Jimmy Kimmel is confirming that he turned down the opportunity to host the 2025 Academy Awards.
There was a report that the Oscars producers asked Jimmy and John Mulaney to host separately, and they both turned it down.
Keep reading to find out more…
On the “Politickin’” podcast, Jimmy shared, “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.”
He added that he isn’t great at multi-tasking his late night series at the same time as hosting the awards show.
“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.
He then added why a lot of comedians would turn down the gig, saying, “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.”
The 2025 Oscars will air on ABC on March 2.
Find out who else was asked, but is not expected to say yes.
