS, has not given me any notes, any feedback about, don't be political. Remember, I started the show 20 years ago, and we've been crushing it for 20 years. Now, let's talk about- Well, I don't know if IMDb rating at 4.3 is crushing it, but let me ask you another question. Elsa, you brought it. I want to go there. You think I'm not going to- No, you said absolutely no conversations. I want to address that. IMDb, that's not the rating service. You know who I go to please? I go to please the people. Now, go back to the ratings. Okay. I'm winning in 43 of the 56 markets. My ratings go down 14% in repeats, as opposed to political humor going down 52%. So, I'm winning with the people, and that's all that matters. Now, if Paramount or if someone at CBS down the road comes to you and says, don't have that comic on your show, or don't talk about that topic, what would you do in that scenario? Down the road. I know it hasn't happened yet. It may never happen, but if it were to happen, what would you do in that scenario? I would say, guys, enjoy the 150 million I save you. Okay. Now, we've been talking a lot about how you say- Elsa, come on. Now, you have to talk to me, business show, not show business. You have to remember this, Elsa. Let's talk about your business show. No, no, no. Let's talk about business show. No one in the history of television, there are five people selling broadcast network TV. ABC, NBC, CBS. CBS, Fox, and me. I save them over 150 million in production and marketing costs. Save them because they don't produce those shows. I pay them millions on top of the 150 they're saving. What would you say to somebody who is helping you keep in your pocket 180 to 200 million dollars? I see how you're solving problems for them. You're saving them money. Oh, yeah. And also, you're offering- And I'm paying them. You're also offering them comedy that you say will not be controversial. In fact- I didn't say the word controversial. Well, okay. Let me read your quote. I'm going to read your quote. No, no, no, no. I didn't say controversial. Byron, let me read your quote. These are your words. Okay. We are doing a show with nothing political, racist, sexist, or homophobic, just clean comedy. I never used the word controversial. What do you say to people out there who are listening or reading that quote and thinking to themselves, that sounds like some boring, toothless comedy? Okay. Here's what I would say. What do you say to them? I would say to them, for you, that may be boring, toothless comedy. But here's something a very smart man taught me. He's a man that I met. I had the good fortune of meeting when I was 19 years old. He's probably the most brilliant man that ever lived in the world of television. His name was Al Massini. He created Entertainment Tonight, Star Search, Lifestyles, and the Rich and Famous, Solid Gold. He's made billions and billions of dollars. And he taught me a lot about television and how to produce it and create it. He said, you don't have to worry about everybody. A 2 rating means that 2% of the audience appreciated you. The other 98% walked away from you. You have a huge audience out there. You only need 1 or 2% to be a success. Not everybody's going to love me. Not everybody's going to love the fact that I'm not being racist or anti-Semitic or sexist or I'm not saying, I'm not being political. But there is that 1 or 2% that will be like, hell yeah, I'm rolling with you. And I learned that at an early age. And by the way, that simple lesson that he taught me made me a billionaire. Is there any part of you that's a little concerned that you might be accused of accelerating the demise of Late Night? Because maybe people don't want to tune into a show that doesn't take the same kinds of risks that Colbert's show did take. Okay, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to go back to what I said to you earlier. I premiered in September. I've been on the air eight months. The ratings are up what percentage, did I tell you, according to Nielsen? You have your listening ears on, so tell us, what did I say? I can't remember the numerical number. There's the problem. You've got to listen. The ratings are up 36%. 36%. Okay, you've got to listen. Put those listening ears on. Yeah, I just can't memorize every number you're spewing at me today. No, no, but the rate, according to Nielsen, Elsa, when you put those listening ears on, what you will hear is that the audience is appreciating it. The audience is there up 36% in households and key demos, and I'm winning. How many meter markers are there? We did a little bit of homework, and the ratings are still at less than half of the viewership of Stephen Colbert. They have more than, they had more than two and a half million viewers per episode. Time out, Elsa, I've got to help you. Thomas and Meech is not getting that. Time out, Elsa. Okay, what time is Stephen Colbert on? I'm going to teach you a lot here. What time is Stephen Colbert on? What time is he on? 11.30 p.m. 11.35. What time am I on? Well, currently, Comics Unleashed, 12.30, but it's going to move to 11.35. Okay, so are you familiar with HUT levels? HUT. H-U-T, HUT levels. No. Okay, you're speaking about ratings, so I need you to know what you're speaking about. HUT levels, households using televisions, that's what it stands for. The HUT level at 11.35 is damn near double the HUT levels, households using televisions, at 12.35. Okay, so you're saying- You're saying a reason. Time out. Mathematically, you can't get a higher rating because you have half the audience