I have made it my mission for months now to raise awareness of one very small issue: the fact that the 2020 Oscars will be held three weeks earlier than normal!! I’m so old, I remember when the Oscars used to be held in late MARCH. When they moved the Oscars up by a month, it was such a big deal and everybody fretted over the awards schedule and all of these adjustments were made and at the end of the day… the Oscars were so much better in late February. It felt better. But I worry that bringing the Oscar date up so early will really suck. Anyway, this week and last week have been all about the Upfronts, where TV networks preview and promote their summer and fall programming. During the ABC Upfront, the ABC Entertainment head was asked about the plans for the 2020 Oscars, and she said that they’re probably going to do the “hostless” thing again.
The Oscars won’t be messing with a surprising winning formula. After a much-talked about hostless ceremony earlier this year, the Academy Awards might once again go without an emcee. ABC Entertainment head Karey Burke made the comment during the network’s upfront presentation on Monday.
“I believe we will not mess with that format to the best of our ability,” Burke told press, according to Variety.
As the outlet noted, ratings for this year’s show were up from 2018 by approximately 12% in total viewers. Burke, however, didn’t rule out Jimmy Kimmel coming back as host after celebrated turns in 2017 and 2018. The talk show host recently signed a three-year extension on his contract for Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The 2020 Oscars are set to air earlier in the year on Feb. 9, almost a month earlier than this year’s show.
I was one of the people panicked about the “hostless Oscar” thing in the build up earlier this year. I thought going hostless would be an utter trainwreck. I was wrong. It worked… for the most part. The opening Queen performance was stupid, I thought, but other than that, the show flowed fine and it even felt faster. I could see them doing it again with good results, but as I said – they need to figure out a better way to “open” the show. A lot of people like to tune in for the opening of the big awards shows, so get a comedian to do a bit for 10 minutes or come up with an inclusive musical number or something. Other than that, go hostless, see if I care!! What bothers me is how everything is going to feel so compressed with the Oscars coming so early.
Also: I’ve done a very good job of blocking out many of this year’s Oscar winners because I don’t want to spend this entire year RAGE SCREAMING.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I always knew it was going to be great hostless. Thank you Trash Hart for revitalizing the Oscar ceremony with your homophobia!
I think they would have someone come out and do a monologue to start (it’s my favorite part, I don’t care), and then be hostless after that like they were this year. the only thing I would have changed is have a monologue instead of a stupid song opener.
I was on board with hostless, and am glad it worked out. They still need to trim a lot of extra stuff down though.
I don’t care about it being earlier or not.
I quit watching because of all the extra stuff and the hacky writing. Change the writers, folks.
It WAS great hostless. The Queen number was sort of dumb but the only other part that felt like they needed a host was at the end of the night, after the best picture winner, when Julia Roberts was like, “sooo….I guess that’s it?” they should either prep that last presenter to close the show, or have the academy present or someone come out and close it.
I don’t know if it was actually faster (by like 15 minutes I think? right?) but it FELT faster.
Early February though…yikes. Competing with superbowl, or before that? weekend before superbowl?
The Queen opening was amazing! I could see them having Elton John or a tribute to him if Rocketman is a big a hit as Bohemian Rhapsody was.