The Oscars job that’s lost its shine: Jimmy Kimmel TURNS DOWN offer to return as host in 2025 and John Mulaney refuses offer too after controversies and ratings struggles

Just four months after the Oscars aired on ABC, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is already trying to secure a host for 2025… so far to no avail.

The Academy reportedly made an offer to Jimmy Kimmel, who has hosted four times, including the last two years, but he turned the offer down, via Puck.

Comedian John Mulaney, whose memorable Field of Dreams was one of this year’s Oscar highlights, also turned down an offer to host.

This year’s Oscars saw a slight increase in ratings, with 19.5 million viewers. That’s just 4% more than the 18.7 million viewers in 2023. Still, it’s not as high as the record of 57.2 million viewers set in 1998, the year Titanic won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture.

While ratings have been rising year-on-year since hitting a low of 10.4 million viewers in 2021, they are still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels.

Comedian John Mulaney, whose memorable Field of Dreams reenactment was one of the highlights of this year’s Oscars, also turned down an offer to host

Kimmel hosted the Oscars in 2017 and 2018, before the Academy experimented with airing the show without a host in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

A trio of comedians — Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes — hosted the show in 2022, before returning to Kimmel in 2023 and 2024.

In addition to his memorable Field of Dreams presentation, Mulaney also hosted the 14th annual Governors Awards in January.

After Kimmel’s third time as host, he revealed in a Los Angeles Times interview he never thought he would present again.

‘I never thought I’d do it again. “I’ve done two and they went well. One of them had a crazy thing happen, and that’s a story I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life,” he said, referring to the gaffe in the Best Picture category, when La La Land was named Best Picture instead of the actual winner, Moonlight.

I know how much work goes into it [the Oscars]so I thought, “Yeah, I actually never want to do this again,” he added.

But as blockbusters like Barbie and Oppenheimer became more popular with awards, he began to have doubts.

‘I knew there was a movie that people had seen, and that makes the job a lot easier. I was in the theater watching Barbie and thought, ‘Maybe I’ll do this again because at least then I’ll have a point of reference with everyone,’” he said.

Kimmel hosted the Oscars in 2017 and 2018, before the Academy experimented with airing the show without a host in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

In addition to his memorable Field of Dreams presentation, Mulaney hosted the 14th annual Governors Awards in January

“I didn’t think I’d ever do it again. I’ve done two and they went well — something crazy happened on one of them with a story that I’ll have for the rest of my life,” he said, referring to the Best Picture gaffe that saw La La Land announced as Best Picture instead of the actual winner, Moonlight

We are lucky to have Jimmy [Kimmel]who helped create one of the best Oscars last year. John Mulaney also did an incredible job,” Kramer said

“I made a joke about Moonlight that made it clear that the vast majority of the audience hadn’t seen the movie, even though it won Best Picture,” Kimmel said of his first year as host in 2017.

Academy CEO Bill Kramer was asked in a June interview about Kimmel’s hosting duties and the possibility of Mulaney hosting. Variety.

We are lucky to have Jimmy [Kimmel]who helped create one of the best Oscars last year. John Mulaney did an incredible job as well,” Kramer said.

“All I’m saying is that whoever ends up hosting the show, we want to continue that tone of celebration, respect, humor and a great love of movies. We have some great options,” he said.