How did Jimmy Kimmel do as Oscars host? [POLL]

Marcus James Dixon
·3 min read
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For the fourth time in eight years, Jimmy Kimmel was ABC’s choice to preside over the annual Academy Awards ceremony, held on Sunday, March 10. The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” star previously hosted the broadcasts in 2017, 2018 and 2023, with those years’ Best Picture winners being “Moonlight,” “The Shape of Water” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” respectively. So how did Kimmel do as the 2024 Oscars host, which honored the best films released in 2023, where “Barbenheimer” (“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”) dominated? Grade his performance in our poll below.

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In his 96th Academy Awards monologue, Kimmel started out in a pre-taped scene sitting next to Barbie herself (Margot Robbie) on a park bench where he admitted he hadn’t eaten “in three weeks” to prepare for the show. The audience then gave him a “half standing ovation” as he stepped out onto the stage. He poked fun at “Madame Web” bombing at the box office and revealed the ceremony was already running over by five minutes — yikes! Kimmel then said with a wink that Robbie and Ryan Gosling may not win trophies tonight, but they did both did win “the genetic lottery.”

After a few Robert Downey Jr. jokes related to his former drug addiction, Kimmel introduced Messi the dog from “Anatomy of a Fall” and the audience predictably oohed and aahed. The host later compared Emma Stone to Senator Katie Britt for being “a woman with the brain of a child,” marking the first political gag of the evening. A couple of Steven Spielberg jokes went over well with the crowd: that “the kid from ‘The Fabelmans'” has aged greatly because of the strikes, and that he’s only at the ceremony because he has “season tickets.” Finally, Kimmel brought out about 100 IATSE guild members to honor them and the audience gave a rousing standing ovation.

Christopher Nolan‘s high-grossing biopic about the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, aka the father of the atomic bomb, led all other movies this year with 13 nominations: picture, director, adapted screenplay, actor (Cillian Murphy), supporting actor (Downey), supporting actress (Emily Blunt), cinematography, costume design, film editing, makeup & hairstyling, production design, score and sound. Nolan was widely predicted to win at least one trophy on Sunday night for “Oppenheimer,” after never having claimed an Academy Award throughout his illustrious career.

Another box office behemoth, “Barbie,” entered Oscar night with eight nominations: picture, adapted screenplay, supporting actor (Ryan Gosling), supporting actress (America Ferrera), costume design, production design and song x2 (“I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For”). “Barbie” is the most successful film ever to be directed by a woman, Greta Gerwig, who was shockingly snubbed for Best Director, though she did earn a co-writing nominee with her husband, Noah Baumbach. Meanwhile, Robbie was infamously overlooked as Best Actress, but made due with a nom as a producer.

Other movies released within the 2023 calendar year of eligibility that had impressive nomination totals included “Poor Things” (11), “Killers of the Flower Moon” (10), “Maestro” (seven), “American Fiction” (five), “Anatomy of a Fall” (five), “The Holdovers” (five), “The Zone of Interest” (five) and “Napoleon” (three).

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