available to you. So, at the end of the day- the day, I'm not trying to replace Colbert. I am not trying to hold on to his audience because Comics Unleashed has been around 20 years and has its own audience. And we're speaking to people who have been ignored. And good luck finding another show that's had on more comedians of every shape and size. Do you think you're going to bring on bigger comedy stars on this new iteration? I don't care about biggie comedy. So you like featuring mainly emerging comedy? No, no, no. I like featuring funny comedians. I don't care if they're known or unknown. I like for them to be funny. And I know some comedians who are superstars. They'll sit on this. We're not going to out anyone here, right? They will sit in that chair and not bring any real punchlines. They'll be like, I'm cool. I'm funny. They don't bring anything. Who do you think is a famous, not funny comedian? They're funny when they want to be, but they don't show up. I like comedians with fire in them. And you know what they do? They're like, bam, I'm going to make you laugh. I'm going to make you laugh. I'm going to bring the humor. I got the comedy. Bam. I don't care about emerging. I want funny. I don't care about stars. I want funny. All I want to do is make you laugh. I want to make you laugh so hard you pee in your bed. When you watch Comics Unleashed, put on adult diapers. You're going to need them. I have funny. Speaking of diapers. Yes, diapers. All right. You've been doing comedy since you were a kid, at least since you were a teenager. Hopefully you were not wearing diapers when you were a teenager. We've been talking about you were on Carson when you were 18. Can you just explain to me, over the years, over the course of your life, why did you decide eventually to start leaning more into the business side of it all instead of focusing on the craft of comedy itself and only that? Yeah. It's not show business. It's business show. Okay. Your favorite line. It is business show. Meaning? Look, I made a decision to get to know everybody that owns and operates television stations in America and everybody who controls ad budgets with more than five cents in it. And because I got to know all of those people and I got to learn their language and speak their language, I've been able to sell 74 television shows. I have on more first run shows than all the studios combined. I have on over 13 hours a day of television with my name on it. And that's amazing. It's important to me because as, you know, as somebody that is black, I wanted to have a seat at the table to control our image and how we're produced and how we're depicted. So I put on nine court shows, nine, nine judges as legal scholars, two Latinas, two African-American men and five African-American females, nine hours a day of black and brown excellence. Then you have on a show where you have unbelievable diversity in comedy and showing what America really looks like. And then you have a two hours a day of funny, you should ask. So I could only do that if I was on the business side. My passion is to make sure that we own something as black people in America, that we control. That black people not just make content, they own the content. We own the content. You know, we have plenty of corporations out here who make money off of our style, our creativity, our swagger, but that's over. It's time for us to make money. It's time for us to own it. And it's time for us to control our image. Now, when I gave other corporations an opportunity to produce me, what they would produce is talk shows where you got black men with their pants hanging down, dancing, talking about, hey, Maury, I'm not the baby daddy. Oh, my God, the DNA stereotypes, the DNA came back and I'm not the baby daddy. Now, that's what happens when white corporate America produces me. Now, when I learn how to produce myself, I give you nine hours of legal scholars. I give you comedians who are bright and funny. I give you a point of view that's not stereotypical. I give you an opportunity to experience something that isn't just you and your country club. It's us. I give you a slice of America. I also want to understand what kind of media mogul you want to be as that black American. Why do I ask this? Because you have this long history of trying to buy media properties that are in decline, like BET and VH1. You also tried to buy Paramount before Skydance showed up. You just acquired this majority stake in BuzzFeed. So you do have this pattern of going after media platforms that are in distress. What is the strategy? Is it you're actually trying to make these platforms more popular? Are you trying to make these platforms better? Or are you mainly just trying to grab up as much stuff as possible to grow your empire? Well, yeah, it's both. I feel I can make them better. And you do need scale. That is important. You have to have scale. So let's talk about that. When I met my wife 25 years ago, I told her I am building the world's biggest media company. Strap yourself in. And that's what I'm doing. I'm building the world's biggest media company. That's what I'm doing. Talk about the assets that I went after. They were opportunities. They decided not to sell BET. But I did show up with $3 billion. I can't help if they don't accept it. Sherry Redstone had the opportunity to sell whoever she wanted to sell to. She decided to sell it to the Ellisons, which I'm totally cool with. But did I raise the money to buy it? Yes, I raised the money to buy it because at the end of the day, what people didn't