Despite last year’s envelope mix-up for “Best Motion Picture” nominees, Jimmy Kimmel has been announced as the host for the 2018 Oscars. The announcement was made Tuesday morning via The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Twitter account:
No one can throw a party 90 years in the making like @JimmyKimmel and producers Michael De Luca & Jennifer Todd! Welcome back! #Oscars90 pic.twitter.com/uIlZZ8cWtN
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) May 16, 2017
This is the first time since the 1990s that there has been a repeat host.
This year will be the 90th show. With this in mind, it seems the Academy has decided to set their sights on a host and producers early in order to up their ratings. Repeating alongside Kimmel will be last year’s production team of Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd. However, this is not as atypical as a repeat host. The duo said, “It’s not often you get two chances to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience and even more rare to be handed the keys to a party 90 years in the making.”
Last year, the show saw a four percent decline in viewership, the lowest audience numbers since 2008. The academy normally selects producers in the fall, but it looks like they wish to be ahead of their schedule. To avoid the mayhem of finding a host, they have selected a returner in Kimmel and found him earlier. This gives them plenty of time to hash out the details before the March 4th ceremony.
With a bit of self deprecatory humor, Kimmel said, “If you think we screwed up the ending this year, wait until you see what we have planned for the 90th anniversary show!” His statement is, of course, in reference to the envelope mix-up from 2016. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the incorrect envelope and La La Land was announced as the winner of Best Motion Picture instead of Moonlight. Perhaps the Academy wishes to give Kimmel a redeeming moment for the tarnishing mistake.
“For us, it was a no-brainer. We think he did a fantastic job,” said ABC program chief, Channing Dungey about Kimmel. She sees more potential in him and so do we!
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