Not Sure Why This Is News: Melendez Won't Be 'Tonight' Announcer

Well, it seems like there's a lot of changes coming to 'The Tonight Show' when Jay Leno returns after the Olympics. Yesterday Kona told you that bandleader Kevin Eubanks would be leaving the show once they find a replacement, and now we hear from Variety that announcer John Melendez won't be back.

But I'm not sure why this is news. Unlike Eubanks, Melendez wasn't the announcer of the 10PM show -- he was retained as a writer for the show -- so I didn't really automatically expect Melendez to be back when Leno returns to 11:35. Of course, a lot of TV fans didn't think about it one way or another, but it's certainly not surprising news. Melendez will stay on as a writer.

Honestly, Melendez shouldn't have been Leno's announcer in the first place (well, in the "first place" he wasn't - Edd Hall was). He's a bland announcer, and it seemed that Leno (or whoever at the show) hired him because of some perceived hip factor because he was on Howard Stern's show for years.