Kevin Hart won’t host Oscars, says awards shows are not ‘comedy-friendly environments’

Los Angeles, Jan 13 (PTI) Hollywood star Kevin Hart has said he has no plans to host Hollywood’s biggest night, the Oscars, as he believes awards ceremonies are no longer good for comedians.

Hart, 44, was roped in to host the Academy Awards in 2019 but had to step down after a controversy over his past homophobic tweets. He has since maintained that he will never host the Oscars.

“Whatever little hope you had, I want to destroy it right now. Those gigs aren’t good gigs for comics. It’s no shot to the Oscars, no shot to the Globes or anything else. Those just aren’t comedy-friendly environments anymore,” the actor told Sky News.

His comments come close on the heels of Golden Globes host Jo Koy receiving criticism after some of his jokes fell flat during the ceremony earlier this week.

Koy later said that hosting the awards turned out to be a difficult experience for him.

Hart said the Oscars got it right when they had “a bunch of personalities acting as the hosts”.

“It’s a collaborative thing, different people get to be responsible for act one, act two, act three, but you know, the days of it being a room for a comic, those days are done,” he added.

The actor, who currently stars in Netflix movie “Lift”, also praised fellow comics who have hosted the Oscars in the past.

“Shout out to those that have cracked the code and done it right early on, you know, the Chris Rocks of the world, the Billy Crystals of the world, the girls we’ve had like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Ricky Gervais.

“There’s a lot of people that understand that if you’re not an industry comic, meaning a comic that has the relationships of all, then those rooms are very cold. So, me doing it is, of course, at an advantage, because I know the room and for me, and familiar with so many. But, for others it’s not the same,” Hart said.

The 2024 Academy Awards will be held on March 10 with comedian Jimmy Kimmel serving as the host for the ceremony.