And the Oscar for best host goes to …
No one. Why? Because there was no host for the 2019 Oscars. It wasn’t the first time the Oscars went without a host. This happened once before in 1989 when producer, Allan Carr, found it better to have more presenters than a host. A much better reason to not have a host compared to the drama of an incident that happened years ago.
On a brighter note, the lack of a host led to a way better show. For one, instead of a long monologue with some funny and awkward jokes, we got a musical performance by Queen and Adam Lambert. A much better way to start the show, if you ask me. It got people excited and ready for the long night ahead of them. I mean, a medley of Queen songs compared to a long speech of jokes that don’t always get to the punch line? We’ll take the Queen medley.
Adam Lambert and Queen gave us a performance we won’t soon forget. I mean, can you remember how the last host opened the show? Can you even remember who hosted last year? Does that even really matter? What people are really going to remember are the actual awards. I mean, that is why people watch. We want to celebrate those in film who have gone above and beyond and should be awarded for their work.
Not having a host gave more attention to the awards. It also allowed more time for winners to give acceptance speeches: something we would rather watch compared to a not-so-funny gag from a host. Most of the funniest things at the Oscars happened from presenters or even award winners.
From this we must ask ourselves: do we really need a host? All they really do is present people who are presenting an award and make small rushed jokes. All hosts really do is take up time. Usually, the Oscars go on until 12:00 or even 1:00 am. This year, they ended at 11:00. Not having a host saved hours of everyone’s time.
Even the ending of the Oscars didn’t need a nice send-off. Typically, the host is rushed into doing a quick goodbye to put the show to an end. It was no different to the ending we got of Julia Roberts giving a quick goodbye and giving her kids and Bradley Cooper’s mom a shout out. I mean, after the best picture is awarded, we all know the show’s over. Why do we need someone to spell it ours for us?
I think the majority of us would say ‘thank you, next,’ to an Oscar host next year.