Just over the last four years, the Academy Awards ratings declined by almost half because Americans are really sick of seeing multimillionaire elitists pat each other on the back, give each other gold statues and attempt to bury President Trump and his administration. That last part always fails miserably.
In 2019, it will be the 91st of these annual ceremonies and the producers chose Kevin Hart to host the event. But after old tweets and standup routines surfaced that some people think were homophobic, he was forced to step down and apologize for his comments.
Now the Oscars might make this one move that’s laughably insane.
Last week the Hollywood reporter released an article that immediately went viral that was entitled, “Why Oscar Host Has Been the Least Wanted Job in Hollywood.”
It went viral because it was presumably a highly coveted job from an outsiders’ perspective given its exclusive club of hosts like Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, Hugh Jackman and Chris Rock. Coincidentally, the article said it recommended Kevin Hart and wrote that he’s “funny without being tasteless.”
It seemed like a natural fit for Kevin Hart and the Academy to have him host because he’s certainly apolitical, refusing to demonize President Trump and those that support him.
But now that he’s out, an insider told Variety that not only is the Academy freaking out but the Oscars producers are considering having no host at all.
That probably induced a head-scratching and eye-squinting moment of scoffing in you.
Another idea was described as an “SNL” style show where no one really leads but a “bunch of huge celebrities” pick up the slack by doing their own bits to fill the airwaves with content.
That makes a lot more sense and if you read between the lines then it would be nearly impossible to make it an anti-Trump love affair because the segments would be shorter and limited to that actor’s strengths.
In other words, there would be no time to harass or provoke Trump.
Variety also reports that the Academy is “gun shy about going with someone, anyone who might be too edgy.”
Keep in mind that over the last four years, the Academy Awards ratings fell year by year – from 2014 – 2018 they lost almost half of their viewership. When DeGeneres hosted in 2014, they racked in 43.74 million, but in 2018 only 26.5 million people watched Jimmy Kimmel’s second consecutive year at bat.
That’s an incredible drop off and the reason why one of late-night comedy’s most anti-Trump hosts isn’t being considered.
So who would be “too edgy?”
Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart would be controversial hosts that are sort of wild cards. You can bet that the Academy wants to avoid any host that might take the show off the rails or somehow forcefully infuse Trump into the bits.
That’s why the no-host idea isn’t too bad in retrospect.
Also, they can’t get anybody to take the job anyway because according to the Hollywood Reporter, you never ask Oprah Winfrey, Justin Timberlake, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey or Amy Poehler because they will always say no.
Another idea is that maybe they should just cancel the ceremony altogether because given the massive drop off in ratings, nobody really cares about those that live in the Hollywood bubble anyway.
