Kevin Eubanks, the sidekick bandleader who’s yukked it up with Jay Leno for almost 20 years, is quitting his gig with the late-night comedian.
A source told Extra magazine that Eubanks "wanted a change" and was looking into other opportunities, now that his stints on NBC's The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show are over.
But another source says he’ll be by Leno’s side for the première of the revamped Tonight Show, airing 11:35 p.m. on March 1.
The 52-year-old jazz guitarist joined The Tonight Show in 1992, and was appointed to bandleader two years later. Eubanks has also released a slew of albums from 1980 to 2006.
The question now is, who’ll replace the perennially smiling Eubanks? The frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish, Darius Rucker, is one rumoured replacement. However, Fox News says that when it asked Ruckter’s rep about the possibility, the publicist laughed and denied it.
We can’t help but wonder if the hullabaloo surrounding Leno’s failed 10 p.m. series The Jay Leno Show, Conan O’Brien’s subsequent departure as host of Tonight, and the fallout when NBC reinstated Leno on Tonight had anything to do with Eubanks’s decision.
The Jay Leno Show lasted five months before ending Feb. 9 amid abysmal ratings. Though it debuted to more than 17 million viewers, it tanked to 6.5 million a mere two months later and never came close to its heights again.
Thoughts? melissa@tvguide.ca
