17492: More On Byron Allen & CBS Breakthrough Deal.

 

Deadline reported on the deal hatched by Byron Allen and CBS, which the network views as “a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost prohibitive to continue.”

 

In short, Allen orchestrated an unprecedented arrangement designed to profit all parties.

 

But don’t bet on Mickey D’s and General Motors appearing as Comics Unleashed advertisers.

 

CBS Defends Byron Allen Time Buy, Discloses Financials On ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’s Annual Loss & ‘Comics Unleashed’s Profit

 

By Nellie Andreeva

 

Amid continuing speculation about political motivation behind CBS’ decision to cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and a soft ratings start for its successor, Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed, the network issued a statement Thursday. In it, CBS for the first time revealed the balance sheet for The Late Show, claiming that it lost about $40 million a year, a number that had been circulated but not officially confirmed until now.

 

The network also disclosed that Allen is paying $15 million a year as a “time buy,” meaning that he is leasing the 11:30 PM hour from CBS and selling its ad inventory himself in search of profit. That is a flat fee for the network not contingent on the show’s performance (which would impact Allen’s ad rates).

 

Comics Unleashed launched on May 22, the night after Colbert signed off from The Late Show. On a night that has been dark in late-night for a couple of years, Comics Unleashed averaged 878,000 total viewers over the two half-hours, according to Nielsen Live+Same Day Panel+Big Data, a fraction of the 6.74 million viewers the Colbert finale drew the night before. Comics Unleashed’s debut stacks better against The Late Show’s L+SD season average prior to the finale, 2.14 million.

 

“We’re proud to partner with Byron Allen on a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost prohibitive to continue,” CBS said in its statement. “With this ‘time buy’ model, we have shifted an hour that was losing roughly $40 million annually to $15 million in profit — a $55 million swing.”

 

The Late Show was produced by CBS Studios, so the company shouldered 100% of the production cost amid an ad revenue declines across all entertainment programming on linear, with late-night’s drop among the steepest, said to be 65% over the past 6 years.

 

CBS and its parent Paramount Skydance have been widely criticized over the decision to cancel Colbert, who had been one of the most outspoken critics of President Donald Trump. The network’s decision to outright axe the show on the eve of Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global instead of looking for ways to improve its financials by cost-saving measures further fueled the backlash.

 

The person who launched The Late Show, Colbert’s predecessor David Letterman, has been particularly vocal on the issue.

 

“[Colbert] was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We’re going to take care of the show. We’re just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?’ I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying,” Letterman told The New York Times recently. “Let me just add one other thing. They’re lying weasels.”

17489: On Late Night Television And Byron Allen.

 

NBC News revealed how Byron Allen persuaded CBS to award him the time slot formerly held by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

 

Allen delivered a unique pitch, as detailed via the article below.

 

The image directly below unintentionally underscores Allen brings diversity to late night television—which will likely get the critical attention of President Donald J. Trump, who recently boasted, “We ended DEI in America!”

 

 

Byron Allen on how CBS handed him Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ time slot

 

The comedian-turned-media mogul spoke to NBC News this week about how “Comics Unleashed,” as well as his majority stake in Buzzfeed, will help him grow his media empire.

 

By Chloe Melas

 

As CBS sunsets “The Late Show,” media executive Byron Allen is gearing up to take over one of television’s most coveted evening time slots.

 

Starting Friday, Allen’s long-running syndicated comedy series, “Comics Unleashed,” will air at 11:35 p.m. ET.

 

Allen, who rose to fame as a stand-up comic, described the move as a “business opportunity” that he believes could help further expand his media empire. Last week, he bought a controlling stake in Buzzfeed, the digital media company co-founded by Jonah Peretti that helped define virality online.

 

His CBS pitch formed much earlier, however. Allen said that when news broke in July that the Paramount-owned CBS would be booting Stephen Colbert and the late-night staple off the air, he approached the network with a simple question.

 

“I said, ‘OK, do you like money?’” he said in an interview this week. “They said, ‘Yes!’”

Allen is friends with Colbert — the two go way back. He urged CBS to “not put on another show” if it went through with canceling the cancellation. He said he told the network, “I’ll buy the time period, and you can save over $110 million.”

 

Under the arrangement, Allen leases the hour and sells the advertising inventory himself. Although he wouldn’t reveal exactly how much he’s spending on the deal, he did say he’s “putting a lot of money in their cash register.”

 

“I am a gift from the money gods and the comedy gods,” he said.