know about Paramount Global is that they got a double downgrade. And when they got a double downgrade on their debt, their $15 billion of debt became assumed. You had $15 billion to buy Paramount Global. You just didn't know it because you didn't study the business side of show business. So they handed me $15 billion to buy them because I could assume their debt. The other thing about when they got the double downgrade, the debt became you could prime it, meaning you could put more debt in front of the $15 billion. Anybody would line up and put $5 billion in front of $15 billion so they can be in first position on all of those amazing assets. Also, I had a commitment from a large private equity firm to buy and lease back the real estate that they own, the Paramount lot. And they really love that full city block in the middle of Manhattan on 57th Street. And also, I had a streamer who told me and my bankers, we will buy every ounce of IP in that Paramount library the next day for $10 billion. We don't want the name Paramount. We don't want the real estate. We don't want the network. We don't want the stations. We don't want the cable network. Okay, but you didn't get the deal. Why do you think that was? She decided to sell it to him, to the Ellisons, for whatever reason. So here's the thing. Raising money is the easy part. Finding a good deal is the hard part. And you have found deals. I mean, you own the Weather Channel. You own a bunch of local TV channels, cable channels, streaming services. You have a lot of stuff. Let me explain to you. And so I'm just curious, what kind of mogul are you trying to be, Byron? What is the edge I just told you. End game for you. No, no, no. Besides, I know you told your wife, when you were getting married, that you were going to grow the biggest- No, when we met. When we met. Biggest- Okay, when you met. 25 years ago. 25 years ago, you told your wife, I'm going to have the biggest media company. Yeah. Is that the end game? Is that the absolute, just to have, to grow your company to be as big as possible? Or is there something beyond that? Well, clearly, as I stated to you earlier, I think it's important to have ownership and a seat at the table- To be a Black American. Absolutely. To change media and the way it represents all kinds of people. Absolutely. That's exactly right. To have a seat at the table, to own something, because we as Black Americans, we own little or nothing in this country. We helped build this country. This country couldn't be as wealthy as it is without our slave labor. So, but we don't own anything. So I think it's important that we own something or own a lot of something and that we control how we're produced and depicted and how we're seen. I think it's important to use media to bring us together, to show what we have in common, as opposed to dividing us and polarizing us. I think it's important to use media for the greater good. I've seen people use media for the worse and to divide us and to bring out the worst of us. Sure. So now you need somebody to use media to bring out the best of us, the best in us, and to bring us together. And the way to do that is you have to bring out the worst of us. You have to be one of the power players. Like, you have to become one of the David Ellisons of the world, one of the David Zaslavs of the world, right? Well, they're great guys. But, you know, I'm chasing Walt Disney. But you have to have a seat at that kind of table is what you're telling me. Yeah, I'm chasing Walt Disney. I'm chasing Rupert Murdoch. Those are the best. Those are the best of the best in media. But then there are other industries. When you get into Rockefeller and you get into Ford and Carnegie, those are other great business icons. I love business. I live for business. Business is my – I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I never started smoking, drinking, or doing drugs. I never wanted to start anything other people were trying to quit. I don't play golf. You know what I love to do? I love business. I love it. I live it. I breathe it. I eat it. Sleep it. You never thought of what as a ball? Golf as a vice. Well, you're taking up time trying to get a white ball in a hole. What the hell have you accomplished? I always thought it was boring. You're like, what? I've got a ball? I don't need to put a little white ball in a hole? Come on now, come on, I got time, four hours. you play golf? No, I don't play golf. You're not going to be a better golfer than all these people. I'm fine. You play golf. God bless you. My passion is business. I know how to, a lot of people buy businesses in the, in the, in the penthouse and take them to the lobby. I buy them in the lobby and take them to the penthouse. Okay. So now let's look at it. I bought the weather channel for 185 million. Weather channel was doing a hundred million in cash flow. Nobody's ever bought a media network or media platform at a 1.85 multiple. That's insane. You know why I was able to get it for that multiple? Because there was a change of control. If you sell the weather channel, the biggest cable operator could drop you. I said, that's not going to happen because the weather channel is not a cable network. It's a technology platform. It has proprietary software at the cable head ends. It allows us to tell you the weather at your, and your zip code. As a weather channel, they thought Comcast was going to drop it. Comcast came to me to do a 10 year deal and that moment, because they wanted to do a 10 year deal with me, I made a billion dollars. I made