If the Oscars Want a Great Host, They Should Probably Pay Better

While it’s far too early to speculate on what movies will be nominated at next year’s Oscars (Dune: Part Two? Madame Web? A straight-to-streaming Sharknado sequel starring the Hawk Tuah girl?), the Academy has already been actively trying to lock down a host. Reportedly, Jimmy Kimmel and John Mulaney have been offered the gig, but both have turned it down.

This is especially disappointing news for Mulaney fans, who have been clamoring for him to host ever since he killed at the Academy’s Governors Awards and delighted the crowd at last year’s Oscars, when he presented the award for Achievement in Sound and reminded us all of the magic of the movies how downright goofy Field of Dreams really was.

Despite the widespread push for Mulaney to host the Oscars, Mulaney himself has remained fairly noncommittal on the issue. Just last month Variety asked him if he’d host if asked, and he responded, “Oh… I’d bet. I mean, I like doing things.” He also suggested that he might be busy because he has a “book signing at Barnes & Noble at The Grove” one Sunday that month. 

Mulaney’s apathy, and ultimate rejection of the offer, isn’t all that surprising because hosting the Oscars is a pretty crappy gig. In addition to the scrutiny, pressure and iffy Bruce Vilanch jokes, Oscar hosts don’t get paid all that much. While the Academy doesn’t advertise their employment info, in 2016, Kimmel disclosed that he was paid just $15,000 to host, while also admitting, “I’m not sure I was supposed to reveal this, but nobody told me not to.” He also claimed that producers told him that this was in line with what other hosts, like Chris Rock and Billy Crystal, had been given.

Fifteen thousand dollars is obviously a lot of money for one night’s work, but as Kimmel pointed out in 2022, after you factor in the many months of work and planning that goes into an Oscars’ performance, it works out to “less than scale,” SAG-AFTRA’s absolute minimum rate. He even encouraged Wanda Sykes, who was about to co-host the awards with Amy Schumer and Regina Hall, to “hold out” for more money.

It feels odd to advocate for more pay for literal millionaires, but it’s not like this show doesn’t spend a ton of money. And you’d think that a substantial chunk of that budget would go toward paying the host, who is ostensibly the face of the ceremony. 

To put things in perspective, in 2013, the Academy reportedly spent $34,800 on Wolfgang Puck’s white truffles, implying that hoity-toity fungi for people to enjoy off-camera is more than twice as important as the person hosting the actual broadcast. And the show’s producers are apparently sent an honorarium consisting of a “thank-you card and a check in the low-six figures.” 

So the problem isn’t that they don’t have lots of money to throw around, it’s that their budget implicitly devalues the comedic voice steering the ceremony. And this is clearly becoming a problem if they’re unable to secure someone like Mulaney who, back in 2021 was making “an average of $119,645 per show.” 

Supposedly, Mulaney turned down the Oscars due to scheduling reasons, and he’s obviously not hard up for cash. But if someone offered you the chance to perform your normal job, but for longer, with more criticism, and for less than a tenth of what you’re normally paid, why in god’s name would you ever agree to those terms? 

The Academy has seemingly been able to keep offering these rates because, as Alec Baldwin (who predictably also grumbled about his “chicken feed” paycheck) put it, the job is “all about the honor of helping to extol film achievement.”

But in a world where the Academy handed a trophy to the guy who randomly attacked one of the event’s comic presenters, it’s possible that the Academy’s “honor” has been more than a little tarnished — especially for comedians. 

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