Things are changing at CBS.
Comic Byron Allen said his program that will soon be replacing Late Show host Stephen Colbert will have nothing to do with politics. Instead, he told CNN on Saturday that his goal is simple: “just be funny.”
Allen talked about his approach to late night during an interview on Michael Smerconish’s show. And he made it clear, he’s going in a much different direction than Colbert, who has been locked in a years-long feud with President Donald Trump and routinely bashes the president on his show.
“A lot of eyes are going to be on your program to see, well, what are the political leanings? What can they read into it?” Smerconish asked.
“What I’m doing with Comics Unleashed, we don’t talk about politics. We don’t talk about anything that’s topical,” Allen answered. “We don’t do anything that’s racist or sexist or anti-Semitic or homophobic. Just be funny and don’t offend.”
His show Comics Unleashed is set to debut in Colbert’s time slot on Friday, May 22 — one night after Colbert’s 11-year run as the host of the Late Show ends. Comics Unleashed has been syndicated since launching in 2006, and CBS will be leasing the airtime used by Colbert to Allen’s media company.
Allen told CNN that he wants to follow the same model as All in the Family producer Norman Lear, who “used comedy to bring us together.”
Again, that’s a different approach than the one Colbert has taken with his show. Colbert has made it clear he is not a fan of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement and has used his show to skewer the president for years. He said Trump’s mouth was only good for being Vladimir Putin’s “c*ckholster” back in 2017, and has more recently ripped the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his feud with Pope Leo XIV.
And Trump has punched back at Colbert plenty of times too, it should be pointed out.
Smerconish later told Allen his approach to comedy sounded like a famous quote attributed to Michael Jordan, where he explained his apolitical stance by saying “Republicans buy sneakers too.”
Allen agreed, saying, “I don’t care who you vote for. I don’t care. I’m here to make people laugh. You’re going to vote who you’re going to vote for no matter what I say, doesn’t matter. It’s not my business, do what you do. I’m here to make you laugh.”
Watch above via CNN.
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