The Oscars Won’t Have a Host This Year—And That’s a Good Thing
Who is hosting the Oscars 2021? Drum roll, please. It’s….no one!
Yes, that’s right: For the third time in a row, the Oscars won’t have a host. That being said, there will still be an in-person celebration—albeit an intimate, COVID-19-friendly one. Per EW, the plan is to “stage an intimate, in-person event at Union Station in Los Angeles, with additional show elements live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.”
“We are treating the event as an active movie set, with specially designed testing cadences to ensure up-to-the-minute results, including an on-site COVID safety team with PCR testing capability,” a note to Oscar nominees reads.
With these restrictions, it makes even more sense the Oscars 2021 host is non-existent. Can you imagine the sheer cringe factor of someone shouting to a room of 30 people like it’s a packed auditorium? Just take a second and picture the hypothetical Oscar host 2021—maybe it’s Jimmy Kimmel, maybe it’s Jimmy Fallon—making a perfectly funny joke, but there’s just not enough people around to get a laugh. The horror! The awkwardness! Yup, when it comes to the Oscars 2021, host-free is definitely best. Here are some other reasons why:
We can skip over the COVID-19 jokes…hopefully.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it with the, “What a CrAzY year it’s been” humor. If I receive one more email with “these times” in it, I’m going to chuck my computer out the window. The hypothetical host of Oscars 2021 would inevitably have a list of coronavirus jokes on hand and, honestly, I don’t want to hear a single one of them. I’m tired. We’re all tired. Let’s just give out the awards, offer one poignant statement about the virus, and move on, shall we?
Speaking of: The ceremony will be shorter without a host.
At least…I hope so. The Oscars opening number/monologue is typically 10-15 minutes, and does anyone ever really enjoy it? Or do we just politely smile and wait for the Best Supporting Actress category? No host means no long-winded introduction, which ideally means a shorter ceremony overall.
The one-hour, pre-taped Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony had the right idea. “We’re looking at trying to do a unique award ceremony in an hour and leave people saying, which they very rarely do [with an awards show], ‘Man, I wish we had more,’” SAG executive producer Todd Milliner told Variety. Take note, Academy. Leave us wanting more!
No one…really cares about the host, anyway.
If Amy Poehler and Tina Fey hosted the Oscars, that would be a different story—but for the past few years, when there’s been an Oscars host, it’s been kind of…blah. When Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, and Steve Martin did it, it was an art form. Now, it’s recycled late-night jokes and quips that just make the celebrities uncomfortable. There’s not really a loss here.
No host means more time with the celebs.
Again, in theory. Awards shows, especially this year, are a bit antiquated and pointless—but if you are watching, you’re watching for the fashion and spontaneous moments between the celebrities. A host-less ceremony offers more time to focus on the things you care about, i.e.: whatever gorgeous dress Zendaya chooses to wear.
So, we’re in agreement: The next time someone asks you, “Who’s hosting the Oscars 2021?” you’ll answer, “No one—and thank God for that.”
