LOS ANGELES — Remember award-show hosts – the ones who soar or sputter while working live?
They’re increasingly hard to find. Chris Collier, head of the Fox network, said there will be no host this year for the Emmys; that comes after the no-host Oscars.
Collier said the Emmy decision was spurred partly by wanting time for tributes to several departing shows. He considered some hosts, but “that’s 15-20 minutes we can’t” use for farewells.
Past hosts view this with mixed emotions:
— “Those shows are a beast to produce,” Amy Poehler said. She had fun co-hosting the Golden Globes (shown here) three times with Tina Fey, she said, but it may be fun “to go to a party where you don’t know who’s putting it on.”.
— Jimmy Kimmel views his “unique position … after I hosted, they decided they didn’t need a monolog.”
He did the Oscars in 2017 and ’18. The next year, Kevin Hart was hired … then was dropped amid controversy. The show went hostless – opening with Queen and a musical tribute to the “Bohemian Rhapsody” movie – and scored. “I think the (reason) the ratings on the Oscars were higher is because the show was shorter,” Kimmel said.
An alternate view is that ratings went up because more of the nominees were popular films. Either way, however, a hostless streak may be ahead.
“I personally remember Billy Crystal hosting and Steve Martin hosting,” Kimmel said. “For me, I wasn’t as interested in the acting awards as I was in seeing (them).”