CBS says it now expects to make $15 million in late-night, thanks to Byron Allen’s purchase of the former. Late show Lead time.
In a statement issued late Thursday, a CBS spokesperson said late night had become “too expensive” to continue programming on its own, which ultimately led to the decision to cancel Stephen Colbert’s show. Late show.
“We are proud to partner with Byron Allen on a new late-night business and programming model that proactively addresses a daytime slot on the network that has been too expensive to sustain,” a CBS spokesperson said. “Using this ‘buy time’ model, we turned a watch that was losing nearly $40 million a year into a $15 million profit – a swing of $55 million.”
Comments come as Alan Comics unleashed It debuted to about 1.1 million viewers, a significant drop from its 1.1 million viewers Late showWhich averaged 2.7 million in its final season. However, the time-buying model meant that Allen’s company covered all production costs, and paid CBS for the privilege of running in the time slot, making it immediately profitable for the network. Allen’s company sells period advertising, which can help it offset those costs.
Allen said Hollywood Reporter From his conversations with CBS, “I have a show called Comics unleashedIt has been on the air for 20 years. We are celebrating our 20th anniversary. So I said: Let me put this offer out there and let me buy the time slot. I can save you between $30 and $40 million. They said: “Great idea, let’s do it.”
Meanwhile, a week after his last broadcast, Stephen Colbert Late show It was officially closed, with employees sharing photos of the struck site on social media.
Allen has embarked on an aggressive and imaginative media strategy, not only acquiring CBS Late Night, but also inking a deal to acquire BuzzFeed, a deal that closed on Wednesday.
“Our vision is to build on the outstanding foundation of BuzzFeed and HuffPost by expanding into free streaming video, audio and user-generated content,” Allen said in a statement. “As of this moment, thanks to the power of AI, BuzzFeed is officially chasing YouTube to become another leading free video streaming service.”
