Finding a solid work-life balance is one thing, but Jimmy Kimmel has started having a hard time maintaining a work-Oscars balance. The comedian revealed earlier this year that he wouldn’t be returning to host the Academy Awards. He first hosted back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018, then returned in 2023 and 2024 . He could have gone for a third consecutive year in 2025, but the job of an Oscars host requires more attention than he’s willing to sacrifice at the moment.
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“I just decided I didn’t want to deal with that this year. It was just too much last year. You wind up pushing everything off till after the Oscars, and then you have to do everything you promised to do after the Oscars, after the Oscars,” Kimmel shared on the Politickin’ podcast. There’s also an element of quitting while he’s ahead. “I did two years, it went well. I did another two years, it went well. I figured I’d take a little break,” he continued, later adding: “It’s fun to do, and it feels good when it went well, but, for me, it just was too much to do it three years in a row.”
Kimmel found himself being so consumed with Oscars prep that it was spreading both himself and his team of Jimmy Kimmel Live writers thin. “I’m not good at balancing. I’m really not. It’s not one of my strengths. I’m all in when it comes to something like the Oscars. I think about it in the morning and at night, and when I have ideas, I want to work on them, and then my nightly show seems like a nuisance,” he explained. “We have all our writers from the show working on the Oscars, so it distracts them.”
This year’s hosting gig tied Kimmel with Whoopi Goldberg and Jack Lemmon as the ceremony’s only four-timers. If he would have agreed to return in 2025, he would have tied with five-time host Johnny Carson. Reigning Academy Awards hosting champions Bob Hope and Billy Crystal have hosted 11 and nine times, respectively.
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From an outside perspective, a chance to host the Oscars seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. But as Kimmel explains, a lot of people who are likely to see the offer land in front of them — like fan-favorite John Mulaney, who also turned down the gig — aren’t all that eager to accept it. “It takes a lot of time, and a lot of the people who you think, ‘That person would be great’… they know they’d be great, they just don’t want to do it,” he says. “When you think somebody’s going to be great, the only thing they can do is prove you wrong when they host the Oscars. They say it’s a thankless job. I wouldn’t necessarily describe it like that, because when it goes well, it isn’t, but it’s a tough spot to be in.”
The 2025 Academy Awards will air on ABC on March 2.
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