NBC News: Byron Allen explains his approach with the CBS Late Night business deal
Byron Allen on how CBS handed him Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ time slot
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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.”