The Academy is definitely on Team Coco.
Hot off his well received hosting duties at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony two weeks ago, Conan O’Brien has been announced as having been locked in to host next year’s Oscar ceremony.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that O’Brien will once again host their annual awards show on March 15, 2026. The news comes as not much of a surprise given that this year’s Oscar ceremony saw the show’s highest ratings for the last five years. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the broadcast –
[A]attracted a five-year high in both total viewers (19.69 million) and adults 18-49 (4.54 rating), and ranked as the No. 1 primetime entertainment telecast in both total viewers and adults for the 2024-25 season. It also generated 104.2 million total social interactions, ranking as the No. 1 most-socialed TV program season-to-date, outperforming both the Grammys (102.2 million) and the Super Bowl (62.4 million) for the first time.
The announcement, just two weeks after this year’s Oscars ceremony, does not come as much of a surprise given these ratings. The timing, however, is out of the ordinary. Usually, the Academy announces an Academy Awards host somewhere around three to five months before the annual awards ceremony. So the Academy nailing down their choice for next year’s show a full fifty-two weeks out is certainly a stamp of approval on O’Brien’s performance from this year’s production.
