On Wednesday’s (Aug. 8) episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, former Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel discussed the awards show’s recently announced changes.
“It was a big day in Hollywood today. We had some big motion picture news today,” he began. “They’re making big changes to the Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is cutting the length of the Oscars telecast drastically to three hours long, which, according to most everyone on Twitter, is still two hours too long, but it’s a start.”
Kimmel explained that the Academy’s plan is to give out the awards for less popular categories during commercial breaks. “Sorry best live-action short. You had a good run and it’s over,” the host joked.
“And the really big news is there’s a new category at the Oscars: outstanding achievement in popular film,” he said. “I guess someone over there had an idea. They said, ‘What if we honored some movies that people have actually seen?’ And everybody went, ‘Yeah, that’s great. We should do that.'”
The host pointed out that the new category means popular franchise films may get the chance to win the coveted award. “One day we may very well hear the words ‘And the Oscar goes to The Fast and Furious 18: Never Stop Fasting, Never Stop Furiousing.'”
“It’s really kind of interesting. Apparently I did such a good job of hosting the Oscars this year, they’ve decided to change everything about them,” he joked.
The news comes just five months after Kimmel hosted the lowest-rated Academy Awards telecast on record. In addition to the shorter airtime and new award, the Academy board of governors announced on Wednesday (Aug. 8) that the telecast will now air on Feb. 9 as opposed to the originally announced date of Feb 23.
