Given all the trouble it’s having finding a host for the Oscars, maybe ABC should run some sort of reality/competition series to locate one — it’s just too bad that the title “The Biggest Loser” is already taken.
The winner of any competition to be the host at the Academy Awards would also be the loser.
Seriously, why would anyone want this gig? It’s an impossible job on a terrible show that has been hemorrhaging viewers for years — and there’s absolutely nothing the host can do to stop that.
Jimmy Kimmel has been good — sometimes great — hosting the past two Oscarcasts. And yet the number of viewers has fallen to the lowest point ever.
(Photo by Chris Pizzello| Invision | Associated Press) Host Jimmy Kimmel speaks at the Oscars on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
(Numbers from the past five years: 43.7 million in 2014; 37.3 million in 2015; 34.3 million in 2016; 33 million in 2017; 26.5 million in 2018.)
There are all sorts of theories about why the audience is shrinking. Nominated movies that few have seen. An antiquated format that doesn’t appeal to younger viewers. Ponderous length. The splintering of the American TV audience.
And, yes, some are blaming the host. But the quality of the hosts can’t possibly be the determining factor, because the 2011 Oscarcast excruciatingly hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway drew more viewers than either of Kimmel’s outings — 5 million more than 2017; 11.4 million more than 2018.
Let’s face it. Nobody tunes in to the Oscars to see the host. This job is analogous to doing the play-by-play at a Super Bowl — you’re peripheral to the big game, and the best thing that can happen is that nobody is talking about you afterward. If you make headlines, it’s because you’ve done something wrong.
Franco was a complete dud, but most of the hosts aren’t. Even Seth MacFarlane’s dreadful turn in 2012 (including the song “We Saw Your Boobs”) wasn’t all bad.
And you don’t have to be Franco-bad to get bad reviews. David Letterman was excoriated for his “Oprah, Uma” bit in 1995, but if you go back and watch the entire opening segment, it was actually quite good. And it drew 48.2 million viewers, the second-biggest Oscar audience in the past 35 years.
Kevin Hart still wanted the 2019 gig, until homophobic tweets from years ago came back to haunt him. And there are two things to remember about that:
First, they weren’t just light-hearted jokes. In one, he said if his son tried to play with his daughter’s dollhouse, he would “break it over his head” and say, “Stop, that’s gay.”
Second, if Hart had issued something like a sincere apology, he’d still be hosting. Instead, he said he’d addressed it before — which he had, without actually apologizing — and he defiantly attacked those questioning his homophobic past.
When Hart withdrew as host (on Twitter), he wrote, “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.” If only he’d led with that, he’d be hosting on Feb. 24.
And he’d be roundly criticized on Feb. 25. Because that’s unavoidable.
Reportedly, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — which controls production of the Oscarcast — is considering not having a single host. The last time that happened was 1989, a year remembered for the dreadful, over-the-top opening number that included Merv Griffin singing “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” and Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White.
Three decades later, that’s still remembered for its sheer awfulness.
Again, why in the world would anyone want this job?
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