It’s been a minute since the Oscars had a host. The last time was all the way back in 2018 with Jimmy Kimmel, who’d also played emcee during the ceremony that notoriously ended with the Best Picture trophy almost going to the wrong movie. Since then, for a variety of reasons, the show has gone hostless. Not this year. The telecast that occurs at month’s end already has plenty of controversy, but they at least made up for the three years without a host by hiring, well, three hosts.
That trio is Amy Schumer, Regina Hall, and Wanda Sykes, who were named after a long search that included such possible hosts as Pete Davidson and the heroes of Only Murders in the Building. So how’s their chemistry? Pretty solid, as judged by the first promo for the show.
It finds the three sitting at a kitchen table right out of a Nancy Meyers movie, vowing to do “better than last year’s host.” Who was last year’s host? Whoever it is, Schumer jokes, “they must have sucked.” Only Hall remembers that there wasn’t a host last year, or the year before, or the year before. “Boom! We’re already winning,” cracks Sykes.
It’s a lighthearted promo for a show that’s already mired in heartbreak. The producers, under intense pressure from ABC to fun up a show whose ratings have fallen into the toilet, announced they wouldn’t air about a third of the winners live, leading to much pushback. But even bad press is good press, right? We’ll find out on March 27.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)