Changes are on the horizon for to Jay Leno’s new Tonight Show. Leno’s longtime bandleader Kevin Eubanks is bailing on the program and announcer John Melendez will no longer provide voiceover for the show, NBC said on Tuesday.
Eubanks will still appear on the revamped show when it debuts March 1, but the jazz guitarist is currently negotiating an exit date with the network, according to Lisa Stanley on K-EARTH 101, who first reported the news. Insiders say the often-amused Eubanks “wanted a change” and decided to leave the show on his own.
Eubanks joined Tonight in 1992 and took over as bandleader from Branford Marsalis in 1995.