Well, That Was Fast... Billy Crystal To Host the Oscars
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 6:08PM 
Strike while the iron is... short-circuiting? The Brett Ratner (producer) / Eddie Murphy (host) Oscar telecast resignations have been the talk of the town... make that both towns and February's Oscar night was starting to seem like an impending disaster.
Despite a fun-to-think-about Muppets Oscar campaign*, many AMPAS voters and Oscar fans will get their wish and see the return of Billy Crystal. He's had the gig eight times in the past (1990-1993, 1997-1998, 2000 and 2004) but apparently eight is not enough. Billy is a good host but we just hope this doesn't mean yet more changes to the show. The last time Billy Crystal spoke about hosting he said he'd return only if they made certain (unspecified) changes to the broadcast. (Sigh) The Oscar ceremony is not broke. It just always thinks itself to be. It's like a beautiful girl who looks in the mirror and only sees her flaws. The only "fixing" the ceremony needs is some good old fashioned self-esteem.
* I was just about to say that we'll still see Muppets on Oscar night, never fear -- I mean they've done the show several times before -- when I saw this tweet.
So now I don't need to. Perhaps this is the best of both worlds!
Billy Crystal, Muppets, Oscar Hosting, Oscars (11)
Reader Comments (13)
Bliss-and I agree Nat-no need to change what isn't broke. This year especially. I would wager that Billy brings in solid ratings. Though I wish they would give him an honorary Oscar at some point-Bob Hope got five.
per the tweet, sure hope so! Just make it into a musical number and throw in NPH, Gervais, and everyone else who was being talked about. "We coulda been contenders!"
Not excited! I was hoping for new blood.
More than "a beautiful girl with low self steem", the Oscars are like an older woman who could be totally fabulous and captivating if she realised she has everything going for her, but instead choses to try to dress and act like and hang out with the "cool" kids (like "J Biebs") and ends up making a mockery of herself in the process. If she could only see herself the way we see her..
Oh, and about Billy Crystal, meh, it would have been a lot more interesting to see what the douchebag Oscars would've been like. I feared a trainwreck, but I was excited about taking a horrified look at it. Now it feels like it's going to be safe all the way.
I've never been into Billy Crystal coming back-never found him that funny to being with-but in the interest of being optimistic, it does tell me that they're not trying to lure in younger viewers. I can't imagine a less appealing host for the teen and twentysomething set. I'm gonna start my hoping and praying now that next year brings the Muppets or Hugh Jackman (or both.)
Never a big Billy Crystal fan but it would be awesome if they rope the Muppets in with him. That would be a huge success, especially since they'd pull higher ratings from families. I know it probably won't happen, but that would make me happy.
Never tought I would think that Eddy Murphy was cool.. Billy Crystal soooooooo 1993!
So, i was a bit relieved that Eddie Murphy bowed out, but I think I would have preferred his unpredictability to Crystal. BORING! And now it's all about him, not the films. I LOVE Nat's suggestion of Meryl and Emma. There should be a whole slew of stars willing to step up and put on a good show.
I'm also not excited about Billy Cristal.
I was hoping for a return of Hugh Jackman
Crystal is boring. I am not waking up at 03h00 to watch the live show for him (I live in Johannesburg).
Good for Billy. He's the safe choice that'll right this flailing, inept Oscars sailboat. But I was looking forward to seeing how Eddie Murphy would fare as host. Even on PG-level, I think he could have been better than most. I mean damn, if James Franco can do it . . . the bar's been set especially low. Hope the show's good this year.
I am already looking forward to the opening montage with hopefully a guest appearance by Anne Hathaway sending up last year's fiasco. It's bound to happen.
I'm not a big Billy Crystal fan, but I'm not a big fan of Eddie Murphy, either (though he was great in Dreamgirls). In fact, I'm not even a big fan of the Oscars anymore, so I guess there's no real point to this comment.
Glad that Ratner is out of the picture, though.