Byron Allen got his first big break at age 18 in 1979 as a standup comedian on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” More than 45 years later, Allen is now a media mogul: But he’s still got his eyes on a late night prize.

Interviewed on stage Wednesday during New York’s Advertising Week event, Allen said he’s pitching hard to land the 11:35 p.m. time slot on CBS next year after “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” ends its run. (In July, CBS announced it would cancel “The Late Show” after this current season, calling it a “financial decision.”)

“If they’re looking for a show, my hand is already up,” he told moderator Bill Carter. “50 years, I’ve been waiting for this moment. Definitely, I’m going for it.”

Allen’s “Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen” currently airs on CBS at 12:35 a.m., in the timeslot most recently held by “After Midnight” (and before that, “The Late Late Show With James Corden”). It’s a low-risk endeavor for the network, since Allen pays CBS for the hour as a time buy and then sells the advertising spots himself.

“I’m investing millions and millions of dollars to prove myself at 12:35,” he said. “I am winning the time period. If numbers matter, then we’re already winning.” (Because it’s a time buy, ratings for “Comics Unleashed” are not immediately available, so Variety has not yet been able to confirm that stat or which measurement he might be referring to.)

CBS has not yet revealed its plans for the late night slot once Colbert’s show ends next May. Options include returning to drama reruns (“Crimetime After Primetime”), which is what CBS ran before “Late Show With David Letterman” premiered in 1993. The network could also expand local news, giving affiliates an extra half hour and perhaps plugging in reruns at midnight. Or, CBS could take Allen up on his offer and shift “Comics Unleashed” down to 11:35 or to midnight (if the network still opts to go with an hour-long local news slot at 11 p.m.).

Currently, “Comics Unleashed” airs as two half-hour episodes nightly: The first 30 minutes is a new episode, while the second episode is an older episode from the series’ library. “Comics Unleashed” originally shot around 233 episodes between 2006 and 2016 as a syndicated series before resuming production on new episodes for the 2025-2026 TV season on CBS.

After “The Late Late Show With James Corden” wrapped in 2023, Allen pitched the “Comics Unleashed” time buy as a stopgap for CBS in the 12:35 slot until the Eye’s replacement series, “After Midnight,” was ready to premiere in January 2024.

“My whole thing was, ‘hey, we have a big opportunity here,’” Allen said. His pitch to CBS: “‘Why would you spend $35 million on a television show at that hour? Let me provide you the show, and I will happily produce the show, and you can save that 35, 40 million, whatever it is, and put it elsewhere.’ So CBS said, ‘this makes it makes sense.’ We did a 19 week test in fall 2023. It did extremely well.”

When “After Midnight” host Taylor Tomlinson decided to depart in early 2025, CBS canceled the show all together. That’s when Allen once again took over the 12:35 slot.

“I said, ‘look, mathematically, you’ll never beat the show.’ At that point, we’d done about 260 episodes, which means 620 comedians have come through the show. I have 620 of the greatest comedy writers on planet Earth today. They’ve written the material. They performed it everywhere. They’ve perfected it. They come on our show. We shoot the show for close to an hour, and we cut it down to 22 minutes. Day one, I’ve always said the show has to be evergreen.

That’s how I was able to put it on. No topical humor, no political humor. nothing. I don’t want anything that’s racist, sexist, anti semitic, homophobic, I don’t want to hear any of that… we have enormous support from the advertising community.”

Comedian-turned-mogul Allen launched his Allen Media Group 30 years ago, focusing first on syndicated fare, and then expanding into media outlets. He now owns a chain of TV stations (which is now in the process of divesting), numerous lifestyle channels, the Weather Channel and digital outlets including The Grio and HBCU Go.