IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL IT ISN'T

The joke's on us.

After announcing the soon-to-be-cancellation of Late Night with Stephen Colbert, CBS promised it was shutting the door on late-night entertainment. 

But earlier this week, like a landlord secretly holding out for more money, they gave the housekey to a new tenant. CBS will be leasing the 11:35p.m.- 1:05a.m. slot to producer Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed and Funny You Should Ask.

As with all of Allen's output, these shows are low-budget, low-concept rehashes of other people's ideas featuring second-tier talent. Comics Unleashed is a gussied-up version of the hoary Can You Top This?, while Funny You Should Ask is Hollywood Squares without the tic-tac-toe motif. 

A better title would be Comics Paid Scale to Fill
Byron Allen's Wallet.

Stuff like this has made Byron Allen a very wealthy man. If you haven't heard of him or the product he's been churning out, it's probably because his syndicated shows run in many markets at 2:00a.m. when stoners and

insomniacs make for an undemanding audience.

Allen hopes the ad revenue he earns will make up for the "tens of millions of dollars" he's forking over, which perhaps explains why his contract with CBS is for only one year. While he might be hedging his bets regarding the wisdom of spending that kind of dough, my theory is CBS will be paying close attention to the ratings. 

If it's a game show they want, CBS could make 
more money with You Bet Your Life reruns.

If the numbers for these cheaper-than-cheap shows come within spitting distance of the two Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel), the network might want to produce their own low-rent rip-offs of Allen's rip-offs, with titles like Comics Unhinged and What's So Funny? 

The ad revenue for that kind of programming will more than offset the production costs. And it'll give the network's PR department to spin the situation with quotes like "CBS is back with late-night laughs!" Can you top this? Original ideas not required.

Colbert gets the last laugh on
the boss.

Interestingly, Colbert's next move has nothing to do with moving to another network. Warner Bros. has signed him and his son to write the screenplay for Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past. That's a pretty good step up from interviewing actors plugging their new movies.

It's fun to picture Colbert winning the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and thanking Larry Ellison for making it all possible. Meanwhile back at CBS, Tony Dokoupil will make his debut as late-night game show host produced by "Network Executive in Charge of Mindless Entertainment" Bari Weiss. For those two, it would be more honest work than what they're doing now.

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