Well, that didn’t take very long, did it? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences really must’ve liked what Conan O’Brien was doing at the 97th Oscars ceremony earlier this year, and who could blame them. The former late-night host and comedy writer helped lead the televised program to its highest ratings in five years. He sang and danced about how he wouldn’t waste time, he had a sand worm playing the harp, and he made a joke about how Miles Teller and Miley Cyrus are named Kilometers and Kilometry outside the United States. Now, he’ll have a chance to do it all over again.
In one of the quickest turnaround times that we can recall, Conan has been tapped to host the 98th Academy Awards in 2026. Compare this to last year when the Academy made the announcement in November. We guess Conan’s song and dance, “I Won’t Waste Time,” must have rubbed off on some people. Conan being announced as host was a big win for the guy considering his late-night show had ended in 2021. Since then, he’s focused his attention on podcasting and his travel show, “Conan O’Brien Must Go” on Max. His memorable appearance on “Hot Ones” probably didn’t hurt his profile either.
In a very typical Conan way, his response to being invited back to host the Oscars again was perfectly humorous. “The only reason I’m hosting the Oscars next year is that I want to hear Adrien Brody finish his speech,” O’Brien said.
He was making reference to how Brody’s speech broke records for being one of the longest in the history of the awards ceremony. During the telecast, Conan also took some direct but lighthearted jabs at the controversy surrounding Karla Sofía Gascón and Timothée Chalamet being young and existing on this planet.
Back-to-back hosting gigs are not uncommon at the Oscars, but they are certainly fewer and further between then they used to be. Jimmy Kimmel repeated as host in 2023 and 2024 and 2017 and 2018 for example. If you want to see repeats before that though, you have to go back into the 90s when Billy Crystal was king. The legendary comedian hosted 6 times in the decade, four of them consecutively from 1990 – 1993. So, if Conan’s looking to match that he’s going to have to stick around for a while. We won’t be complaining.
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15th, 2026.
