The 2025 Oscars are looking for a host. John Mulaney, Steve Martin and Jimmy Kimmel aren't interested.
Who will host the 97th Academy Awards? Not these comedians.
The 2025 awards season is on its way in, and as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences prepares for the 97th Oscars, speculation is mounting as to who will be next year’s host.
The 2024 awards season was a mixed bag on the hosting front, as Jo Koy was panned for his performance at the Golden Globes and Jimmy Kimmel returned for the fourth time as the master of ceremonies for the 96th Academy Awards. Now, the pressure is on to find a new emcee that both fits the bill and wants the gig.
John Mulaney, Steve Martin and Kimmel have been floated as possible hosts for the 2025 Oscars — but each one has publicly turned down the opportunity. Here’s why.
Jimmy Kimmel
Kimmel appeared on the Aug. 12 episode of the Politickin' podcast, hosted by Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch and Doug Hendrickson, where he opened up on his decision to turn down hosting the 2025 Oscars.
“It’s hard. It’s a lot of work and [Jimmy Kimmel Live!] suffers a little bit to be honest, your nightly show, because when I’m focused on the Oscars, I’m less focused on the show. I just decided I didn’t want to deal with that this year. It was just too much last year,” he explained. “I did two years, it went well. I did another two years, it went well. I figured I’d take a little break.”
Kimmel said he was bad at balancing the hosting duties with his late-night responsibilities.
“I’m all in when it comes to something like the Oscars, I think about it in the morning and at night, and I have ideas, I want to work on them, and then my nightly show seems like a nuisance sometimes,” he said. “It’s fun to do, and it feels good when it went well, but, for me, [it] just was too much, to do it three years in a row.”
In a March interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Kimmel disclosed he was paid $15,000 to host.
“I think even most people would go, like, 'Wait, how many months of work is this for $15,000?'"
As for who he sees as a possible candidate to fill his shoes, Kimmel told the Politickin' hosts there are no shortage of good options, but “it’s a tough spot to be in.”
“I think there are a lot of people who would be good hosts of the Oscars, it’s just a matter of, most of them don’t want to do it,” he said. “A lot of the people who you think, ‘Oh yeah, that person would be great. She’d be great! He’d be great!’ They know that, they just don’t want to do it.”
John Mulaney
Mulaney, who was heralded for his Field of Dreams bit at the 2024 Oscars, recently shut down speculation that he’d be a contender for the gig in a June interview with Variety.
“This March, I have a book signing at Barnes & Noble at the Grove on one of the Sunday nights, so I won’t be able to attend that night,” he said.
According to Puck’s Matt Belloni, Mulaney was the Academy’s next choice after Kimmel but he “is already committed to several projects in the winter and spring … so he passed due to schedule.”
Mulaney doubled down that he wouldn’t be hosting the awards show in an interview with Vulture.
“I think I’m not hosting! I said ‘No,’” Mulaney told the outlet. “People are telling me I’m not. Yeah, I’m not doing that.”
Steve Martin
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Martin shared that although the Academy hasn’t offered him the opportunity, he would not be up for returning to emcee the awards show.
“When I hosted before, I started working months ahead of time. And now I have a completely different life. I'm not as free. It's a lot of work,” he said.
Martin — who has hosted the Oscars three times (2001 and 2003, as well as 2010 alongside Alec Baldwin) and opened the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020 with Chris Rock — added that the job is “thankless” and doesn’t pay.
“The Golden Globes pay, so they get Tina Fey and Amy [Poehler]. And Ricky Gervais. The Oscars should pay,” he explained. “When you consider the amount of work, it’s at least several months of mental churning.”
So what is it that makes finding a host so tricky?
According to Molly McNearney, executive producer and showrunner of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, who also executive produced the 2024 Oscars (and is Kimmel’s wife), it’s because the job is high risk, with little reward.
“They’re afraid to host that show because everyone seems ready to criticize it. It’s like everyone’s at home ready to jump in with their opinion on things. It’s a relatively thankless job,” McNearney told IndieWire.
“When people do it really well, you get a little pat on the back. ‘Hey, great work.’ If it doesn’t go well, the host gets blamed for failures in the show or ratings. It takes a strong person to be willing to go out there and take a beating. And we’ve seen people do it really well. We’ve seen people do it not so well. It’s a risky thing to do. If it doesn’t go well, you can hurt yourself and hurt your name,” she continued.
