Johnny Carson Kept A Lengthy List of Guests Banned From 'The Tonight Show'

Though many people close to the show have long denied Johnny Carson kept any detailed list of celebrities banned from the show, Mark Malkoff’s latest biography of the TV legend proves that wasn’t exactly the case.

As Malkoff writes in his new book, Love Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show host maintained a list of celebrity guests who were never invited back onto the show for one reason or another.

While a printed list might not have existed (although Burt Reynolds and Rich Little both claimed to have seen a physical copy of said document), the list encompassed everyone from Hollywood stars to former Tonight Show hosts.

“There were more than thirty big-name guests whom Carson at some point,” Malkoff points out, although he also mentioned that some of these guests could appear on The Tonight Show so long as a guest host other than Carson was overseeing the program.

Among the many prominent names banned from appearing on The Tonight Show were accomplished comedians like Jerry Lee Lewis and Dick Shawn, as well as world-renowned musicians like Billy Preston and Wayne Newton.

In some cases, the reason for these reasons could be simple or even a bit superficial, such as an unplanned joke, a poor musical performance or a guest disrespecting the crew at The Tonight Show.

Other times, it could be due to a celebrity being difficult to work with, such as Barbra Streisand, who famously feuded with Carson after canceling her Tonight Show appearance at the last minute in 1975.

In some other cases, a guest could find themselves banned for more distinct reasons. For example, as an amateur magician of some renown, Carson hated any magicians who claimed their acts were due to their “genuine” psychic abilities.

For this reason, performers like Uri Geller and the Amazing Kreskin were banned from the show, while Orson Welles, a similarly accomplished magician, received the boot for sending plants out into the audience as part of his magic act.

One other well-known guest to catch Carson’s ire was former Tonight Show host Steve Allen, who guest-hosted the program on an-again, off-again basis until 1982.

After making a joke about Carson in his opening monologue and inadvertently offending The Tonight Show crew, Allen was barred from appearing on the program while Carson sat behind the desk.