Skip to footer

Oscars: Producer says two hosts will be taking the stage next year

Oscars producer David Hill says he and fellow producer Reginald Hudlin will be selecting two people for the hosting job. As film festivals approach this fall, the Oscars season is beginning to heat up.

|
Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
An Oscar statue appears at the 2012 Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

When the Academy Awards roll around next year, there will be not one but two people onstage emceeing the show.

According to Oscars producer David Hill, he and fellow producer Reginald Hudlin are seeking two hosts for the ceremony.

It was recently announced that Hill, who has worked at Fox in various sports capacities such as serving as an executive producer for the 2011 World Series, and Hudlin, who was a producer for the 2012 film “Django Unchained” and was president of entertainment for BET Networks, will be behind the scenes for the Oscar ceremony.

When asked in an interview why he and Hudlin were going for two hosts, Hill said, “Two is better than one” and joked, “If we run out of options, it’s going to be Reggie and me as hosts.”

The notion of two people serving as hosts most likely reminds Oscar fans of the 2011 ceremony, when actors Anne Hathaway and James Franco shared hosting duties. However, their stint was not well-received. The year before that, actors Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin worked in tandem and got better reviews for their time as hosts. 

Other awards ceremonies have had mixed results from having multiple people on stage. The Golden Globes scored the past few years by having former “Saturday Night Live” comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler host the show – they held the job from 2013 to 2015 and received positive reviews each year. However, the Emmy Awards tried having reality show hosts Heidi Klum, Tom Bergeron, Jeff Probst, Howie Mandel, and Ryan Seacrest all host the show together in 2008 and the show did not score with viewers. 

Having multiple people host the Oscars in particular used to be much more common. Some years, far more than two teamed up for the job, including the 1958 ceremony where actors Jack Lemmon, Bob Hope, Rosalind Russell, James Stewart, David Niven, and cartoon character Donald Duck all hosted. While Hope is often remembered as a legendary Oscars host, he also took on the job with others, as when he hosted with the aforementioned group or when he teamed up with actors including Conrad Nagel, John Cromwell, and Thelma Ritter.

Producers of the Oscars are often walking a tightrope when selecting hosts. In past years, those behind the show have either brought on what they doubtless viewed as hip young talent – the previous host, “How I Met Your Mother” actor Neil Patrick Harris, and “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane in 2013 – or brought back hosts who have done well before, as when actor Billy Crystal returned for another go-round in 2012 or when talk show host Ellen DeGeneres came back to host in 2014. 

If anything, having two people take on the job probably eases the pressure on the other. Oscar fans will no doubt be curious to see who will be helming the show next year.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Oscars: Producer says two hosts will be taking the stage next year
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2015/0902/Oscars-Producer-says-two-hosts-will-be-taking-the-stage-next-year
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe