He's no Johnny Carson or Bob Hope or Billy Crystal, but pop star and former boy band fave Justin Timberlake could be the next star to host the Academy Awards. The Oscars are still months away, but the Academy is already contemplating a way to make the show more Nielsen worthy. Last February's show, hosted by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart (he also hosted in 2006), celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Oscars but was a ratings dud. It was the worst Oscars ever, in terms of Nielsen ratings, even though it had a 21.9 rating and 33 share.
Many people blame those dismal numbers on a disinterest among viewers in the films that were in contention last year, including heavy dramas No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, which seemed to have little appeal to mass audiences.
Timberlake has experience hosting, having recently handled the ESPY Awards, and he is a top concert draw for his tours. The only lapse in his resume is film success; he was in The Love Guru with Mike Myers, perhaps the biggest bomb on the summer. He wouldn't be the first person with only a few film credits on his resume: Alan King, Paul Hogan and Chevy Chase have also hosted (or co-hosted) Oscar broadcasts.
Still, Timberlake might be a change of pace for this century's Oscars, someone who's not a comic. The guy does have a sense of humor -- he shared an Emmy with the Saturday Night Live guys for the song "Dick in a Box" -- and he can sing and dance. If it were up to me, I would pair Timberlake with somebody else. And one name that has been rumored is 30 Rock/Baby Mama Tina Fey. As long as there are no wardrobe malfunctions (and no Janet Jackson), Timberlake and Fey could be the perfect Oscar duo.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-03-2008 @ 3:50PM
Al said...
I thought he did a great job on the ESPY's. That from someone who is not nec a fan.
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8-03-2008 @ 3:50PM
Al said...
I was not a fan of the Timber man...but did think he did a great job on the ESPY's this year.
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8-03-2008 @ 4:02PM
Jake said...
Allison,
Did you really just blame the movies that were nominated for making the Oscars have bad ratings?
Just because "they don't have mass appeal" doesn't mean they brought down the entire show. If anything, it tells us that the people selecting the films are going to select quality movies instead of half-assed "popular" movies just for the sake of ratings.
Personally, I was excited to see who would win many awards, especially since No Country and There Will Be Blood were two of my favorite movies last year!
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8-03-2008 @ 4:07PM
margaret said...
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is nobody. We need someone with a little CLASS.
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8-03-2008 @ 3:48PM
StillBash said...
You know the quality of a statement is reciprocal to the amount of punctuation marks used in a sentence.
You are just as classless as Justin using that many exclamation marks.
8-03-2008 @ 4:27PM
Seth said...
The Love Guru is nowhere near the biggest bomb of the summer -- get your facts straight -- it's meet dave and Speed Racer (if you want to calculate cost vs box office).
If the Academy gets over their bias for comic book heroes, The dark knight should be nominated for best picture. It's just like oscar winner THE DEPARTED.
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8-04-2008 @ 10:42AM
ac said...
I agree it felt more like watching a crime thriller than a comic book based film. It definatley deserves Best Picture nomination, Best Director-Christopher Nolan, Best Supporting Actor-Heath Ledger. Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman deserve nominations too but Ledger overshadowed them.
As for Timberlake I like his performance during his 2 SNL hosting gigs and from what I saw of the ESPYs I think he could be very entertaining. However Oscar snobs will shudder at the thought of him hosting (see Margaret comment above). I only watch the opening of the Oscars, the awards I can read online next morning. So its about who can give the most laughs, not his film resume.
8-03-2008 @ 4:57PM
0megapart!cle said...
Dark Knight is definitely as good as the Departed. It better at least get nominated.
As far as Timberlake, heh. I liked him in Southland Tales (a ray of pleasant surprise in an otherwise horrible disappointment). But hosting the Oscars seems a big step for him. I really doubt he is ready.
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8-03-2008 @ 4:58PM
Shri said...
He did a great job during the ESPY's. He's got a great sense of humor and would bring some more appeal to the show.
I'd tune in if he hosted.
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8-03-2008 @ 6:52PM
Georgia said...
I thought he was great for the ESPYs. He made it very entertaining. He needs the same writers for the Oscars as he had for the ESPYs.
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8-03-2008 @ 7:49PM
Dwacon said...
People still won't care enough to watch.
--
dwacon(com)
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8-04-2008 @ 1:53AM
Brent McKee said...
People don't wathc for the Oscar host, they watch because they have an interest in the movies nominated - because they've seen them, they like/love them. And yeah, they watch because they want to see what the women are wearing, the good, the bad and the outrageous. The fact is that the last Oscars largely featured films and actors that not that many people went to see. Great films, better than virtually all of the big budget crap that the big studios put out to pander to the teens and young adults, but movies that didn't have huge audiences and therefore a deserved "buzz." And you can't blame John Stewart for that and you can't expect a Justin Timberlake to turn it around if this year delivers the same sort of crop of films.
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8-04-2008 @ 8:46AM
Almanac said...
According to The Omniverse Almanac,Justin Timberlake is one of the few good guys inhabiting this planet, along with Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, The Dalai Lama,...
Check out The Omniverse Almanac on Google search.
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8-04-2008 @ 8:46AM
Almanac said...
According to The Omniverse Almanac,Justin Timberlakeis one of the few good guys inhabiting this planet, along with Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, The Dalai Lama,...
Check out The Omniverse Almanac on Google search.
Reply
8-04-2008 @ 8:59AM
rick cokely said...
The problem with the Oscars is the same as every year. Too long, and watching people self-appreciate isn't exactly good TV. Sure back in the day of non-24 hour news cycle and no internet blogs dedicated to your favorite celebs and television shows it was the best source to get the goods on your favorite celebrities, but that time has come and gone. To make the Oscars watchable again is an impossible task. Just go back to honoring yourselves in a hotel ballroom like everyone else does, Hollywood.
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8-04-2008 @ 9:21AM
colby said...
no
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8-04-2008 @ 10:08AM
Jimmy said...
I was never a Justin Timberlake fan, but I must say he has grown on me over the years, from his SNL hosting gigs to his U.S Open Challenge round of golf to the ESPYs. He is a "new school" Hollywood guy, and I think he is a great choice to host the Oscars.
Hell, he couldn't be any worse than Whoopi.
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8-05-2008 @ 10:21AM
dermotjh said...
I thought that Jon Stewart did a great job last year and should be given another go
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