Academy Awards ‘will have NO host’ as producers enlist help of actors to announce winners

The 93rd annual Academy Awards will proceed without a host to lead events throughout the evening for a unique ceremony amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Deadline. 

Instead of a normally hosted event, producers are ‘making offers’ to stars ‘they hope will come in to present the categories’ during the live telecast which will be partially broadcast in-person from Union Station with a live component to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and producers are planning ‘for high profile presenters to deal out the awards on a rotating basis’ during the show, which will reportedly not include a Zoom element unlike most awards shows this season. 

‘Our plan is that this year’s Oscars will look like a movie, not a television show,’ said show producers Jesse Collins, Stacy Sher and Steven Soderbergh in a statement Friday. 

Producers enlisted Emmy and Tony Award-winning director Glenn Weiss to direct the live broadcast on April 25, after pushing back the originally scheduled date of Feb. 28 due to the ongoing global pandemic.

‘We’re aiming for a fusion of Inspirational and Aspirational, which in actual words means formal is totally cool if you want to go there, but casual is really not,’ producers said. 

I love LA: Union Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and serves more than 110,000 passengers per day as one of the busiest train stations in the entire country

‘Our plan is that this year’s Oscars will look like a movie, not a television show,’ said show producers Jesse Collins, Stacy Sher and Steven Soderbergh in a statement Friday

‘We are treating the event as an active movie set, with specially designed testing cadences to ensure up-to-the-minute results, including an on-site COVID safety team with PCR testing capability. 

‘There will be specific instructions for those of you traveling in from outside of Los Angeles, and other instructions for those of you who are already based in Los Angeles. This will all come directly to you from the Academy to ensure you have a safe, carefree evening (a glimpse of the future?).’

Producers are also hoping a new format could shake up ratings as viewership has been down for awards shows this season.

Big night: Producers enlisted Emmy and Tony Award-winning director Glenn Weiss to direct the live broadcast on April 25, after pushing back the originally scheduled date of Feb. 28 due to the ongoing global pandemic

Despite generally positive reviews, the Grammys hit a record low of 8.8 million viewers — down 53 percent from 2020’s 18.7 million viewers — according to Nielsen ratings. 

The Golden Globes set an all-time low in February with 6.9 million views, which also brought a 64 percent drop in viewers.

The Emmy’s telecast in September also hit TV ratings all-time low with 6.1 million viewers, a small decline from 6.9 million viewers last year.