Late Night With Seth Meyers Dropping House Band Amid Budget Cuts

The Late Night studio just got a little emptier.

Late Night With Seth Meyers‘ house musicians, known as The 8G Band, will not return in person when the NBC series comes back for Season 12 in September, according to a report from Vulture.

More from TVLine

• NBC Orders More Episodes of New Fall Comedy St. Denis Medical

• Station 19 Vet Danielle Savre Joins Found Season 2 (Exclusive)

• The Tonight Show's Jimmy Fallon Extends NBC Contract - Find Out For How Long

Keyboardist Eli Janney — who makes up the band with lead guitarist Seth Jabour, bassist Syd Butler and, occasionally, drummer Fred Armisen — said the show’s upcoming “revamp” stemmed from budget cuts at NBC. Per Janney, Meyers and Late Night showrunner Mike Shoemaker told the band earlier this spring about the cut, while Season 11 of the show is still airing.

“They expressed their regret and frustration about it,” Janney said. “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.”

NBC did not immediately respond to TVLine’s request for comment.

Janney added that although he doesn’t yet know how Late Night will address the band’s departure at the end of Season 11, The 8G Band won’t be entirely gone from the series come fall. Rather, “we’re still going to make” walk-on music for Meyers and his guests, “but we just won’t be playing it live. So that will continue. That’s one nice thing they’ve worked out.”

The 8G Band’s exit, though, does bring the end of a live music era for the Late Night franchise, which Janney also acknowledged. David Letterman was previously accompanied in-house by Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band; Conan O’Brien by The Max Weinberg 7; and Jimmy Fallon by The Roots, who have since followed him to The Tonight Show.

“It’s also just a sad day for Late Night, because it’s been going for over 40 years now,” Janney continued. “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.”

Late Night viewers, will you miss The 8G Band? Tell us in a comment below.

Best of TVLine

• 'Missing' Shows, Found! The Latest on Snowpiercer, Severance, Holey Moley, Rings of Power, Pachinko and Others

• Summer TV Calendar: Your Guide to 85+ Season and Series Premieres

• Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Showtime Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?)

Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter