Why Ellen DeGeneres Was Reportedly Banned From ‘The Tonight Show’

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Ellen DeGeneres helmed her own daytime talk show from 2003 to 2023, where she talked to thousands of celebrities over the years, but it seems that she wasn’t always welcome on one iconic late-night show.

DeGeneres was reportedly on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show ban list back in the day, after her May 1987 appearance set the legendary TV host off, according to a new book, Love Johnny Carson, written by Mark Malkoff with David Ritz. The show’s publicist at the time, Charlie Barrett, explained that Carson requested DeGeneres to skip a specific joke. Well, she didn’t listen to him and kept her comedic set intact.

“Barrett was there in the green room after the show when [Tonight Show co-producer] Jim [McCawley] chastised Ellen in front of everyone,” Malkoff wrote, per Fox News. “Pointing at her, he said, ‘I told you not to do that material.’ Barrett recalled Ellen looking embarrassed. Jim made Ellen and her guest leave, saying, ‘You won’t be back again too soon.’”

Johnny Carson (C), Alexis Maas (R), and guests attend an event at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, on April 27, 1984.

Pierre-Gilles Vidoli/Fairchild Archive

That ban reportedly stayed in effect until 1989, when she was invited back with guest host Jay Leno. What’s ironic about the alleged story is that DeGeneres went on to ban other celebrities on her own daytime talk show years later. Comedian Kathy Griffin went into depth in April talking about their decades-long feud that began in 1996 after their personalities didn’t vibe on the set of Ellen’s sitcom, Ellen.

“She never was friendly after that. It was just rough,” Griffin claimed in a YouTube video.

DeGeneres spoke about the alleged ban once in 2007 to W Magazine, and she threw a lot of shade to her frenemy. “I know she had a big thing about wanting to be on the show, and we didn’t book her,” she said. “She did a whole thing that I banned her from the show. I didn’t ban her from the show, because first you have to be on the show to be banned.”

Griffin may have had the last word, though, in her 2016 book, Celebrity Run-Ins: My A-Z Index. “I’m almost positive a certain beloved daytime talk show host once had me kicked out of a backstage dressing room at the Emmy Awards,” she wrote. “I can’t prove it, but this person, who has short blonde hair, has a mean streak that all of Hollywood knows about.”

She received only one “angry call” from a celebrity after her book was published, and it just happened to be from DeGeneres.

“She was extremely upset, and I think she had a thought that she was going to, like, put me in my place, or whatever, but as you know, I’m not shut-uppable,” Griffin shared with The Hollywood Reporter in December 2016. “We kind of got into it, and I’m not going to lie, after I hung up, I sobbed like a baby. I admire her and, you know, it was a difficult conversation. But hey, it came with the territory.”

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Before you go, click here to see celebrity co-stars who allegedly hated each other in real life.