Last Night the LA Times reported that Jimmy Fallon was in talks to host and Lorne Michaels was in talks to produce the Academy Awards. This would’ve been great, if it were true, which is still up in the air. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) ultimately chooses who hosts and produces the Oscars but the Oscars are on ABC, so ABC and Disney get to have a say in that matter. ABC/Disney was none to pleased with the idea of giving the job to the host of a rival’s late night show. “When the idea came up of Fallon, we made it clear that we were not happy about that. It was ridiculous to think we would want to give him that big platform,†a Disney insider told Deadline. They were fine with Lorne. Making it more complicated was that Fallon was the choice of the departing president of the AMPAS who was trying to squeeze a deal into his last few weeks in office, not the president who would eventually oversee the upcoming Oscars. As a result, Deadline confirms, “Negotiations are dead.†This is a bummer. Why can’t they just choose someone I want? Expect some old boring choice like the Smothers Brothers or a hologram of Johnny Carson.
Jimmy Fallon Was Almost Going to Host Next Year’s Oscars, Maybe
