The annual Oscars Gala with its categories, red carpet, and memorable moments is considered as the biggest award function in Hollywood. Hence the Oscars Host every year was given a lot of importance, it was supposed to be a coveted job. Stars like Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, and Chris Rock have hosted this award show in the past years and have made history while doing so. There have also been some not so memorable hosts such as Billy Crystal. Now, as Hollywood is all set to celebrate the brightest and best stars of the industry, here is everything about this year’s Oscar Host. Or in 2021, No host.
Around New years in 2021, there were a lot of rumors floating around about this year’s Oscar host. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph were the front runners. There were also rumors about out-of-the-box choices such as Laverna Cox, Awkwafina, Tom O’Neil, or Tariq Khan. Even Billy Crystal was amidst the rumors, but it turns out none of the rumors were true as there will be no host this year.
The Oscars have decided to be a hostless show again, three years in a row. There will be no host in the most traditional sense. Steven Soderbergh who is the co-producer for Oscars told Vanity Fair, “The way we are going to use presenters this year is going to be different.” Steven has directed films like Sex, Lies and Videotape, Erin Brokovich, and the series Ocean’s Eleven. He will along with his old collaborator Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins who is known as the pandemic era awards expert will produce the show. The trio has claimed that the 2021 Oscars will feel like a movie instead of just an awards show. Soderbergh said, “Everybody will be a character: Every nominee, every person that gives an award, will feel like characters in a film.” It will also not have a host.
Steven said, “[We] haven’t even used the word host, frankly. We’re calling it our ensemble because there’s a sort of overarching structure to the evening that they all participate in. So it’s just that word, the H-word, just really doesn’t apply to what we’re doing.” Steven has won the Academy Award in 2000 for Traffic in the Best Director category.
Soderbergh told Vanity Fair that the coronavirus outbreak gets the credit to give them a chance to try something out of the box. He said, “if this wasn’t a pandemic year, a lot of the things we’re going to try wouldn’t get approved by the board, or maybe even by ABC. So it’s kind of a strange alignment of planets when they approached me. There’s an opportunity here to rebuild what this show should look and feel like.” He further added that they are optimistic they will produce a “three-hour movie in which some awards are given out.”
