Conan O’Brien will be the host of the 2025 Oscars.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the decision in November and will mark the comedian and former late-night talk show host’s first time hosting the Oscars. O’Brien has previously hosted the Emmys in 2002 and 2006.

“America demanded it and now it’s happening: Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme. In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars,” the comedian joked in a statement announcing his hosting gig.

“We are thrilled and honored to have the incomparable Conan O’Brien host the Oscars this year,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang said in the announcement. Kramer and Yang cited O’Brien’s “brilliant humor, his love of movies, and his live TV expertise,” as well as his “remarkable ability to connect with audiences” as reasons he makes a good host for the show.

Executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan also said the comic has “all the qualities of a great Oscars host — he is incredibly witty, charismatic and funny and has proven himself to be a master of live event television.”

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When are the 2025 Oscars?

The 97th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 2 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, the academy said in a news release in November. The show is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

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How to watch, stream the 2025 Oscars

The award show will be televised live on ABC and streamed live on Hulu, according to the academy.

Who hosted the Oscars last year?

Jimmy Kimmel most recently returned to host the Oscars for the fourth time in March of last year after also serving as emcee in 2017, 2018, and 2023. In April, the late-night host revealed he was asked to host again in 2025 and didn’t plan to accept, though he joked he might change his mind to spite President-elect Donald Trump, who slammed his performance.

From 2019 to 2021, the Academy experimented with having no one host the Oscars at all, a format that initially came about after Kevin Hart stepped down from the job in 2018 due to backlash to his past homophobic tweets.

After three consecutive years with no one in the top job, the trio of Regina Hall, Wanda Sykes and Amy Schumer hosted the Oscars in 2022. Kimmel later argued that not having a single host may have been a mistake because it led to uncertainty about who should go out on stage and address Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.

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Contributing: Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at [email protected].