a billion dollars because I know value. I knew how to work that deal. Now you look at, you look at Buzzfeed, Buzzfeed ran out of money. I said, here's what I'll do. I'll give you 20 million and a $100 million promissory note. I took 52% of the company. I'm going to put them in the streaming business. Advertisers are already calling day one, day one. Advertisers are calling that. We're never calling them, not calling them back. If you think I'm not going to push that stock to a much higher number than what I paid for it, you would be wrong. Since I bought the stock, it's tripled. When I bought the stock, it was like 60, 70 cents a share. Today, I think it closed at a buck 80. That was just a week ago. I haven't even gotten to the office and I've tripled the stock. Strap yourself in and watch me take my 40 million shares. I'm buckling up, Byron. You buckle up. Watch Elsa. I'm buckling up. Watch me take my 40 million shares to the moon and back. Okay. I do want to return to the reason that we are talking here today and that is the cancellation of Stephen Colbert. I had nothing to do with that. I know. You have called that cancellation a quote. You called it a quote, unfortunate event. It was. Let me ask you this. It was. What do we lose when someone like Stephen Colbert goes off the air? Stephen Colbert is an American treasure. He is a phenomenal human being. He is truly special. Here's the good news. He owns his talent and he has an audience that loves him. He just has to decide where he wants to plant his flag next. And quite frankly, there's so many places he can go. I would support him on anything he wants to do. He doesn't need me, but I would do it in a nanosecond. Maybe you need to invite him on Comics Unleashed. He's always invited. And by the way, when he and I had, we had breakfast. I got there at 10 a.m. and we sat and we had breakfast and it went into lunch. He left because he had to put on his tuxedo and go do the Emmys. We talked, we laughed, we cried, we shared our ups, our downs. Our pain, our love of talk shows, our love of comedy, our love of comedians, and our love of Johnny Carson. We shared that. And when he saw that I got the time period, when he saw that I got the time period, he texted me and he said, congratulations. I'm very happy for you. Don't you wish Johnny Carson could have witnessed this? And it brought tears to my eyes. Yeah, I bet. Yeah. Well, I asked that question. I asked that question to really ask something more pointed. Yes, go for it. Come on, Elsa. You're hitting hard, girl. What is. Elsa thinks this is like the first hard interview, I think. I don't think this is the first hard interview. You seem very accurate on hard interviews. Come on, Elsa. Come on, Elsa. You're going to have to bring it. You're going to have to bring it much harder than this. No, no, in all seriousness. Yeah. I ask that because what I really want to hear you answer is what is lost? When we don't have someone convening audiences night after night, calling out the absurdity of current events in public officials, in public life, when we don't have someone who is willing to go to the edge and be a little bit in your face with that comedy, what do we lose? It's available. John Stewart's doing a great job. Jimmy Fallon's doing a great job. Jimmy Kimmel is doing a great job. Seth Meyers is doing a great job. Maybe you don't need that much of it. I just named John Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel, four guys giving you exactly what you just said. Maybe that's what the audience is saying. I don't need that much of it. Maybe the audience is saying I have enough of that. Can I get something a little different? A little different. Just a little. This is so funny, Byron, because the next question I was going to ask you, but I'm not going to ask it anymore, is do you have anything to say to the Colbert fans to just reassure them about this new chapter that's beginning? But maybe your answer is maybe you just don't need so much of it. You don't need ice cream all damn day long. You don't need it. You don't need it. Maybe just a little less and you might find an audience that comes back, comes back to the day part that left because you kept only serving chocolate ice cream. They want some raspberries. Maybe they want a fruit salad. Maybe they want a chicken sandwich. Who knows? Maybe they just want some potato chips. Something else. You got it. It's covered. And remember this, Henry Ford, you've heard of Henry Ford. Henry Ford, Elsa, said opportunity is never lost. Your competitors will always find it. So you're not going to lose anything. If the audience wants nonstop comedy, political humor, satire, blah, blah, blah, you got it. It's there. That will be done. And if somebody is saying, I don't, you just, you don't want to play in that sandbox. Elsa, I got you. If you don't want to play in that sandbox, there's room for both. Byron Allen, host of Comics Unleashed on CBS. The best of the best, baby. So great talking to you. Oh yeah, Elsa. I love this one. This was good. This was confrontation. I felt like I was on Jerry Springer. Hey Elsa, I'm not the baby daddy. Elsa, this is not my baby Elsa. But I didn't lay a hand on you. I don't know, Elsa. This is not my baby mama. I don't know, Elsa. Come on, Mari, get her out of the studio. Come here. All right, let's hug it out. Let's hug it out. The news does not keep a schedule and neither do we. New episodes of Newsmakers publish as soon as they're available any day of the week. 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