2015 Oscars: Who Will Host the 87th Academy Awards?

Erik Anderson September 17, 2014

It’s mid-September and the Oscar season is in its first lap with the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals wrapped up but we still don’t have any word on who the Oscar host for the 87th Academy Awards will be. Recently we’ve known as early as August and the first week of October. We know that Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are returning as the show’s producers and Ellen’s return as host last year (well, this year) was a huge success. Her record-breaking Twitter selfie of Hollywood’s front row was the most talked about moment of the show, even more than the Best Picture announcement. But will she return?

If it’s not Ellen, who else is in the running? Kevin Spacey sort of threw his hat into the ring on Jimmy Kimmel back in March. When asked by Kimmel if he’d be interested in hosting the Oscars some day, he replied, “Oh, I think it’d be great fun. Sure!” Not a bad idea, really. He’s a two-time Oscar winner, a song and dance man, an impressionist and has a killer sense of humor. The timing of the show would be good for him, too, as it would likely coincide with the 3rd season of House of Cards on Netflix. But are the Oscars going to be weary of an actor leading the biggest night in Hollywood after the James Franco fiasco?

Speaking of Jimmy Kimmel, he seems like an obvious choice. His talk show is on ABC, the Oscars are on ABC, it seems inevitable he’ll host one day and stand-up/talk show folks have played host here many, many times. But is he ready for the big show?

Emma Stone was the best thing to happen to Oscar nomination announcements when she did them with Seth McFarlane the year he hosted. She was dry, poised and very funny. She stands a very good chance at a nomination for Birdman so will that be a conflict? It wasn’t for James Franco. He was nominated (and lost) the year he hosted.

Neil Patrick Harris seems to be the go-to guy for hosting awards shows, having led the Tonys and Emmys to high notes in both songs and ratings. He’s also a possible nominee this year (for his dramatic supporting turn in Gone Girl) but is NPH hosting fatigue setting in?

Melissa McCarthy could probably kill it. She’s a crossover TV to movie star, funny, has great comic timing and would probably be at ease at the Oscars (she’s already a previous nominee). With Tina Fey and Amy Poehler headlining the Golden Globes again, it could be pretty cool to just let the ladies run this awards season.

Chris Pratt is pretty much having the best year of anyone in Hollywood right now. He has the highest grossing film of the year in Guardians of the Galaxy plus another in his pocket with The Lego Movie. He’s headlining the new Jurassic Park movie next summer and is funny, genial, likable, affable, everything you could want in an Oscars host. He’s gets my vote.

So, who do you want see host the Oscars?

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.