ENTERTAINMENTKathy Griffin Believes Being 'Too Controversial' Got Her 'Banned' From 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'
Kathy Griffin said Jimmy Fallon had not invited her back as a guest on 'The Tonight Show' for years.
July 3 2026, Published 5:33 a.m. ET
Kathy Griffin says she has not been invited back to Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show in years, and she is turning that absence into a larger critique of who late-night television chooses to platform.
On her YouTube chat series “Talk Your Head Off,” Griffin said she has not appeared on Fallon’s show in many years and suggested she may be considered too controversial for the booking list.
“I have not done the Jimmy Fallon show since it was on at 12:30 Eastern and Pacific, so I guess I’m banned from the Fallon show, or inappropriate, or too controversial,” Griffin said. “They don’t usually tell you you’re banned. They just can’t seem to find room for you.”
Griffin Takes Aim at Fallon’s Guest List
She questioned Jimmy Fallon’s decision to host Conor McGregor after his sexual assault verdict.
Griffin’s comments came as she criticized Fallon for hosting MMA fighter Conor McGregor in June. In 2024, McGregor was found liable for sexual assault in a civil trial and ordered to pay accuser Nikita Hand about $284,000, in damages.
Fallon’s interview with McGregor drew backlash from actress Christina Ricci, who reposted a viral statement on Instagram asking why McGregor was being given a platform.
Christina Ricci joined criticism of Conor McGregor’s late-night appearance.
Griffin said she agreed with Ricci.
“I think the Fallon folks made a mistake by having Conor McGregor on,” she said. “I think it sends yet another message to women and marginalized folks everywhere that we’re not equal and you can do anything to us, and the perpetrators are still going to be out there being glorified.”
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The Late-Night Couch as a Signal
Kathy Griffin revisited Jimmy Fallon’s controversial interview with Donald Trump.
“The couch is no longer just a couch. In late night, a booking decision has become a public signal of who a network is willing to normalize, forgive, challenge, or keep at arm’s length,” said brand and communication consultant Sam Gauchier.
Griffin also brought up Fallon’s 2016 interview with President Donald Trump, during which the host famously tousled Trump’s hair. Griffin, who faced major backlash in 2017 after posing with a mock severed Trump head, said that appearance “didn’t sit well with me.”
“The modern audience is fluent in double standards,” Gauchier noted. “If one polarizing figure is welcomed and another is treated as radioactive, people immediately ask what the real rule is.”
Who Gets Canceled?
An expert suggested NBC should avoid framing Kathy Griffin’s absence from 'The Tonight Show' as a ban.
“Networks are not allergic to controversy. They are allergic to controversy they cannot control,” Gauchier said.
She suggested the smartest PR response from NBC would be to avoid confirming “loaded language” like ‘banned’ and frame booking as a matter of editorial direction, audience fit, and the needs of the show.
“Once a network sounds punitive,” she said, “the story becomes less about booking and more about blacklisting.”
