If you have been wondering who was going to be hosting this year’s Academy Awards following the quick hiring and firing of Kevin Hart last month, wonder no more. The person who will be hosting this year’s Oscars will be – no one.
Variety is reporting from several sources inside the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, that this year’s Academy Awards ceremony will be without a host.
Producers will select a crop of A-listers to introduce various segments instead of relying on one marquee name to kick things off in a monologue filled with Trump zingers, said the insiders… Producers will select a crop of A-listers to introduce various segments instead of relying on one marquee name to kick things off in a monologue filled with Trump zingers, said the insiders.
The Academy found itself scrambling to find a Master of Ceremonies for its award show very quickly after it announced that comedian Kevin Hart would do the honors. But within hours of their announcement, tweets made by Hart began to recirculate in which the comic made several homophobic jokes. When requested by the Academy to apologize, Hart at first refused. The comic and the Academy then parted ways, and when Hart when to social media to explain what happened, he included an apology for the tweets.
The problem that the Academy has had in finding a replacement stems from the fact that whomever hosts the Academy Awards is under intense scrutiny. It was one of the most watched singular television events on the planet, and the host becomes the focal point for any and all criticism of the evening. Plus, as the Academy’s search continued, the window to prep for the job was shrinking just as incrementally.
This is not the first time that the Academy Awards have gone without a host. In 1989, the Academy made the decision to try and hold the Oscars without a regular host to keep the evening moving along. Without a host to open the show with a lively comedy monologue, show producers opted instead for an eleven-minute musical number. Which just so happened to feature Rob Lowe dirty dancing with Snow White. So what could go wrong this time, right?
