Next Year's Oscars May Finally Feature a Host Again

The Oscars may finally have a host again next year. On Tuesday, the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts met up for a postmortem of the 92nd Oscars broadcast, and although there were some positive notes shared about the event, like the opening music number, the group also confronted the 20 percent ratings decline from last year's host-free telecast. Per The Hollywood Reporter, an independent analyst at the event presented their conclusions about the drop-off in audience interest, and there was a "general conclusion" that the Academy should return to featuring a host to emcee the 93rd Academy Awards.

Despite the 91st Oscars' relative success -- during which ratings increased from the previous year -- that may have been owed to the fact that people might've been curious about what a host-less Oscars broadcast would look like. After all, the Kevin Hart tweet scandal which led to that host-less Oscars was atop the news cycle for a long time leading up to the event. The strength of that year's nominated films was also a potential factor. (Who could have predicted that in year where the Academy wanted us to clap for the same four men instead of other storytellers?)

2020 Oscars: How to Stream Every Winning and Nominated Movie

Compared to 2019, 2020's broadcast took a significant hit in viewership numbers, and whether that was due to a lack of controversy or the fact that this year's nominations had fewer popular films, it looks like the Academy is at least entertaining the idea that having a host on tap next year might be advantageous.

So there you have it, 2021's Oscar broadcast may return to an unbearable length. Now the question is who is delightful enough to get us through it?