Matthew Belloni at Puck broke the story yesterday that Jimmy Kimmel will not be returning to host the Oscars.
But first a note on Matthew and Puck as Sarah and I posted about Puck’s place in the celebrity media ecosystem back in February at The Squawk. Puck has quickly created space in the entertainment industry media landscape over the past year, challenging the other media players, for scoops. And this is a good scoop about the Oscars host – not just that Jimmy turned down the invitation but also John Mulaney who hosted the Governors Awards and did such a good job, many were predicting he would succeed Jimmy for the big show. Due to scheduling conflicts, however, John will not be available.
So the Oscars are looking for a host and in his report on the situation, Matthew threw out Ryan Reynolds’s name. Ryan would actually be a great at it, and given the recent success of Deadpool & Wolverine, I’m sure he’d be a big ratings draw. Ryan and Hugh Jackman presiding over the proceedings together? Hugh’s hosted before, he’s a showman, this obviously would be a dream for the Academy and the broadcaster, ABC. But neither of them really need it at this point in their careers, it doesn’t advance anything for either of them, unless of course Ryan can leverage a cross promotion with all of his various brands and businesses, including his production house, Maximum Effort. Imagine if Maximum Effort produced the Oscar telecast? I’m not sure the Academy is ready for that kind of irreverence?
It's unlikely unless, of course, as Matthew points out, Disney approaches Ryan – and possibly Hugh – with a “pretty pretty please please please” request. And even then Ryan is too smart and too strategic not to ask for something in return. He has accumulated a LOT of capital over the last few years and over the last few days.
Other than Ryan and Hugh, then, who could it be? To me there’s an obvious choice, and I’ve been saying this for a while now as this person has continued to accept bigger and bigger hosting opportunities: Simu Liu. He’s hosted the Junos in Canada, he hosted the SciTech Oscars last year, and most recently the People’s Choice Awards earlier this year. He just performed on the Ken stage with Ryan Gosling at the Oscars in March. Simu can do it and the Oscars have never had a host of Asian descent. He also has a film coming out in February so the timing works there too. But I’d love to hear your suggestions. Hit me up at The Squawk on this! (app link here)
