For the first time in 30 years, the Academy Awards will not have a host to helm the awards ceremony broadcast.
Although an announcement in December stated that comedian Kevin Hart would host the acclaimed awards, he resigned hours later after past homophobic tweets resurfaced online.
With no new front-runner emerging, following reports of a hostless ceremony, a spokesperson from the Academy and ABC Entertainment PR confirmed the news to ABC News yesterday.
The last time the awards ceremony did not employ an emcee was in 1989, when producer Allan Carr decided to have more presenters rather than a host.
According to People, ABC President Karey Burke spoke about the show’s hostless format during the network’s Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour. “From what I’ve heard, we have a very exciting opener planned,” Burke says. “We are not going to go straight into people thanking their agents.”
Burke continues, “It was pretty clear we were going to stay the course, that we were just going to have presenters host the Oscars and we all got on board with that pretty quickly,” Burke says. “The goal was to keep the show within three hours, so producers decided wisely not to have a host and to just have presenters.”
While there will be no official host to kick off and streamline the ceremony, earlier this week, the Academy announced its lineup of presenters, including Awkwafina, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Tina Fey, Whoopi Goldberg, Brie Larson, Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, and Tessa Thompson.
“The list of presenters is phenomenal and growing,” Burke says during the TCA presentation. “This is going to be a big turnout for this. There are big popular movies being nominated.”
In addition to the star-powered presenters, it was previously announced that all five of the Original Song nominees with perform, including acting nominees Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga from A Star is Born.
The 91st Academy Awards will air on Feb. 24 on ABC.
Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images