 

Allen’s dream of appearing on late-night television dates back decades. When he was a child, his mother — an NBC employee who couldn’t afford childcare — took him to the lot in Burbank, California, where he got to watch late-night legend Johnny Carson in action.

 

“You know, my mom ended up convincing NBC to start an intern program with her, so she could work here for free,” he said. “While I was there, waiting for her to get off work, I’m watching Johnny Carson, and I’m like, wow, Johnny Carson is amazing, and he’s having the time of his life, lots of laughs, lots of fun.”

 

It all came full circle in 1979, when Allen got to do stand-up comedy on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

 

“I was thinking to myself, in the next five minutes I’m going to change my life and my mother’s life forever, so I’m going to go out there and have a great time, and after I make these people laugh, we’re never going to worry about a bowl of cereal again,” he said.

 

Eventually, he jumped into the media business and founded Allen Media Group (Entertainment Studios) in 1993. He owns television channels such as Pets.TV and Cars.TV. And in 2018, Entertainment Studios bought the Weather Channel’s parent company.

 

He sees a bright future for Buzzfeed, a brand that he said has “a great following.”

 

“Everything Jonah [Peretti] has built in the last 20 years, we are not touching that,” he said. “That is the foundation we are building on that, and we’re making it additive.”

 

But the media company, which was among the first digital-media startups to be valued at over $1 billion, has struggled to maintain a sustainable business model, as Axios reported this week.

 

Allen’s plan for the site involves having user-generated content that won’t live behind a paywall and will instead be available on his ad-supported streaming platform, Local Now.

 

“‘Free’ is the world’s favorite word,” he said. “The two best words in media: ‘free’ and ‘streaming’ ... bring it together and, poof, you’ve got something magical.”

 

Allen’s ambitions stretch even further. He said he eventually wants to control the premium cable network Starz, where he is the second-largest stockholder.

 

“I want to own it. I plan to own it, and somehow one day I’m going to own it and control it,” Allen said. “What I’ve said to them is, what I would like for you to do is, I would like to keep it publicly traded, and I would like for you to let me put more capital in Starz and become the controlling shareholder.”

 

That may be difficult, however.

 

Allen previously explored deals that didn’t materialize, including deals with TV station operator Tegna and the NFL’s Washington Commanders. In 2024, he also tried to make a play for Paramount, CNBC reported.

 

Last year, Starz separated from the studio, Lionsgate, to become its own standalone public company. In March, “the Starz board unanimously voted to adopt a limited-duration shareholder protection rights agreement, also known as a ‘poison pill,’” according to Deadline, which described the move as a “defensive strategy used by companies against activist investors and hostile takeovers.”

 

A representative for Starz didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

That hurdle doesn’t appear to deter Allen, however. At 65, he continues to pursue his dreams, with his mother remaining one of his biggest motivations in life.

 

“It makes me feel great, because at the end of the day, all I want to do is make my mama proud, no matter how rich I get,” he said. “I’m just still a little scared little boy hanging on to my mother’s leg.”

17216: Comical Court Cases Unleashed With Byron Allen…?

 

Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen is coming to CBS, slotted right after slated-to-be-cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

 

If advertisers fail to support Allen’s show, there will be hell to pay—via discrimination lawsuits.

16713: Mars And Snickers Showing Poor Taste And Poorer Judgment?

 

Here’s an additional reaction to the Women’s Equality Party advertisement spotlighted in previous posts.

 

Did Mars—manufacturer of Snickers—approve and support the concept? Or does the company have grounds for a copyright infringement lawsuit?

 

Then again, Mars and Snickers once staged a patronizing promotion in 2010 to address hunger in America, as the following CBS News report revealed, ridiculed, and ripped…

 

Feeding America One Snickers at a Time: Mars’ Ridiculous Anti-Hunger Promotion

 

By Melanie Warner

 

Snickers is teaming up with celebs like David Arquette and NASCAR driver Kyle Busch to launch an absurdly ill-conceived promotion aimed at helping alleviate hunger in America -- a problem that isn’t ever going to be solved with candy bars.

 

It’s hard to understand why Mars, which owns Snickers and a dozen other candy brands, chose to adopt hunger as its cause when there are so many other worthy and meaningful charitable endeavors that don’t come with boatloads of irony and contradictions. Maybe they just couldn’t resist the punny appeal of the “Bar Hunger” tagline.

 

The problem with a candy company professing to care about something like hunger is that the people in America who are considered “food insecure” these days (the government stopped using “hungry” in 2006) are also the same people who are eating too many Snickers and other ultra-available, non-nutritious snacks. As cheap, quick, calorie-dense food has become more and more ubiquitous, it has fueled a seemingly contradictory phenomenon in which the Americans who suffer the most from hunger are also the fattest.

