Oscars 2025: Conan O'Brien Not The First Choice For Oscars Host? Find Out Who Said 'No' To Oscars

The upcoming 97th Academy Awards are going to be hosted by television star and comedian, Conan O'Brien. While the star is a great choice for hosting the event, bringing his years of experience and great wit to make sure the event is going to be enjoyable for everyone, he was not the first choice for being the host of the 2025 Oscars.

The first choice for the event was apparently Jimmy Kimmel, host of the late night talk show 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'. Kimmel has a long history with the Oscars, having hosted the event four separate times, including two very recent instances. He hosted the awards show two years in a row in 2018 and 2019, but couldn't follow up due to COVID restrictions. Then after the 2022 show being hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes, he again hosted the awards for another two consecutive years, 2023 and 2024.

After declining the job, he later appeared on Marshawn Lynch and Doug Hendrickson's "Politickin'" podcast where he disclosed the reason why he didn't want to host the Oscars for 2025, stating "I just decided I didn't want to deal with that this year. It was just too much last year. You wind up pushing everything off till after the Oscars, and then you have to do everything you promised to do after the Oscars, after the Oscars. I did two years, it went well. I did another two years, it went well. I figured I'd take a little break."

After Kimmel, John Mulaney was the next choice. While he had stated on record that he would like to host the Academy Awards and wouldn't say no to the opportunity, it seems that other projects caught up with him as he ended up refusing when the offer did eventually come around. Eventually, a month after the Academy began looking for a host, they finally settled on Conan O'Brien, who will be hosting the event at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.