What to expect from the late night star on Hollywood’s biggest evening

You like him, you really, really like him!

The 2025 Oscars telecast is getting a fresh yet familiar comedic twist, with Conan O’Brien taking the stage as host of the 97th Academy Awards. The Emmy-winning comedian and late night legend will helm Hollywood’s biggest evening on Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. ET on ABC.

This marks O’Brien’s debut as Oscars host — following a two-year stint by Jimmy Kimmel, who’s hosted the event four times — and he’s already putting his comedic stamp on the role.

“America demanded it, and now it’s happening: Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme. In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars,” O’Brien joked in a retweet of a playful announcement video shared by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In the clip, O’Brien is clutching an Oscar, only to have a producer snatch the statuette back.

In a joint statement, Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang expressed their excitement about the choice, calling O’Brien “the perfect person to help lead our global celebration of film.”

The show’s executive producers, Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, shared their enthusiasm, stating, “Conan has all the qualities of a great Oscars host — he is incredibly witty, charismatic and funny and has proven himself to be a master of live event television.”

O’Brien is set to bring a fresh energy to Hollywood’s big night. Here’s what you can expect from his turn as Oscars host.

Not his 1st hosting rodeo

O’Brien has perfected his unique brand of sharp, self-deprecating humor with decades of late night television experience, including his tenure on NBC’s Late Night With Conan O’Brien (1993–2009), a brief but memorable stint on The Tonight Show (2009–2010) and nearly a decade hosting Conan on TBS (2010–2021).

Beyond late night, he’s displayed his hosting chops with standout performances at the Emmys in 2002 and 2006, as well as the MTV Movie Awards in 2014.

O’Brien has seamlessly transitioned into the world of streaming and digital media, earning acclaim with two Emmy-winning shows: Max’s Conan O’Brien Must Go and TBS’s Conan Without Borders. His podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, has also been a runaway success, reportedly amassing over 230 million downloads since its 2018 debut.

Big movies bring bigger ratings

Despite his experience, O’Brien is sure to bring a fresh take to a show that has struggled in recent years to maintain cultural relevancy and viewership.

In its heyday, the most-watched Oscars in the telecast’s history was 1998, when more than 55 million viewers tuned in to watch Titanic win Best Picture. In the following years, viewership floated between 27 million and 44 million until 2020, when ratings dipped to 23.6 million, according to Deadline. That number fell to 10.4 million the next year, a record low.

Ratings have been building slowly since, with 16.6 million viewers in 2022, 18.8 million in 2023 and 19.5 million in 2024.

With declining relevance in the streaming age, the Oscars are banking on O’Brien’s unique ability to resonate with both live audiences and the digital sphere.

As Bruce Vilanch, who wrote 25 Oscars telecasts over the decades, told Yahoo Entertainment last year, “When the movies are popular, the ratings go up.”

From Wicked and Gladiator II, both premiering nationally on Nov. 22, to Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez and A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, the films gaining Oscars buzz are likely to give O’Brien more than enough material.

The host with the most

According to the Associated Press, Bob Hope hosted the telecast 19 times while Billy Crystal took the helm nine times. Johnny Carson took his shot five times, and Kimmel took the stage four times.

Recurring hosts are typically a win-win for everyone involved, Vilanch explained, as they provide a “certain familiarity for the people who are doing the show, and the advertisers, they feel it’s in good hands.”

Though hosting can often be a thankless job, given O’Brien’s experience, network executives don’t seem to be worried that he can handle the pace.

“Conan is a preeminent comedic voice, whose decades-long success is marked by his distinctive humor and perspective,” Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group, said in a statement. “He joins an iconic roster of comedy greats who have served in this role, and we are so lucky to have him center stage for the Oscars.”

The 97th Academy Awards airs March 2, 2025, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC, with a red carpet pre-show kicking off at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

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