 

This strange correlation plays out in places like the South Bronx, where people can’t afford and don’t have easy access to the right kind of food. “Hunger and obesity are often flip sides to the same malnutrition coin,” Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger told the NYT. “Hunger is certainly almost an exclusive symptom of poverty. And extra obesity is one of the symptoms of poverty.”

 

How people can eat too many calories and also be hungry is still something of a mystery to nutrition researchers, but the prevailing theory is that diets high in junk food deprive people of nutrients, leading their bodies to crave more food in an attempt to get the nutrition it needs.

 

In other words, the last thing someone who’s overweight and food insecure needs is a Snickers bar.

 

The marketing staff at Snickers seems to be oblivious to this. Working with the non-profit group Feeding America, Snickers says it is giving away 3.5 million meals, which means Mars is donating funds to the organization and then translating that into equivalent meals. As part of the promotion, David Arquette will appear in GQ touting Snicker’s efforts and Kyle Busch now rides a SNICKERS ‘Bar Hunger’ race car.

 

Although [Feeding America] is a worthwhile organization that delivers a decent amount of non-junk food to needy families, Snickers’ Facebook page indicates that the promotion is all about selling more Snickers bars:

 

Every time you eat a Snickers, you can help us bar hunger in America. Just enter your wrapper code and we’ll donate a meal to someone in need. It’s the tastiest way to do some good.

 

Snickers marketing has long been about alleviating hunger of the more trivial sort, that grumbling in your stomach between meals. It should stick to that. When it comes the profound, interrelated problems of obesity and hunger, there’s no way Snickers is going to satisfy.

13293: Putting The BS In CBS.

Adweek reported CBS Entertainment President Glenn Geller admitted his network must do better with diversity, as five new shows feature White men. Hey, when it comes to diversity and inclusion, CBS is still doing waaaaay better than WPP, IPG, MDC, DDB, FCB, JWT, BBH, W+K, BBDO, CP+B, GS&P, GSD&M and every other SOB on Madison Avenue and beyond. Ironically, CBS employed iconic graphic designer Georg Olden from 1945-1960.

CBS Chief Says Network ‘Needs to Do Better’ When It Comes to Diversity in Its Shows

Fall slate has 5 new series starring white guys

By Jason Lynch

In one of the most contentious sessions of the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour so far, CBS Entertainment president Glenn Geller was repeatedly questioned about the lack of diversity in his network’s fall slate, which features five new shows starring white men.

“We’re very mindful at CBS about the importance of diversity and inclusion,” said Geller. “We need to do better, and we know it.”

Geller repeated some version of “we need to do better” at least seven separate times in response to questions from reporters about his fall shows, which star Matt LeBlanc, Kevin James, Michael Weatherly, Dermot Mulroney and Joel McHale.

“I am acknowledging we need to be do better,” said Geller, who said the cast ensembles overall are more diverse than in previous seasons. “That is our commitment to diversity. Those aren’t just words. That is real action.”

Geller’s words seemed to ring hollow a day after FX CEO John Landgraf told TCA reporters that in the space of several months, his network had made a concerted effort to correct its lack of female and nonwhite directors. As a result, more than half of FX and FXX’s episode directors are now women or nonwhite.

“I think we have made that commitment” to improving diversity as well, insisted Geller. He said CBS has fared better behind the camera, with directors and writers, but struggled when asked why all of his new showrunners were white men. “Sometimes our showrunners are diverse; sometimes our showrunners are not diverse,” he said.

In part to blunt some of the criticism that the network knew would be coming from reporters, Geller had announced CBS added 16 new regular cast roles to new and recurring series, 11 of which were people of color. “We are not trying to make up for something,” he said.

CBS, which finished No. 1 last season in total viewers and in the 18-49 demo, has five new dramas this season “from very procedural genres” including crime, medical, legal and adventure. “Each has the potential to reach the broadest audience possible,” said Geller.

Geller praised The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’s “daring and creatively impressive two weeks of live shows,” and noted that they generated the show’s two biggest viral clips to date: Jon Stewart’s surprise guest appearance and Laura Benanti’s impersonation of Melania Trump.

“Chris Licht has been an outstanding addition as showrunner of the Late Show,” said Geller. “We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished here.”

CBS will continue Late Show’s live-show momentum by broadcasting it live three times in the fall: following the first and third presidential debates (on Sept. 26 and Oct. 19), and after the vice presidential debate on Oct. 4.

