Oscar host has become one of the least-desirable jobs in Hollywood

Vulture

"Whoever takes the mantle from 2017–2018 host Jimmy Kimmel will have their work cut out for them," reports Vulture's Chris Lee. "Serving as the most forward face of a broadcast that yielded record-low viewership last year requires a certain amount of cheerleading for the continuing relevance of theatrical moviegoing in an era when Best Picture nominees might have relatively tiny box-office yields or limited mainstream exposure. (Save for early Best Picture front-runners like Power of the Dog, Coda, Don’t Look Up, and Being the Ricardos, which are all currently streaming.) But in the aftermath of 2018’s Kevin Hart hosting debacle — when the stand-up was hired to anchor the 91st Academy Awards show then forced to step down after a series of his homophobic tweets from a decade earlier resurfaced — Oscars producers face an uphill battle, too." Bill Mechanic, a former member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors, who co-produced the 82nd Academy Awards, tells Lee: "In the process of getting a host, anybody you approach runs away from you before you talk to them because they know what you’re calling about. Being the host of the show is a pincushion job. Everyone out there has their own opinion of things and seems all too ready to hate everything about the Oscars from the winners to the hosts.”