For a second consecutive year, late-night talk show favorite Jimmy Kimmel will return to host the Oscars telecast, and Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd will produce, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced today. The 90th Academy Awards will air live on the ABC Television Network and broadcast outlets worldwide on Oscar Sunday, March 4, 2018. Here’s what Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs had to say in her statement.
“Jimmy, Mike and Jennifer are truly an Oscar Dream Team. Mike and Jennifer produced a beautiful show that was visually stunning. And Jimmy proved, from his opening monologue all the way through a finale we could never have imagined, that he is one our finest hosts in Oscar history.”
Kimmel serves as host and executive producer of the Emmy-winning Jimmy Kimmel Live!, ABC‘s late-night talk show. Now in its 15th season, JKL has earned six Emmy nominations in the Outstanding Variety Series Talk category, the Writing for a Variety Series category, and the Variety, Music or Comedy Series category. Here’s what Jimmy Kimmel himself had to say in his statement.
“Hosting the Oscars was a highlight of my career and I am grateful to Cheryl, Dawn and the Academy for asking me to return to work with two of my favorite people, Mike De Luca and Jennifer Todd. If you think we screwed up the ending this year, wait until you see what we have planned for the 90th anniversary show!”
De Luca earned Best Picture Oscar nominations for producing Captain Phillips, Moneyball and The Social Network. He is credited on more than 60 films, including the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, Blow, Magnolia, American History X and Boogie Nights. He is a former president of production at Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks and New Line Cinema. Here’s what returning Oscar producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd had to say in their joint statement.
“It’s not often you get two chances to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience and even more rare to be handed the keys to a party 90 years in the making. We always thought the idea that anything can happen on the Oscars was a cliché until we lived it.”
Todd is currently president of Pearl Street Films, the production company founded by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, where she produced Live by Night and executive produced last year’s Jason Bourne. Her other credits include such films as Alice through the Looking Glass, Celeste and Jesse Forever, Alice in Wonderland, Across the Universe, Prime, Memento, Boiler Room and the Austin Powers films. Todd earned an Emmy nomination for her work on the HBO television movie If These Walls Could Talk 2. Here’s what Academy CEO Dawn Hudson had to say in her statement.
“Our Oscars team this year delivered a show that hit every high note. Jimmy brought back the essence and light touch of the greatest hosts of Oscars’ past. Mike and Jennifer’s love of movies is infectious and touched every aspect of the show. This is the perfect team to lead us into the ninth decade.”
The 90th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT. The Academy Awards also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.