In other CBS late-night news, James Corden’s next Carpool Karaoke passenger will be Britney Spears. Her segment will air on The Late Late Show With James Corden on Thursday, Aug. 25.

Geller said summer drama Zoo has been renewed for a third season, which will air next summer. The series is “very popular on Netflix and with international audiences,” said Geller. No decision was made about underperforming BrainDead and American Gothic.

Big Brother was renewed for two more seasons to be broadcast in the summers of 2017 and 2018. That’s in addition to a digital-only series of the show that will air on CBS All Access this fall.

CBS is jumping into the true-crime genre kickstarted by Making a Murderer and The People v. O.J. Simpson with The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey, as original investigators and other experts re-examine the case. The six-hour docuseries debuts Sunday, Sept. 18, the night before the new season kicks off.

The Big Bang Theory is the No. 1 comedy on TV, but the cast’s contracts are up for renewal after the coming season. Geller, however, isn’t worried. “We are very confident that everyone involved wants more Big Bang past year 10, and I know [studio] Warner Bros. will make those deals,” he said.

After letting Supergirl fly to The CW for Season 2, the network hasn’t closed the door on that genre. “If we heard the right superhero pitch and we thought it was for us, we would absolutely buy it,” said Geller.

11991: R.I.P. The Crazy Ones.

Didn’t realize until reading about the death of Robin Williams that CBS had canceled The Crazy Ones last May. When the show first launched, CBS touted it as the #1 new comedy, basing the puffery on initial ratings. The Crazy Ones, however, benefited from playing behind The Big Bang Theory, a very popular series. So the fake hype may have actually proven a classic advertising notion; that is, strong promotion will make a lousy product fail faster. All the network-fabricated hoopla was offset by The Crazy Ones being shameful, bad, crappy shit that couldn’t end soon enough. The pathetic program made The Pitch look like high art.

11828: Yay! The Crazy Ones Is Over.

Didn’t bother watching the final episode of CBS series The Crazy Ones. The show presented Simon Roberts’ ex-wife, played by Marilu Henner. Guess Betty White and/or Rue McClanahan weren’t available. Oh, wait a minute. McClanahan’s dead. Wish this program were too.

11825: Crazy Dork & Mindy.

As predicted, CBS series The Crazy Ones persuaded Pam Dawber to embarrass herself on the pathetic program. There’s something about this scenario that accurately reflects the real advertising industry; that is, the prevalence of irrelevant people (e.g., Dawber and Robin Williams) seeking to regain or prove their relevance in pitiful fashion. It’s like watching a washed-out athlete well beyond his/her prime still struggling to stay in the game. The Crazy Ones is AMC series The Pitch, performed by C-grade celebrities. Stop the sadness.

11814: The Sex Crazy Ones.

In the latest episode of CBS series The Crazy Ones, Sydney Roberts hired a woman of color—Tiya Sircar as Allie—to be her personal assistant. Of course, Allie served as fresh meat for the White male/sexual predators in the agency. Diversity is dandy for deviants.

11805: Fouling The Crazy Ones.

Once again, the NCAA blocked CBS series The Crazy Ones. If only there were more rounds in the tournament.

11799: The Crazy Ones Timeout.

NCAA March Madness bounced CBS series The Crazy Ones from its regular timeslot. Awesome, baby!

11793: March Mad Men.

The latest episode of CBS series The Crazy Ones—titled “March Madness”—focused on St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday hated by recovering alcoholic Simon Roberts. This show is so miserable, there ought to be a 12-Step program to help viewers cope after having watched it.

11788: Isms On The Crazy Ones.

Only bothered to watch the first ten minutes of the latest episode of CBS series The Crazy Ones. The show continues to reflect the real advertising industry in painfully unfunny ways. Simon Roberts hired the live-in boyfriend of daughter Sydney Roberts. At this agency—like most agencies—nepotism and cronyism are siblings.

11774: The Crazy Ones Not Kosher.

The latest installment of CBS series The Crazy Ones tapped Jewish culture in typically clueless style. To land a new motel chain account, copywriter Zach agreed to play Bar Mitzvah MC at the special event for the prospective client’s son. Can’t even begin to list all the inappropriate comments. Oy vey, this show so sucks.

11740: Kill The Crazy Ones.

Didn’t bother watching the latest episode of CBS series The Crazy Ones, but will review it anyways. The website synopsis read, “A woman asks Simon (Robin Williams) to eulogize her deceased father, a jingle writer who was not a well-liked man…” Classy. Based on the online photos, the show allowed for the integration of a gospel choir for the second time this season. Wish someone would kill the series already.

