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Hostless no more: 2022 Oscars to revive emcee role after 3-year hiatus

LOS ANGELES — It’s official: The 94th annual Academy Awards will revive hosting duties in 2022.

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“You heard it here first,” Craig Erwich, president of Hulu Originals & ABC Entertainment, said during the virtual Television Critics Association press confab Tuesday, according to “Good Morning America.”

The annual awards show has gone hostless since 2018, when late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel played emcee for the second consecutive year to the best and brightest in filmmaking.

The hosting hiatus began in 2019, after a Twitter controversy prompted actor and comedian Kevin Hart to withdraw, and continued hostless for two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, punctuated by a steep viewership decline in 2021, GMA reported.

Erwich did not speculate on potential candidates for the 2022 Oscars host.

“It might be me,” he joked during the press conference.

According to Variety, other Oscars hosts throughout the past decade have included James Franco and Anne Hathaway in 2011, Billy Crystal in 2012, Seth MacFarlane in 2013, Ellen DeGeneres in 2014, Neil Patrick Harris in 2015, and Chris Rock in 2016.

The 94th Annual Academy Awards will air March 27 on ABC. Nominations will be announced Feb. 8.