Twin Cities TV reporter Eric Perkins winds up on Jay Leno's last show

The last episode of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" featured cameos from Jack Black, Carol Burnett, Oprah Winfrey -- and KARE-11 sports director/reporter Eric Perkins?

February 12, 2014 at 5:45AM
Eric Perkins (Randy Salas/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Eric Perkins/courtesy of KARE

The last episode of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" featured cameos from Jack Black, Carol Burnett, Oprah Winfrey and...Eric Perkins?

The KARE-11 sports director/reporter made an unexpected appearance in Leno's final monologue last Thursday night when Leno's producers set up a joke by running footage from a story on backyard luges in Minnesota.

"A lot of it is just me screaming," said Perkins who was caught unaware that "Tonight" would be using his story, not to mention the image of him rolling downhill with a bunch of kids.

So will Perkins try to come up with something fresh for the Feb. 17 debut of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon?"

"I can't disappoint," he said. "For Leno, I could get away with family theatre. For Fallon I'll have to come up with something a little more cutting edge and raw."

about the writer

Neal Justin

Critic / Reporter

Neal Justin is the pop-culture critic, covering how Minnesotans spend their entertainment time. He also reviews stand-up comedy. Justin previously served as TV and music critic for the paper. He is the co-founder of JCamp, a non-profit program for high-school journalists, and works on many fronts to further diversity in newsrooms.

See More