Oscars ceremony will be hostless for second year running

Baku, January 9, AZERTAC The Oscars are going without a host again this year, AP reported. ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke said Wednesday the Feb. 9 telecast will focus on what worked last year: "huge entertainment value, big musical numbers, big comedy and star power." Last year's ceremony attracted 29.6 million viewers, the second-smallest in Oscars history but 12% more than in 2018, which ended a four-year slide in viewership. Comedian Kevin Hart was originally announced as host, but he backed away when some anti-gay tweets he posted a decade ago resurfaced. ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences agreed to go hostless for a second straight year, Burke said. “We expect that we're going to have a very commercial set of nominations,” Burke told a TV critics meeting, "and a number of elements have come together that convinced us we'll have a very entertaining show."