Category - Celebrities
Jay Leno Explains Why He Turned Down Hosting the Oscars Twice
As Conan O'Brien is preparing to host the upcoming 95th Academy Awards for the first time ever on March 2, he has an unlikely cheerleader in his former rival, Jay Leno. But while her may be rooting for O'Brien, Leno explained why he's never wanted the gig himself.
After all, late night hosts have often been historically tapped to host the prestigious primetime film awards. Johnny Carson has hosted the Oscars five times, while Jimmy Kimmel has three hosting gigs under his belt. Jon Stewart has likewise hosted twice, as have daytime talk show hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen Degeneres.
"I think he’ll be great," Leno said of O'Brien, while speaking with the New York Post following the announcement of the 2025 nominees on Thursday. "He’s a very funny guy. He’s very creative. I’ll watch, sure. He’ll do good."
As far as why the oft-injured former Tonight Show host has never hosted the Oscars, he admitted that he was asked twice but turned it down both times.
"I sat down with my staff and said, 'What do we do? We have to do a show the day before the Oscars. We have to do a show the day after the Oscars. Do we save our best jokes for our show? Or do we give all of our best jokes to the Oscar show?'" Leno explained.
"And we realized that when you see somebody on TV every night, it’s not special to see them hosting the Oscars," he continued. "That’s my feeling. You’re on TV too much. I think Conan will be good, because he’s not on every night like he used to be … I think he’ll do fine."
Suffice to say, the bad blood between Leno and O'Brien over the Tonight Show debacle seems to finally be water under the bridge. O'Brien famously succeeded Leno as host of the NBC late show in 2010, only for NBC to pull an about-face and ask the 74-year-old to take back over seven months later.
"You know something, that whole thing was really NBC trying to have their cake and eat it too, trying to please everybody at the same time," Leno added, summing up the unfortunate situation.