Both Jimmy Kimmel and John Mulaney have turned down the chance to host the 2025 Oscars.
A source confirmed to Us Weekly on Tuesday, July 30, that Kimmel, 56, passed on hosting the Oscars next year. The decision comes after the late-night host hosted the awards show earlier this year. Puck was the first to report the news.
Deadline reported on Tuesday that Mulaney, 41, also declined the opportunity to host. The stand-up was waiting for Kimmel’s decision on the hosting gig before he made his final decision, per the outlet.
Us Weekly has reached out to Mulaney for comment.
Next year’s Oscars are currently scheduled for Sunday, March 2.
Kimmel has hosted the Oscars a total of four times. He first graced the stage in 2017 and returned the following year. After a brief stint without a host, Kimmel came back to host the 2023 and 2024 ceremonies.
Currently, Kimmel is tied for fourth with Whoopi Goldberg and Jack Lemmon for most times undertaking hosting duties. The trio falls behind Johnny Carson, who hosted five times. Billy Crystal, who did it nine times, and Bob Hope, who served in the role 19 times.
Mulaney has yet to host the Oscars in his career, but he did present the award for Best Sound at this year’s ceremony. Earlier this year, Mulaney hosted the Governors Awards and debuted his Netflix talk show Everybody’s in L.A.
In an interview with Variety in June, Academy CEO Bill Kramer praised both Kimmel and Mulaney for their work at this year’s show and said both men would be great options to host next year.
“We are lucky to have Jimmy, who helped create one of the best Oscars last year. John Mulaney also did an incredible job,” Kramer said. “All I will say is, with whomever hosts the show moving forward, we want to continue with this tone of celebration, respect, humor and a great love of movies. We have some great options.”
The 2024 Oscars broadcast earned the highest ratings in the past four years with 19.5 million viewers. The previous show had 18.8 million people tuning in.
Ahead of the 2024 show, Kimmel shared that he decided to host the ceremony for a fourth time since there were so many great films in contention.
“There were some really good movies … I think they’re all really good. I saw them all,” Kimmel said in a March interview with ABC News. “It’s a big part of why I decided to host the show this year, because I do know that there are movies that people have actually seen, which makes it a lot easier to make jokes about.”
