Oscars 2019: Finding an Oscars host

With about 80 days to go until the 91st Academy Awards, Oscars producers are busy looking for the 2019 host.

Finding producers and a host for the Oscars can be a challenge.

With about 80 days to go until the 91st Academy Awards, Oscars producers are busy looking for the 2019 host.

The first step on the road to the Oscars ceremony is finding producers.

Academy President John Bailey announced back on Oct. 22 that Oscar-winning producer Donna Gigliotti and Emmy-winning director Glenn Weiss will co-produce the 2019 ceremony, with Weiss directing the show.

“Donna and Glenn will infuse new energy and vision into this 91st awards presentation, and we are excited about a broad-based creative relationship with these two artists,” said Bailey in a statement.

Gigliotti won a Best Picture Oscar for “Shakespeare in Love.” The films she has produced and overseen have earned a total of 43 Oscar nominations. Weiss will return to direct his fourth consecutive Oscars. He has won 14 Primetime Emmy Awards, including one earlier this year for the 90th Oscars.

The producers now have the daunting task of finding an Oscars host — more specifically, finding anyone to say yes.

  

The timeline
Announcing an Oscars host this close to the ceremony date (82 days out as of Dec. 4) is not without precedent, but it is atypical.

Jimmy Kimmel was announced the 89th Academy Awards host 82 days out on Dec. 5, 2016. It is also important to note that producers were announced unusually late that year as well — on Nov. 4, 2016.

Ten years ago, Hugh Jackman was named host of the 81st Academy Awards on Dec. 12, 2008, 72 days out.

The earliest Oscars host announcement The Gold Knight could find was when Jon Stewart was announced a mere 59 days before the 78th Academy Awards (announced on Jan. 5, 2006, for the March 5 ceremony).

  

The trouble finding a host
The Hollywood Reporter wrote on Dec. 4 about why no one wants to host the show:

Take a look at the roundelay of performers who've embraced show business' most perilous assignment, and the failure rate is enough to give even that rock climber in Free Solo vertigo. Ever since Billy Crystal passed the baton in 2004 (he made a one-off return that drew a tepid response in 2012), the Academy has struggled to find the right anchor, and nobody has been willing to run the gantlet more than twice. Among the two-timers: Kimmel, Ellen DeGeneres, Hugh Jackman, Chris Rock and Jon Stewart — most of whom have vowed never to do it again (though "never" has a certain elasticity in Hollywood). Contrast that with Oscar's glory days, when Johnny Carson hosted five times, Crystal nine and Bob Hope a swoon-inducing 19.

Who will host?
With time ticking and the end of the year approaching, finding a Master of Ceremonies for the Oscars is paramount for the producers.

UPDATE (12/4): Actor/comedian Kevin Hart announced on Dec. 4 that he will host the 91st Oscars. 

UPDATE (12/7): Hart has officially stepped down from hosting. 

One host that The Gold Knight recommends to producers is Lin-Manuel Miranda, a relevant and timely choice. The creator of the Broadway mega-hit "Hamilton" co-stars in one of this year's big holiday films, "Mary Poppins Returns," and was just awarded a Kennedy Center Honor.

It also helps that Miranda is friends with co-producer Glenn Weiss.

The only downside is that Miranda wrote in The Hollywood Report in 2017 that "hosting the Oscars is not a thing I would ever do":

I am a huge Seth MacFarlane fan, but you could tell how uncomfortable everyone in the room was with his "We Saw Your Boobs" number. You always have to do this dance as a host: You're playing to a billion people at home, and you're playing to anxious contestants in a room, and that's an insanely hard thing to divide. It's the most thankless task in the world. I have a pretty healthy ego, but it does not extend in that direction. I'd much rather be the guy writing the opening tune than having to deliver it.

BUT he's a huge fan of the Oscars and could pull in younger viewers and provide the ceremony with some good energy.

The Gold Knight would also recommend Melissa McCarthy.

Deadline.com's Michael Cieply had an interesting, throwback idea: No host.

What do YOU think? Who would you like to host the Feb. 24 ceremony?

Stay tuned to The Gold Knight for full Oscars coverage.

The 91st Academy Awards, for outstanding film achievements of 2018, will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 225 countries worldwide.