Paul Shaffer Reuniting ‘Letterman’ House Band To Fill In For The Roots On ‘Fallon’

Paul Shaffer will return to 30 Rock next week with The World’s Most Dangerous Band to serve as the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The NBC late-night program’s regular house band, The Roots, will be busy prepping for SNL50: The Homecoming Concert.

Shaffer and The World’s Most Dangerous House Band’s stint on Fallon was first reported by Billboard. “I’ll be reuniting The World’s Most Dangerous Band for four super-fun shows with Jimmy,” Shaffer told Billboard. “We hope to finally get right all the mistakes we made with Dave.”

The Canadian musician is no stranger to 30 Rock as he was a member of the Saturday Night Live house band for most of the period from 1975 to 1980 and then spent 1982 through 1993 as the musical director and bandleader for Late Night With David Letterman. Paul Shaffer moved with Letterman to the nearby Ed Sullivan Theater in 1993, where he served the same role for CBS’ Late Show With David Letterman through the host’s final shows in 2015.

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert will take place on February 14 at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. The star-studded event celebrating 50 years of Saturday Night Live will feature performances from The Roots, Dave Grohl Jack White, Brittany Howard, David Byrne, Eddie Vedder, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Lady Gaga and more. Peacock will livestream the concert on the 14th at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.