Jimmy Kimmel to host Oscars in 2023 – and will be ‘funny and ready for anything’
Jimmy Kimmel is set to return to host the Oscars ceremony for a third time, producers have announced – saying the star will be “ready for anything”.
The late-night US talk show host will present the ceremony in March 2023, five years since his last appearance at the helm.
Kimmel first hosted the Oscars in 2017 – when he famously managed the chaotic final moments as La La Land was wrongly named best picture over the actual winner, Moonlight – and then again in 2018, which came just months into the #MeToo reckoning in Hollywood.
Kimmel was hosting when La La Land was infamously announced as the best picture winner in 2017 – although Moonlight had actually won. Pic: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
“We’re super thrilled to have Jimmy score his hat trick on this global stage,” executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner said in a joint statement sent to Sky News. “We know he will be funny and ready for anything.”
“Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honour or a trap,” Kimmel joked. “Either way, I am grateful to the academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no.”
Following Kimmel’s hosting hosting duties in 2018, the Oscars ceremony was held without a main presenter until this year’s ceremony – which saw Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes sharing the stage.
The 2023 show will be the 95th Academy Awards ceremony.
Academy chief executive Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang said Kimmel will be the “perfect host”.
Molly McNearney, who is the co-head writer and executive producer of the star’s show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and is married to Kimmel, will also serve as an executive producer on the broadcast.
After years of falling ratings, this year’s ceremony did see numbers improve, with 15.36 million viewers; however, this was in comparison with a record low in 2021, held amid restrictions during the COVID pandemic.
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Pic: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
The 2022 ceremony made headlines for very different reasons to usual earlier this year, due to Will Smith‘s now infamous “slapping” of award presenter Chris Rock on stage.
Smith, who went on to win best actor for his performance in King Richard later on in the ceremony, was banned from the Oscars for 10 years as a result.
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However, his latest film, Emancipation, which is due out in December and tells the true story of “Whipped Peter,” who joined the Union Army in the 1860s after escaping from slavery in Louisiana, could be in the running for a gong next year.
Oscars bosses have said they are keen to move on from the controversy, but it would be strange for Kimmel to take to the stage without referencing it in some way.
The 95th Oscars will take place on 12 March at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live on ABC.
Eddie Murphy has told Sky News he doesn’t ever expect to win awards – but will happily accept an honorary Oscar when he’s 90.
Murphy is one of the biggest stars in comedy after starting out on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1980 and starring in a number of big franchises from Beverly Hills Cop to Shrek.
His latest project is heist comedy The Pickup, centred on two security van drivers. Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson star alongside him.
Pete Davidson, Eddie Murphy and Keke Palmer in The Pickup. Pic: Amazon MGM Studios
Murphy says award recognition was never something that shaped the projects he chose.
“The movies are timeless, and they’re special, so for years and years those movies play and the movies have commercial success.
“So you make a lot of money and people love it, so you don’t even think about ‘I didn’t win a trophy!’ The response from the people and that the movie has legs, that’s the trophy.
“You know what I’ve earned over these years? One day, they’ll give me one of those honorary Oscars. When I’m really old. And I’ll say thank you so much for this wonderful honour. I’ll be old like that and I’ll have no teeth. I’m cool with getting my honorary Oscar when I’m 90.”
Murphy, 64, has only been nominated once – for Dreamgirls in 2007, when Alan Arkin won the best supporting actor Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine.
Murphy’s co-star Palmer says she considers Murphy an icon in the industry, and The Nutty Professor was a true display of his artistry.
Eddie Murphy as Sherman Klump in The Nutty Professor. Pic: Reuters
“I feel like recognition and [being] underrated and all this stuff, it annoys me a little bit because I think impact is really the greatest thing, like how people were moved by your work, which can’t really be measured by an award or really anything,” Palmer says.
“It’s very hard to make people laugh, and so when I think about it like The Nutty Professor, Eddie was doing everything, and I swear that the family members were real people.
“He didn’t camp it to the point where they weren’t realistic. His roles had integrity, even when he was in full costume. And I do think that’s something that should change in our industry. Comedy, it should be looked at just as prestigious as when you see somebody cry, because it’s that hard to make somebody laugh.”
Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson in The Pickup. Pic: Amazon MGM Studios
Recalling his time on the 90s comedy, Murphy says he’s still in disbelief of what they achieved in making the film with him playing seven characters – Professor Sherman Klump, Buddy Love, Lance Perkins, Young Papa Klump, Granny Klump, Ernie Klump and Mama Klump.
“You can only shoot one character a day. And the rest of the time you’re shooting, I’m talking to tennis balls where the people were sitting.
“So to this day when I watch it, I’m like, wow, that’s a trip. But we were able to mix all that stuff up and different voices and make it feel so that you don’t even feel like when you’re watching it, someone have to tell you, hey, you know, those are all one person.”
The film won best makeup at the 1997 Academy Awards.
Security guards buddy comedy
Palmer says their new project, The Pickup, is responsible for one of the most memorable moments of her life when she mistook Murphy’s acting for real praise.
“First of all, Eddie gives me this big speech before I do the monologue, where he’s like, ‘this is not playing around. This is a pivotal point in the movie’.
“I’m crying in the scene, and then it comes to the end, and Eddie’s [clapping] like, and I’m literally like, ‘oh my gosh, thank you so much’. And he’s like, ‘I’m acting’. When I tell you, it was so crazy, yeah. That’s like one of my most memorable moments in life.”
Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson star in The Pickup
Davidson is excited to see how the UK puts its own stamp on SNL, the show where both he and Murphy got their start on-screen.
“It’s a smart idea to have SNL over there because it’s not that it’s a different brand of comedy, but it is a little bit. A lot of the biggest stuff that’s in the States is stuff that we stole from you guys, like The Office or literally anything Ricky Gervais does.
“This is the first time I’ve ever heard anything American going to the UK, so I think it’s great. I think it’s great to have two opposite sorts of takes on things, but both be funny. That just shows you how broad comedy can be, you know?
The Pickup is out on Prime Video now.
Dean Cain has been branded the “worst superman ever” as he announced he will join the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “ASAP”.
The 59-year-old, who was cast as Superman in the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, announced he had joined the team amid the federal agency’s unprecedented immigration raids.
He told Fox News on Wednesday his recruitment video on Instagram had gone viral and since then, “I have spoken with some of the officials over at ICE and I will be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP”.
“You can defend your homeland and get great benefits,” he said in the Instagram post where he appealed for his followers to join ICE.
Speaking with the Superman theme song in the background, he said “hundreds of thousands of criminals” had been arrested since US President Donald Trump took office.
He then told his followers they would get a series of benefits if they joined ICE, including a $50,000 (£37,407) signing bonus and student loan repayment.
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“If you want to help save America ICE is arresting the worst of the worst and removing them from America’s streets,” he said, before adding: “I voted for that.”
ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Mr Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
Cain’s post on Instagram received some backlash, with one user commenting: “Worst superman ever”.
Another said: “Shame on you Dean – that’s the most un-Superman thing you could possibly advocate.”
One fan turned against him and said: “Until I saw this I was such a fan. What a sad human being you must be.”
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