Just four months after the Oscars aired on ABC, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is already trying to determine who will host the 2025 Oscars — with no success yet.
The Academy reportedly made a hosting offer to Jimmy Kimmel, who has hosted the show four times, including the past two years, but he turned it down, according to Disk.
Comedian John Mulaney, whose memorable Field of Dreams recollection was one of the highlights of this year’s Oscars, also turned down an offer to host.
This year’s Oscars enjoyed a slight increase in viewership to 19.5 million viewers, up just 4% from 2023’s 18.7 million viewers, though still far from the all-time record of 57.2 million viewers in 1998, the year Titanic won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture.
While ratings have been increasing each year after a record low of 10.4 million viewers in 2021, they are still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels.
Just four months after the Oscars aired on ABC, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is already trying to determine who will host the 2025 show — with no success so far.
Comedian John Mulaney, whose memorable Field of Dreams recollection was one of the highlights of this year’s Oscars, also turned down an offer to host.
Kimmel hosted the Oscars in 2017 and 2018, before the Academy experimented with holding the show without a host in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
A trio of comedians (Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes) served as hosts in 2022, before returning to Kimmel for 2023 and 2024.
In addition to his memorable appearance at Field of Dreams, Mulaney hosted the 14th annual Governors Awards in January.
After Kimmel’s third time hosting, he revealed in a Los Angeles Times interview he thought he would never do again.
‘I didn’t think I’d do it again. “I did two of them and they turned out well; something crazy happened in one of them with a story I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life,” he said, referring to the Best Picture blunder when La La Land was announced as Best Picture instead of the actual winner, Moonlight.
“I know how much work goes into (the Oscars), so I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t necessarily want to do this anymore,'” she added.
However, when blockbusters like Barbie and Oppenheimer began receiving awards buzz, he began to have second thoughts.
‘I knew there was a movie that people had seen and that just makes the job easier. I’m sitting in a theater watching Barbie and thinking, “Well, maybe I’ll do it again, because at least I have a point of reference with everyone,” she said.
Kimmel hosted the Oscars in 2017 and 2018, before the Academy experimented with holding the show without a host in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
In addition to his memorable performance on Field of Dreams, Mulaney hosted the 14th Annual Governors Awards in January.
“I didn’t think I’d do it again. I did two and they turned out well. One of them had something crazy happen, with a story that I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” he said, referring to the Best Picture blunder when La La Land was announced as Best Picture instead of the actual winner, Moonlight.
“We’re lucky to have Jimmy (Kimmel), who helped create one of the best Oscars of last year. John Mulaney did an incredible job as well,” Kramer said.
“I made a joke about Moonlight that made it clear to me that the vast majority of the room hadn’t seen the movie, even though it won Best Picture,” Kimmel said of his first year as host in 2017.
Academy CEO Bill Kramer was asked about Kimmel’s hosting duties and the possibility of Mulaney hosting in a June interview with Variety.
“We’re lucky to have Jimmy (Kimmel), who helped create one of the best Oscars of last year. John Mulaney did an incredible job as well,” Kramer said.
“All I will say is that regardless of who hosts the show, we want to continue this tone of celebration, respect, humor and great love for movies. We have some great choices,” he said.