Jimmy Kimmel tapped for Oscar hosting gig fourth time

Jimmy Kimmel is going to host the upcoming Oscars.

The host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, has accepted the position to host the 96th Academy Awards for the fourth time and for the second year in a row. ABC will air the ceremony on March 10.

In addition to hosting Hollywood's Biggest Night in 2017 and 2018, he emceed the event this past March. The program went hostless in 2019, 2020, and 2021 after the latter show pulled then-record low viewership.

The Oscars were severely impacted by the pandemic and pared down in 2021, earning the lowest ratings ever.

Kimmel oversaw the infamous 2017 "envelope-gate" event, in which Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as the Best Picture winner after receiving the incorrect envelope.

This led to an embarrassing correction when one of the producers of that movie grabbed the correct envelope and revealed Moonlight was the true winner.

Kimmel was in the centre of all of the chaos, right there on stage. But he returned the next year, along with Beatty and Dunaway, to present Best Picture once more.

The WGA strike kept Kimmel and his fellow late-night hosts off the air, but when the shows resumed last month, Kimmel's ABC program drew the most audience. 

When Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned on October 2, it had its highest-rated season debut in six years.

Since the late-night talker's 2003 debut, he has served as its host.