Comics Unleashed

Comics Unleashed is a half-hour comedy talk show produced by the Entertainment Studios production company and hosted by Byron Allen, with John Cramer as announcer and DJ Cobra or sometimes DJ A1 providing music support. It originally ran from 2006 to 2014 in syndication, and also ran on CBS from mid-September 2023 to mid-January 2024 to fill the former time slot of The Late Late Show with James Corden until its permanent replacement After Midnight could begin. It will fill the same time slot on CBS again starting in mid-September 2025 due to After Midnight being canceled.

Comics Unleashed
Also known as	Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen
Created by	Byron Allen
Presented by	Byron Allen
Narrated by	John Cramer
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Byron Allen Carolyn Folks
Camera setup	Videotape; Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Entertainment Studios
Original release
Network	Syndicated (new episodes)
Release	September 2006 (2006-09) – January 2014 (2014-01)
Network	CBS (reruns)
Release	September 2023 (2023-09) – January 2024 (2024-01)

Format

Each episode begins with Allen delivering a short, usually topical monologue, after which he introduces the night's DJ and the panel of four comedians. Allen sets each comedian up with a prescribed, usually generic premise, at which point the comedian delivers a monologue from their stand-up routine. The monologues by different comedians seldom tie into each other, but the structure of the show puts the monologues in the loose framework of a panel discussion talk show.

Several episodes of the series in first-run featured an all-Black panel under the title Comics Unleashed: Hot Chocolate, though they were eventually presented as regular episodes in subsequent airings.

Allen has described Comics Unleashed as his passion project.^[1]

Broadcast history

First-run weekly episodes were originally produced from 2006–07, with repeats still airing in some markets, generally in the very late-night to overnight hours under arrangements made for the various series of Entertainment Studios, with some notable carriers having included CBS Television Stations (which scheduled it as a lead-out for The Late Late Show on CBS owned-and-operated stations).^[2] Back-to-back episodes also aired in prime time on MyNetworkTV before it became a programming service.^[3] The program continued to air on broadcast syndication despite not producing any new episodes after its original 2006–2007 run until new episodes were produced for the 2014–2025 season.^[4][5]

In September 2023, CBS announced that it would air back-to-back episodes of Comics Unleashed on its late-night lineup beginning September 18, following The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The program served as a temporary replacement for The Late Late Show (which had ended following the series finale of The Late Late Show with James Corden) until the premiere of its replacement, After Midnight, in January 2024, as it had been delayed due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. Roughly half of the run featured unaired first-run episodes.^[6][7][8]

On May 27, 2025, CBS announced that it would again air back-to-back episodes of Comics Unleashed on its late-night lineup beginning September 22, as a replacement for After Midnight, which will end due to host Taylor Tomlinson resigning from the program to focus on stand-up comedy and other projects, reruns of After Midnight will continue until September 19.^[1] The program is expected to air in the post-Late Show time slot for the foreseeable future; prior to this announcement, CBS had indicated it might discontinue airing network programming in that time slot entirely.^[9]