| Alt Name: | Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen |
| Creator: | Byron Allen |
| Presenter: | Byron Allen |
| Narrated: | John Cramer |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Executive Producer: | Byron Allen Carolyn Folks |
| Camera: | Videotape |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Company: | Entertainment Studios |
| Network: |
|
Comics Unleashed is a half-hour comedic 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.
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.
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 bulk barter 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).[1] Back-to-back episodes also aired in prime time on MyNetworkTV before it became a programming service.[2] The program did not produce any new episodes beyond its original 2006–07 run until 2014.[3] [4]
In September 2023, CBS announced that it would air the series in a back-to-back episode format in its network late-night lineup following The Late Show with Stephen Colbert beginning September 18, as a stop gap between the conclusion of The Late Late Show franchise and its successor (later announced as a Stephen Colbert-produced revival of the panel show @midnight) due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes delaying production of any new series. Roughly half of the run featured unaired first-run episodes, until After Midnight premiered in 2024.[5] [6] [7]