'Comics Unleashed' with Byron Allen receives terrible reviews amid premier

The Guardian's Andrew Lawrence delivered a scathing review of Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed, the official replacement for Stephen Colbert's Late Show in CBS's 11:30 p.m. slot. The applause, dear God, the applause, Lawrence wrote. It has you bracing against the headboard and groping for the remote when Comics Unleashed, detonates onto the screen just before midnight. A soulless barrage of whoops, cheers and apparatchik-grade terror clapping, it hits like a jet engine at takeoff, swallowing the show’s disembodied announcer in a silo of his own manufactured zaniness.Lawrence faulted the program for lacking writers or a discernible point of view and criticized the set, calling it generic -- adding it resembles a furniture showroom with B-roll from Shutterstock and Comedy Cellar photos. Guests deliver rehearsed standup material rather than discuss current events. It felt more like stumbling across an old ice machine in a dark hotel hallway, still running somehow despite the fatal-sounding clatters and groans, said Lawrence, recommending viewers watch Kimmel or Oliver instead. Colbert's final show drew 6.7 million viewers, while Allen's debut attracted 995,000.Allen pays CBS 15 million annually for the half-hour segment.Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.