11732: The Crazy Ones Is 0% Funny.

The latest installment of CBS series The Crazy Ones pitted old school creative against new quantifiable data. The result was quantifiably the shittiest episode yet.

11699: How I Met Your Mama-San.

From USA TODAY…

‘How I Met Your Mother’ creators apologize for ‘racism’

‘How I Met Your Mother’ goes into the sunset with a Twitter-fueled controversy.

By Maria Puente, USA TODAY

In television, it’s never good to end a successful sitcom series with people shouting “Racism!” at you on Twitter.

That’s the situation faced by CBS’s How I Met Your Mother, which concludes its ninth and final season on March 31 and hoped for a happy swan song. But this week the producers ended up apologizing for offending some Asian Americans with a kung fu homage episode that did not go over well or unnoticed.

In Monday night’s episode, the Jason Segel character is trying to learn kung fu moves and his “teachers” are his co-stars — Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders and Alyson Hannigan.

All of these people are white and were dressed up in stereotypical “Asian” attire, in what many suggested was a “yellowface” version of now-derided “blackface” that few showrunners these days would mistake for benign entertainment.

On Twitter, the reaction was immediate and included a hashtag, #HowIMetYourRacism, stuffed with angry comments—and a few get-over-it comments, too.

The always-helpful BuzzFeed put together a list of the most powerful. Some choice tweets:

“@CBS #Yellowface doesn’t get you better ratings, it just makes people want to boycott your network,” warned JH Seouljaboy Park.

“people are already claiming asian americans are overreacting. demanding to be treated w/ decency is never overreacting,” tweeted E. Jae.

“Disturbing takeaway is that it’s somehow acceptable—safe, even—to do racist Asian jokes. It’s not edgy cable, it’s CBS,” added Michael Suen.

Only a few tweeters took the position of Jake, who said it was no big deal. “Seriously. People are WAY too sensitive these days. GTFO if you’re offended. There are way worse things in the world.”

But by Wednesday, show execs had capitulated. Co-creator Carter Bays took to Twitter to say, “sorry” in a series of tweets.

“With Monday’s episode, we set out to make a silly and unabashedly immature homage to Kung Fu movies, a genre we’ve always loved. But along the way we offended people. We’re deeply sorry, and we’re grateful to everyone who spoke up to make us aware of it. We try to make a show that’s universal, that anyone can watch and enjoy. We fell short of that this week, and feel terrible about it. To everyone we offended, I hope we can regain your friendship, and end this series on a note of goodwill. Thanks.”

The timing of this is unfortunate because today HIMYM could have gotten positive coverage of its finale episode in March, which producers say they actually filmed eight years ago.

The reason: Because the two child actors who were in the opening scenes of the series, where the Radner character is telling the long-winded story of how he met their mother, would grow up and not look the same should the series last beyond a few years, which it did.

So in 2006, Bays and co-creator Craig Thomas brought the young actors in, closed the set to all but one camera operator, and filmed the two-minute climactic scene, afterward swearing the young actors to secrecy.

The rest of the actors will film the rest of the finale next month, but the finale of the finale will be the scenes shot in 2006. Harris said he cornered the producers at an office party recently and badgered them into giving up details.

“It’s more complicated than you would assume,” Harris said, according to the Associated Press, “and for all of our fans, they won’t be disappointed.”

11687: The Crazy Ones Is Sickening.

CBS series The Crazy Ones aired installment 13—delivering bad luck to anyone who made the mistake of watching. Plus, the show continued its peculiar habit of depicting Black clients. Half the staff of Lewis Roberts+Roberts got sick during the episode. All of the audience probably felt ill afterwards too.

11674: The Crazy Ones Sucks In 2014.

The 12th installment of CBS series The Crazy Ones was the worst episode of the year. But only because it aired on the second day of 2014. It’s a safe bet there will be more awful shit in the weeks ahead.

11643: The Crazy Ones Is Getting Worse.

The latest episode of CBS series The Crazy Ones really showed why typical White advertising agencies are going down the toilet. That is, adpeople spend more time dealing with politics, cronyism, nepotism and sex than the billable work. The main characters are self-absorbed, mediocre hacks and/or world-class poseurs. Simon Roberts is a dinosaur, surrounding himself with past trophies to hide the fact that he hasn’t generated a single breakthrough concept since he’s been sober. The program’s creators have yet to come up with any big ideas too.