Sunday, November 10, 2024

The 2023 Oscars Make the Right Choice for Host with Jimmy Kimmel to Get Back on Track

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The last few years have been daunting ones for the Oscars broadcast on ABC. There’s been either no host or a weird group of hosts. Then this past year, Will Smith got up from his seat and slapped Chris Rock when he presented an award.

Now the Academy of Motion Pictures is looking to settle things down: they’ve chosen Jimmy Kimmel as the next host for March 2023. I, for one, am relieved. Kimmel is funny and subversive but he also gets the basic task of running that show. He’s not going to screw it up.

I know there are people — on Twitter — who say, chuck the whole thing, give us something new. It won’t work. The best way to “fix” the Oscars is to not reinvent the wheel. Bring back all the crafts awards. Let the Best Songs be sung. Do the show in the right order. All of that. Is the show too long? Who cares? The only people who really suffer when that happens are in the audience itself. If you’re at home, you’ve got snacks, a pillow, whatever.

Did you have something else to do that night? No. You came for the Oscars. So it back, and have the Oscars.

And PS what about “Top Gun”? Should a movie that grossed over a billion dollars be one of the Best Picture nominees? You know what? Why not? A lot more people will tune in to see Tom Cruise and that cast, even if they lose to another movie.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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