The late-night talk show space has definitely seen its share of shake-ups over the past several years. Arguably the biggest developments have been the COVID-19 pandemic along with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Productions have mostly returned to normal operations since then, though at least one nightly program is dealing with behind-the-scenes changes. NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers is reportedly dealing with budget cuts and, as a result, it’s been decided that the house band will be dropped from the broadcast. With that, the show’s associate musical director is getting real about the situation.
Eli Janney, who also serves as the keyboardist for the 8G Band, confirmed the news during a recent interview. As he explains, the band will no longer perform live on the show following the conclusion of Season 11. According to an additional source for Vulture, with whom Janney spoke, this decision is only a part of larger cutbacks being made at NBC. While speaking with the news outlet, the musician explained how he learned that the group would be cut from the broadcast and got real about how he and his colleagues are feeling:
Basically, Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker, the showrunner, brought us in in person to talk about it. They expressed their regret and frustration about it. They had been trying to work it out for months, but in the end NBC was adamant about where they wanted the budget to go. It’s not just the band; there’s a whole crew that works with the band, so there’s a lot of people employed. I think this was an easy way for them to cut the budget. Easy is not the right word. There’s a lot of strong emotions. No one is happy about it. Seth has been a big champion of ours from the get-go. They couldn’t have been nicer about it. They told us probably about a month ago – maybe six weeks. That’s a good more than 90 days to figure out what’s next for us, so that’s pretty nice.
The 8G Band has been with Late Night since Seth Meyers took over the show in 2014. In addition to Eli Janney, the group also currently includes guitarist Seth Jabour, bassist Syd Butler and SNL alum Fred Armison – who leads it. Janney went on to say that after this “revamp,” it’s “possible” that the band could be into the studio on rare occasions. Otherwise, the band is still set to “make music for them, but we just won’t be playing it live.”
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NBC has been making staff cuts at different points over the past few years now. In early 2023, the entertainment conglomerate’s main news sector, including MSNBC, eliminated a total of 75 jobs. Such decisions were allegedly met by pushback from staffers, especially given other job-related decisions made at the time, For instance, at the time, many were allegedly upset over Camille Vasquez’s hiring, as they purportedly believed it put her in the same league with journalists. (At one point, Vasquez reportedly wasn’t fitting in at the company, either). And, in January 2024, the Peacock network laid off between 50 to 100 workers, per Vulture, which indicates a shift in resources for the media entity.
Despite the circumstances, Eli Janney is aiming to remain upbeat, as he’s taking the time to reflect on the “pretty amazing” opportunity he’s had to create music for a talk show over 10 and half years. He’s not totally sure what the future holds for the band or how the program plans to address the switch-up. However, he did tease what’s in store for the band’s final week on air:
I know that we’ll have Fred drumming with us for the last week, and there’ll be a little bit of a celebration, I’m sure. There’s been a bunch of ideas floated, but nothing has been written in stone yet. It’s also just a sad day for Late Night, because it’s been going for over 40 years now. But, sadly, it’s the reality of broadcast and a shrinking market – streaming eating into this, and YouTube eating into that. Streaming is not making money, either. So budgets everywhere have been cut and cut and cut. I liken it to a Spotify moment in music, where suddenly it’s like, Nobody wants to pay for music. Music gets devalued.
For those who’ve faithfully watched this era of the long-running talk show since its debut, it might seem strange not to see the 8G Band in the building. Viewers will surely want to tune in for their final week, as it could be a bittersweet few days. And, all the while, we’ll only be able to wait and see whether these budget cuts impact any other aspect of the show or fellow programs on the network.
You check out new episodes of Late Night with Seth Meyers when they air weekly at 11:35 p.m. ET amid the 2024 TV schedule. You can also stream some episodes using a Peacock subscription.
