Jimmy Kimmel has hosted the last two Oscars but he decided it was “too much” to lead the show for a third time in a row.
The comedian said that Jimmy Kimmel Live! “suffers a little bit” when he’s been focused on hosting the Oscars.
Speaking on the Politickin’ podcast, hosted by Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch, and Doug Hendrickson, Kimmel said, “I just decided I didn’t want to deal with that this year. It was just too much last year. You wind up pushing everything off till after the Oscars, and then you have to do everything you promised to do after the Oscars, after the Oscars. I did two years [2017 and 2018], it went well. I did another two years [2023 and 2024], it went well. I figured I’d take a little break.”
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He added that he’s not good at balancing both the Oscars and JKL!. His wife, Molly McNearney, has also exec produced the Oscars alongside Kimmel, as well as the ABC show.
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“I’m not good at balancing. I’m really not. It’s not one of my strengths. I’m all in when it comes to something like the Oscars. I think about it in the morning and at night, and when I have ideas I want to work on them, and then my nightly show seems like a nuisance. We have all our writers from the show working on the Oscars, so it distracts them. It’s fun to do, and it feels good when it went well, but, for me, just was too much, to do it three years in a row,” he added.
It emerged that John Mulaney also turned down the chance to host next years Oscars, which air on ABC on March 2.
Kimmel said that he thinks there are a lot of people who would be good hosts but “most of them don’t want to do it”. “It takes a lot of time, and a lot of the people who you think, ‘That person would be great’… they know they’d be great, they just don’t want to do it. When you think somebody’s going to be great, the only thing they can do is prove you wrong when they host the Oscars. They say it’s a thankless job. I wouldn’t necessarily describe it like that, because when it goes well, it isn’t, but it’s a tough spot to be in,” he said.
This year is the third year that Kimmel has taken an extended summer hiatus with his show being guest hosted by the likes of Anthony Anderson, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Kathryn Hahn, Kumail Nanjiani, Lamorne Morris, Jeff Goldblum and RuPaul.
“I think it’s a good exercise for our staff to have another host in there, because there are a lot of things that I do when I’m there that they suddenly have to do, and I feel like when I come back, they appreciate me more,” he added.