Bringing Back Conan O’Brien as Oscar Host is a Great Move By and For the Academy

Earlier this week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made it official. AMPAS official, in fact. After a successful stint hosting the 97th Academy Awards at the start of the month, Conan O’Brien is coming back. Next year, he’ll once again be the Oscar host, this time for the 98th ceremony. Simply put, this is a win for all involved.

When I wrote about O’Brien and his success hosting the show (here), I said the following, in part:

Hosting the Oscars is almost always a zero-sum gain. If you’re good, you don’t really get much credit, since the focus of the show isn’t on you. If you’re not good, you become a punching bag. So, the fact that Conan O’Brien is actually getting good reviews for his hosting duties is worth taking note of. To be sure, he was very good. Moreover, I think the way he was good made for a way that the Academy Awards can continue to have strong hosts going forward, including O’Brien.

As you saw with his opening monologue, he was the rare host able to still do his style of comedy while fitting into the Oscar template. You didn’t have to be familiar with him to appreciate his humor, while still realizing what aspects were unique to him. When the Academy has gone for stronger personalities in the past, they’re either so far afield from what’s expected that their jokes don’t land, or they modulate themselves to the point where what got them there is no longer in evidence. That was not the case here.

Moreover, O’Brien was able to get the Oscars to feel a little weird at times. Hell, I think he and Adam Sandler found the rare cut to the audience bit that didn’t fall completely flat. His riff with John Lithgow also worked well, and these are the types of things that almost never land. There’s a comfort at being awkward that he has, which makes the sweatier aspects of hosting feel more like quirky plans, as opposed to things destined to not work out on live television.

The success of Host Conan is a combination of the man himself being a fit for the job, the viewership being interested in something different, and the membership itself being ready for a slight turn towards the weird. It bodes well for future ceremonies. Some of the tributes and non-host segments will always fall flat. The winners will be differing degrees of good or bad. That’s all baked into the Oscar cake. A good host? Now that helps make for a successful Academy Award ceremony, in and of itself.

Now, we know that O’Brien is back, so AMPAS has made the right call there. It’s a good sign that the powers that be were able to identify something that worked and opted to stick with it. The Oscars oftentimes struggle with that, either trying to fix what’s not broken, or looking at a problem and having their perceived solution somehow make things work. This is not that case in the slightest. It only took handing the keys to Conan, which few would have expected to work out quite as thoroughly as it did with this past telecast. So, it’s full steam ahead for him and the Oscars.

Conan O’Brien has a chance to become an Oscar mainstay, continuing to host for years to come. Provided this return engagement goes well, that really should be the case, too. I’m not sure many folks would have expected O’Brien to potentially be the next Billy Crystal, but a little more than a year from now, if the Academy is ready to invite him back again, that’s where we could find ourselves. Go figure…

Thoughts on Conan O’Brien returning to host the 98th Oscars? Let us know!