Jimmy Kimmel Reveals How the Oscars Was Supposed to End

Will Lerner
·Producer, Yahoo Entertainment

It was one of the most infamous moments in Oscars history when La La Land producer Jason Horowitz said, “This is not a joke. Moonlight has won Best Picture. Moonlight. Best picture.” Now Jimmy Kimmel has revealed what would have happened if that hadn’t happened. The 2017 Oscars host told The Ringer’s Bill Simmons on his podcast what was going to happen.

“The plan for the last joke was the Best Picture winner is announced, they make a speech. I was assuming the Best Picture was not going to be Manchester by the Sea,” Kimmel explained. “I said to [Matt Damon], ‘If it’s not Manchester by the Sea, I’m going to be sitting next to you, and it’s going to be my revenge for the Emmys.”

Jimmy Kimmel said the last joke of the Oscars would have referenced a moment from the 2016 Emmys that he shared with Matt Damon. (Photo: Getty Images)
Jimmy Kimmel said the last joke of the Oscars would have referenced a moment from the 2016 Emmys that he shared with Matt Damon. (Photo: Getty Images)

Kimmel was referencing Damon teasing him at last year’s Emmys. After Kimmel and his ABC series Jimmy Kimmel Live lost Outstanding Variety Talk Series to Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Damon came onstage eating an apple. “I missed the last category,” he said. “Did you win?” “No, we didn’t win,” responded Kimmel. “Oh, that’s a bummer,” said Damon. “Makes a lot of sense, but you must be really bummed out.”

Back to the Oscars. Kimmel described the bit. “It would start on me,” he said. “I’d start wrapping the show up, but then the camera would widen and we’d see that Matt would be sitting next to me, and I would say, “Well, you know it’s unbelievable, you know Casey won and Kenneth won. There’s only one person who didn’t win tonight, and it’s you.’”

Jimmy Kimmel and Warren Beatty onstage at the 89th Oscars. (Photo: Eddy Chen/ABC)<br>
Jimmy Kimmel and Warren Beatty onstage at the 89th Oscars. (Photo: Eddy Chen/ABC)

Of course, that bit would never happen, and Damon was the one who told Kimmel something was wrong. “He says to me, ‘I think they announced the wrong Best Picture,’” Kimmel recounted. “I said, ‘What?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I heard them saying that it’s the wrong movie,’ and I looked at Matt, and I said, ‘Well, I guess I better go out there,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I guess you better.'”

And then you know what happened next!

Watch that memorable flub again:

Read more:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below.