'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' cancels rest of the week's episodes following death of Bandleader

Jimmy Kimmel is taking a break from Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the death of his close friend and longtime bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III, also known as Cleto Jr.

Following an emotional tribute to Escobedo, the host announced that the show will be off for the rest of the week.

“Cherish your friends, we’re not here forever,” Kimmel said at the end of his monologue, adding, “Thank you for including me, we’re going to take the next couple of nights off, I wanted to be here tonight to tell you about my friend and Cleto loved Eddie Murphy and he wouldn’t have wanted us to miss this.”

Last night’s guests included Eddie Murphy, who was promoting his Netflix documentary Being Eddie, and Morgan Fairchild.

Due to the break, the show will reschedule the upcoming guests, Danny DeVito, Howard Jones, and Debbie Gibson, who were set for Wednesday. While Jason Bateman, Mr. T, and Susanna Hoffs were scheduled for Thursday.

Kimmel began his monologue by saying, “We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years and I’ve had to do some hard monologues along the way.”

“But this will… This one’s the hardest because late last night, early this morning, we lost someone very special who was too young to go,” he added.

The comedian shared memories of growing up with Escobedo, sharing that they were both fans of David Letterman and that appearing on The Late Show in 1999 was “a really big deal for both of us.”

Jimmy Kimmel also remembered Cleto Escobedo III as a child prodigy with incredible saxophone skills and noted his past work, which included performing with Paula Abdul.