Jon Stewart once named Hugh Grant the worst guest in his nine-year history hosting The Daily Show and said he would never invite him back. In a live conversation with Stephen Colbert in 2012, Stewart said Grant was rude, a big pain in the ass, and was giving everyone sh-- the whole time.
The remark is drawing attention now because talk show exclusions are rare, even in a business where late night show hosts sometimes cut off guests after feuds, offensive behavior or plain bad chemistry. Stewart did not describe a formal ban, but he made his position clear enough: Grant was not getting another invitation.
Stewart’s complaint centered on a promotional clip for Did You Hear About the Morgans?, which he said Grant kept attacking. Stewart answered with a blunt rebuke and later repeated that he would never have the actor back. Grant responded about a month later by saying his inner crab had gotten the better of him with a TV producer in 09, and added that Stewart was right to give him kicking.
That leaves the key distinction intact. A host saying “never” is not the same thing as a network ban, and that difference matters in a world where exclusion is often implied more than formally announced. Hugh Grant may be the only person outright banned from appearing on The Daily Show, but the evidence in this case points to Stewart’s personal refusal, not an official decree.
Bobcat Goldthwait complicates the broader ban talk even further. He has described wild appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1993, The Arsenio Hall Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1994, where he set his chair aflame and was later charged with arson and fined $3,880, while NBC was paid $698 for the damaged chair. Yet Goldthwait has said he was never banned, even though he has not appeared on The Tonight Show in three decades. The pattern suggests that in late-night TV, the line between being barred and simply not being asked back is often thinner than the headlines make it sound.
