Kimmel gets ready to test his Oscar chops
Host promises respect — except for Matt Damon
Jimmy Kimmel has hosted plenty of awards shows, but his upcoming Oscars assignment is in a class by itself.
“When you look at the list of people who have been asked to do it, it makes you feel pretty good,” the host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel
Live (weeknights, 11:35 p.m. ET/ PT) told USA TODAY after a taping. “Comedy is not like sports in that you can win the Super Bowl or be MVP of a league, so to be asked to do the Oscars is definitely something I’m sure I’ll tell my grandchildren about on an endless loop.”
The ceremony, which will take place Feb. 26 just across Hollywood Boulevard from his latenight program, is a bit of a squeeze coming a few months after his critically praised Emmy hosting gig in September.
“It’s like running a second marathon after you just finished one,” he says.
It’s too early to reveal specifics about his hosting plans, and Kimmel is reluctant to give away any surprises. He won’t know the nominees until they are announced Tuesday.
“I don’t want to ruin anything, but I don’t really know what I’m going to do yet. I’m still in the weighing-out-100-ideas phase.”
It’s possible he could include a signature bit from Jimmy Kimmel
Live, such as Mean Tweets or Lie Witness News, but “one of the things you want to be careful about is not (to do) your show and remember it’s their show.”
After seeing Meryl Streep criticize President Trump without naming him in her Golden Globes speech this month, Kimmel expects there will be some political commentary in the show.
“You sit down for dinner and that is the subject that inevitably comes up,” he says. “I’m sure it will rear its head somehow.”
As for planning, “I’m going to wait to see what people are talking about that week, because the news changes so quickly every single night now. You never know what lunacy might present itself.”
Kimmel, who was announced as host in December, enjoyed Jimmy Fallon’s Globes hosting performance but felt sympathy for his fellow late-night host when Fallon’s teleprompter didn’t work.
“I got as upset as if my teleprompter broke. They have one job, to make sure that the teleprompter is on. That should never happen to anyone,” he says.
Kimmel, who has hosted the Emmys twice and the American Music Awards five times, doesn’t feel like his comedy will be restricted by the rarefied air of the Academy Awards.
“I think I have a pretty good sense this is not the Comedy Cen
tral Roast. That’s not to say I won’t be making fun of people and things. I will, but I do recognize for a lot of people this is the biggest night of their professional lives, and the last thing I want to do is ruin it for someone.”
Even Matt Damon, producer of potential nominee Manchester
by the Sea and a longtime Kimmel faux foe?
“Except for him. I would very much like to ruin the night for him,” Kimmel says.
“I still don’t believe he had anything to do with that movie. It’s too good.”