Actually, Jimmy Kimmel had promised never to host the Oscars again. In 2017, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway chose the wrong film as the winner for a few minutes, one of the biggest glitches in Academy Award history.

Maria Wiesner

Coordinator "Style".

  • Follow I follow

Kimmel, who hosted the gala for the first time, took all the blame in his closing remarks that evening with an ironic wink and promised never to be on this stage again. But the following year, the Academy invited him again, and a third appearance is to follow this weekend.

Approachable image

With Kimmel, an Oscar veteran returns. Not without reason: The broadcaster ABC wants better ratings. In recent years, the award gala attracted fewer and fewer viewers in front of the television sets – the late-night presenter Kimmel is considered a safe bank. For about 20 years, he has appeared on ABC five nights a week on his own show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" – no competitor can be seen longer – and the ratings are still good. Kimmel is considered nonpartisan, both Democrats and Republicans can laugh at his jokes.

This may also be due to his approachable image. The fifty-five-year-old was born in Brooklyn but grew up in Las Vegas. The talk show legend David Letterman is considered his role model, so he began his career at college radio. He later returned to New York to work for cable channel Comedy Central.

The origin from the southwest was important to him, as it set him apart from the competition. Where other presenters score with intellectuality and East Coast irony, Kimmel stands for chummy charm.

Politically, it is rare in his show – with a few exceptions. In 2017, he made it a matter of the heart to speak out against the abolition of health insurance introduced under Barack Obama. In an emotional monologue, he told of his son, who had to be operated on several times at the age of a few weeks due to a heart defect.

An intervention that should not be a privilege of rich Americans, but accessible to all, as Kimmel emphasized on several evenings in his show. The abolition plans were rejected in the Senate. The following year, Time magazine named Kimmel one of the 100 most influential people.

In announcing that he would perform again this Sunday on stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Kimmel showed his typical sense of humor: "To be invited a third time to host the Oscars is either an honor or a trap."