Kathy Griffin believes she was “banned” from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for being “too inappropriate.”
The 65-year-old comedian shared his thoughts in a June 30 Instagram post while promoting his Talk Your Head Off series on YouTube. Griffin said she has not appeared on the show hosted by Jimmy Fallon “since it aired at 12:30 ET.”
“I think they got kicked off Fallon’s show because it was inappropriate or too controversial,” she said. “I don’t know either. When you’re locked out of a show, they don’t usually say you’re locked out. They can’t seem to find space for you.”
She appears to be referring to Fallon’s former NBC series, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which aired from 2009 to 2014 at 12:35 a.m. ET. In 2014, Fallon moved to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which airs at 11:35 p.m. ET.
Griffin last appeared on “The Tonight Show” in 2013, when Jay Leno was the host.
A source familiar with the situation told USA TODAY that Griffin will not be banned.
Griffin also revealed that he has a good relationship with Fallon. “He’s always been so nice to me,” she said.
Griffin went on to criticize the show’s inclusion of MMA fighter Conor McGregor, saying it was a “bad decision” to have him as a guest. She called McGregor a “convicted rapist,” but McGregor has pleaded not guilty to assault charges in a civil suit stemming from a 2018 sexual assault allegation.
McGregor has no criminal conviction for rape.
“I think the people at Fallon made a mistake by putting Conor McGregor on the show. I think this sends another message to women and marginalized people around the world that we’re not equal and they can do whatever they want to us,” Griffin said. “The perpetrators will continue to walk out with glory.”
She also compared the reservation to when Donald Trump appeared on the show in 2016, when Fallon “stroked” the future president’s hair.
“It didn’t sit well with me,” she said.
What was Conor McGregor found responsible for?
The woman claimed Mr McGregor “brutally raped and assaulted her” in a Dublin hotel in 2018. Authorities investigated the allegations, but no criminal charges were filed.
A civil jury later found the mixed martial artist responsible for the assault and ordered him to pay more than $250,000 in damages. Mr McGregor said his encounter with the woman was “consensual”.
“Everything that happened that night was consensual and all witnesses who were present swore so under oath,” he wrote in a social media post.
One of McGregor’s most recent sexual assault allegations came in 2023, when he was accused of sexually assaulting and assaulting a woman after Game 4 of the NBA Finals in Miami.
“The allegations are false and Mr. McGregor will not be intimidated,” Barbara R. Lanes, Mr. McGregor’s attorney, said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports through Mr. McGregor’s public relations firm at the time.
Prosecutors later declined to file criminal charges.
