17 Famous People Who Are Rude, Awkward, Or Simply All-Around Horrible Talk Show Guests
A lot of celebrity interviews are really fun to watch. For example, Keke Palmer never fails to leave the audience rolling laughing.
However, other interviews can be extremely uncomfortable, even for the host. While many interviewers refuse to reveal who their worst guest has been, others are more than happy to put their least favorite guest on blast.
Here are 17 times talk show hosts revealed who their worst guests were:
1.Speaking to Variety at Sundance, Chelsea Handler revealed that Justin Bieber was the worst celeb she ever interviewed on Chelsea Lately.
Here's a clip from one of Justin's visits to her show:
2.Speaking with Stephen Colbert during a 2012 fundraiser event, Jon Stewart said that Hugh Grant, who appeared on The Jon Stewart Show in 1993, was the worst guest he ever had because he complained so much behind the scenes. Jon said, "He's giving everyone shit the whole time, and he's a big pain in the ass."
Jon also said that Hugh complained about the clip his publicist chose to promote the movie, calling it "a terrible clip." The host felt he should "make a better fucking movie."
In response to Jon sharing his side of the story, Hugh tweeted, "Turns out my inner crab got the better of me with TV producer in '09. Unforgivable. J Stewart correct to give me kicking."
Here's a clip from the original interview:
3.Dick Cavett's worst guests were a trio — Husbands director John Cassavetes and actors Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara — who appeared on The Dick Cavett Show in 1970. Their behavior — which included "shoes coming off and smelling each other's feet...and falling down" — was so ridiculous that Dick walked off the set. When he returned, he asked them, "Are you guys all smashed?"
He told the New Yorker, " It was out of the blue. It was astonishing. I could not believe it, while it was happening... I had a mixed feeling as it was happening. I knew it would be entertaining in a certain way involving the word 'horror.' And that it would be talked about. And that it might be fun. But it's hard to deal with three people. When one person is being an ass, you can pretty much deal with him, or I can — and people who do what I do better be able to — but with three, the focus was so diffuse. I had no idea how long it was gonna go on, whether it was ever gonna stop. If they were ever gonna snap out of it. Most people felt sorry for me, which kind of embarrasses me, because I remember sitting there thinking, I don't want to come off as the victim of this. The sad thing...is I could see the faces in the audience. And they were delighted, at first, and then the smiles disappeared. And then they looked just sort of grim and horrified and disapproving."
He also added that, after the interview, a producer grabbed the three guests and told them, "I really have to congratulate you. You probably unsold more tickets to this movie than most movies get."
The trio later admitted that they'd been drinking before the interview.
Here's the full interview:
4.On Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Hoda Kotb revealed that she and former cohost Kathie Lee Gifford shared the same least favorite Today guest — Frank Sinatra Jr.
Here's the full clip:
5.On Today, Kathie Lee Gifford revealed that, while the interview with Frank Sinatra Jr. was bad, her "worst interview ever" was with actor Craig T. Nelson on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.
Here's the full Today clip, with this part starting at the 0:25 mark:
6.On Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Jimmy Fallon revealed that his most awkward interview was the one he had with his very first Late Night guest — Robert De Niro.
Here's the full clip, with this part starting at the 2:14 mark:
7.Similarly, Graham Norton called Robert De Niro The Graham Norton Show's worst guest. At the 2018 Cheltenham Literature Festival, he said, "He's not a storyteller, or very verbal. He's a benign presence."
He continued, "Last time he started telling a story — he went on and on. We were all leaning in, willing it to be amazing... Then he finally went, 'Why am I telling this?' Nobody had an answer. We cut it."
Here's a clip of Robert on The Graham Norton Show, along with his friend Cher:
8.However, at a Dublin event in 2022, Graham Norton changed his answer to a guest who pushed and pushed to get himself booked on the show. Graham said, "I often talk around who my least favorite guest was, but someone reminded me, I have a really good answer to this now. It's Harvey Weinstein. He's in jail, so he gets the prize for the worst guest ever.”
He continued, "And actually, it was weird, because he asked for my email. And he emailed me something very nice, a complimentary thing. And then he decided he wanted to be on the show because he was going to promote something. And it was a show that was fully booked, so I replied saying, 'Oh, thank you so much, but the show is fully booked.' He emailed back, 'What if I blah de blah de blah?' 'No, the show is fully booked, blah de blah.' And he emailed back again, 'But I think…,' and I just had to turn to my booker and say, 'Can you please deal with this?' And at the time, I thought that sort of attitude, that kind of, 'Oh no, I'm going on,' that is what makes you a very good producer. But of course, now that we know what we know, that is what makes him a predator."
"It was that kind of weird, tunnel-vision thing. And it was sort of chilling in retrospect, because I was just laughing at those emails. But you realize, oh my god, that is an insight into how that man is," he said.
9.On Dish Nation, Sherri Shepherd said that, during her time cohosting The View, political pundit Ann Coulter was the worst guest they had because of the way she treated cohost Barbara Walters.
Sherri said, "She tried to, like, talk down to Barbara Walters. And I lost it... I had to check her."
Here's a clip of their interview, with Sherri defending Barbara at the 7:35 mark:
10.When Sherrie Hewson was a Loose Women panelist, her worst guest was Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. During a live event in Llandudno, Wales, she said, "He just sat down, said, 'OK then, girls, what are we doing here? Shall we just get Paul McCartney out of the way?' This was live, by the way. Anyway, he carries on, 'Let's get Paul McCartney out the way. You want to talk about Paul McCartney?' I said, 'Well, no, you're here.' And he said, 'No, you don't. You want to talk about Paul McCartney.'"
She continued, "He was so angry. It was just so weird, I thought why? Why, why, why? It was just a really weird thing. And then, he said to the audience, 'Can I tell you all, if anyone wants an autograph, you can't have one, because I don't do things like that.' At the end of it, one of the producers came up with one of her little children, who was only 4, and said that she knew he didn't do autographs, but told him that her daughter was only 4, and she really loves the Beatles. He just said, 'Really?' And then he said, 'Did you not hear what I just said? I don't sign autographs.'"
Here's a clip from a different part of Ringo's Loose Women appearance:
11.Jay Leno joked about Trista Sutter, the first star of The Bachelorette, being his most boring and least memorable guest on The Tonight Show.
In response, Trista tweeted, "After 10 yrs, ironic that I'm the topic of convo on @CraigyFerg last show. Thx 4 the shoutout @jayleno! Next time, plz mention my book. ;)"
Here's Jay's full interview from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, with this part starting at the 33:01 mark:
12.On Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Craig Ferguson said that his worst The Late Late Show guest was singer/actor Macy Gray.
Here's the full clip, with this part starting at the 00:38 mark:
13.On Armchair Expert, Conan O'Brien said that his worst guest experience was his 1996 Late Night interview with director Abel Ferrara. He said, "He was this wild eccentric. And he fled during the show before his segment. He ran away, got on the elevator, and was out on the street running away and [producer Frank Smiley] gave chase."
The producer caught Abel and brought him back to set.
Conan continued, "He came on camera against his will, came out, and...started yelling at me... It was like if you ate 15 cloves of garlic, you wouldn't say that was a great experience, but you'd remember it."