Jimmy Kimmel is BACK as Oscars host! Late night star will present 2024's Academy Awards – making it his FOURTH time in the hot seat

Jimmy Kimmel was tapped to host the 96th Academy Awards, which will be held at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 10, 2024.

This marks the late-night comedian’s fourth time hosting the ceremony after previously stepping up to the task in 2017, 2018 and 2023.

The TV host, who has also hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2012, 2016 and 2020, rose viewership ‘to nearly 19 million’ from 16.6 million the year before, when Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall and Amy Schumer hosted, according to the New York Times.

In 2021, when the show did not have a host, viewership dipped to the lowest of all time, with just 10.4 million viewers. 

Prior to 2018, the ‘telecast had never dropped below 32 million.’ 

Kimmel has been present on stage during some of the show’s most dramatic incidents, including ‘envelope-gate’ in 2017, when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong results card. 

As a result, the pair announced the Best Picture award and incorrectly announced La La Land as the winner rather than Moonlight. 

Kimmel, then, had to come forward to inform the cast that Moonlight had indeed won, showing the inside of the envelope as proof.

‘I knew I would screw this up,’ Kimmel joked, at the time. ‘I promise to never come back.’ 

Despite the remark, the star ended up returning to host the following year. 

In 2022, after he was selected to host the 2023 ceremony, the father-of-four said ‘being invited to host the Oscars for a third time’ was ‘either a great honor or a trap.’ 

‘Either way, I am grateful to the academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no,’ he mused. 

In addition to having to navigate dwindling viewership, the role became less coveted after comedian Chris Rock was slapped onstage by Will Smith during his opening monologue for a joke made at his estranged wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s expense. 

Fourth time: This marks the late-night comedian’s fourth time hosting the ceremony after previously stepping up to the task in 2017, 2018 and 2023

A crowd pleaser: The TV host, who has also hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2012, 2016 and 2020, rose viewership ‘to nearly 19 million’ from 16.6 million the year before, when Wanda Sykes , Regina Hall and Amy Schumer hosted, according to the New York Times