The Oscars won't have a host, but ABC is just happy that people are talking about the show

By Sam Barsanti | February 6, 2019 | 2:48am

Aux Features Film

At the beginning of the year, we heard that the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences had decided to move ahead with a plan to put on the Academy Awards without a host, a choice that seemed like the only reasonable outcome given how much trouble it was to find anyone willing to host the Oscars. Today (via The Hollywood Reporter), ABC Entertainment boss Karey Burke confirmed that the Oscars will go on without a host, allowing “the presenters and the movies [to] be the stars.” As we noted in January, this will only be the second time this has happened ever, with the last Oscars ceremony without a host being the disastrous 1989 show that opened with an extremely long Snow White/Rob Lowe musical number.

Burke isn’t concerned, though, and in fact she believes that going without a host will actually be a boon for this year’s Oscars. For starters, she says that the fact that everyone is concerned about whether or not the show will be another disaster has at least kept it “in the conversation,” and it means that “people really care” about the Academy Awards on some level. That’s questionable, but even if the show is awful, there’s another good thing about going without a host: No terrible host gags that drag on for way too long! Burke says ABC’s “main goal” for the Oscars is to kept it from running as long as last year’s four-hour telecast, and she has promised to hold the show to “a brisk three hours.”