Having peddled numerous post-mortems on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, the Media Research Center also made sure to praise its replacement. Curtis Houck wrote in a May 20 post:
The liberal crew on CBS Mornings faced the awkward task Wednesday of promoting billionaire media mogul and comedian Byron Allen paying CBS to air archival and supposedly new material from his show Comics Unleashed — which marks 20 years in 2026 — starting Friday in place of the cancelled Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Notably, Allen emphasized the show will not feature politics but instead “appeal to all” and “bring people together using comedy.”
“[T]he show is comedians discussing funny things that happen. And are you going to talk politics, or is it all about comedy,” wondered Saturday co-host Adriana Diaz.
Allen had an emphatic reply: “No, no, no, no politics. That’s it. You come, you laugh. You know…we’re about to have our 20th anniversary this fall…of Comics Unleashed, 20 years of laughter. We’ve had on a thousand comedians, every — every state, shape, size, you name it.”
When Diaz said that means “you want to bring people together,” Allen added: “And I want to bring people together using comedy. I’m going to appeal to all.”
Houck continued the right-wing spin on Colbert’s show purportedly losing money:
Allen insisted he thought “it was a very unfortunate event” because “I love Stephen Colbert” and “I’m a big fan,” but also knew “this isn’t show business,” but “business show” given CBS has been “losing lots of money.”
“I said, here’s a solution not to lose lots of money. And I think we can hold on to his audience and hopefully build on it because it is business show not show business. I absolutely love Colbert, and I would do anything — he doesn’t need me. I would do anything to support him,” he added.
As we’ve documented, CBS’ claims about how much money Colbert’s show was purportedly losing is unverified. And far from holding on to Colbert’s audience, Allen’s comedy block has lost a good chunk of it, dropping CBS from first place in late night to third (though the gap is closed somewhat on Fridays).
The fact that Houck is praising Allen’s show for avoiding political humor shows just how sensitive the MRC is to its fellow right-wingers getting mocked.