Next year’s ceremony will be the third time Kimmel is hosting the Oscars, having covered the show in 2017 and 2018.
Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, the executive producers and showrunners behind the Academy Awards, confirmed Kimmel’s return on Monday.
“We’re super thrilled to have Jimmy score his hat trick on this global stage,” Weiss and Kirshner noted in a statement. “We know he will be funny and ready for anything.”
Memorably, Kimmel’s first year of hosting became notorious for one of the biggest blunders in Oscars history when La La Land was accidentally read as the winner for Best Picture when that honour belonged to Moonlight.
Last year’s ceremony was also a highly controversial one. Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage only moments before Smith won the award for Best Actor for his performance in King Richard.
“Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a trap,” Kimmel said in a statement. “Either way, I am grateful to the Academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no.”
We know Chris Rock said no to hosting the Oscars, but we don’t know who else was in the running. Perhaps the ceremony could use a bit of stability after last year’s events.
Of course, Kimmel is no stranger to controversy as he was criticised for disrupting Quinta Brunson’s Emmy speech.
There’s a distinct sense that the Oscars need to do something different in order to attract more viewers after a few years of declining numbers.
