Jimmy Kimmel appeared on the latest episode of Gavin Newsom's “Politickin'” podcast with Marshawn Lynch and Doug Hendrickson and opened up about his decision to decline hosting the 2025 Oscars. The late-night favorite is a four-time Oscars host, having hosted Hollywood's biggest night in 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2024. Kimmel enjoys the ceremony, but he admitted it comes at a price and detracts from “Jimmy Kimmel Live” because he has to focus all his attention on the Oscars.
“I just decided I don’t want to deal with that this year,” Kimmel said. “It was just too much last year. You end up putting everything off until after the Oscars, and then you have to do everything you promised to do after the Oscars. I did that for two years.” [2017 and 2018]It went well. I did it for another two years. [2023 and 2024]Things went well. I decided to take a short break.
“I’m not good at balancing. I’m not really good. It’s not one of my strengths. I’m very involved when it comes to something like the Oscars. I think about it morning and night, and when I have ideas that I want to work on, then my nightly schedule is like, ‘Oh, I’m not good at it. ’ We have all of our writers from the show working on the Oscars, so it’s distracting. It’s fun to do, and I’m happy when it goes well, but for me, it was very stressful, doing it for three years in a row.”
diverse In late July, it was reported that Kimmel had turned down an offer to host the 2025 Oscars. Fellow comedian John Mulaney also turned down the offer. Kimmel currently ranks fourth on the list of most-hosted Oscars, tied with Whoopi Goldberg and Jack Lemmon. He is behind Johnny Carson (5), Billy Crystal (9) and Bob Hope (19).
During his interview on the “Politickin'” podcast, Kimmel said there are a lot of good options available for a potential Oscars host but “most of them don't want to do it.”
“It takes a lot of time, and a lot of people who you think this person is going to be great… they know they’re going to be great, but they don’t want to do it,” he added. “When you think someone’s going to be great, the only thing they can do is prove you wrong when they host the Oscars. They say it’s an unrewarding job. I wouldn’t necessarily describe it that way, because when things are going well, they’re not, but it’s a tough situation.”
Kimmel was on a summer hiatus from hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The show had guest hosts over the summer months, including Kathryn Hahn and Kumail Nanjiani.
