Conan O’Brien will return as Oscars host in 2026

Host Conan O’Brien speaks throughout the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles
| Picture Credit score: Chris Pizzello

Conan O’Brien is returning to the Oscars stage in 2026. The late-night host and comic will preside over the 98th Academy Awards, set for March 15, the movie academy’s management stated on Monday.

“The one cause I am internet hosting the Oscars subsequent yr is that I need to hear Adrien Brody end his speech,” O’Brien stated in a press release.

This yr was O’Brien’s first time main the present, which attracted its largest broadcast viewers in 5 years regardless of the successful film, Anora, being comparatively small.

An estimated 19.7 million viewers watched the 97th Academy Awards ceremony earlier this month, in line with broadcaster ABC, with an enormous elevate amongst folks aged 18 to 49, pushed by cellular and laptop computer watches from youthful viewers. It was additionally the most-watched prime-time leisure present of 2025.

“Conan’s distinctive comedic fashion completely captured the second, and I am excited to have his abilities again onstage subsequent yr to helm one other indelible efficiency,” stated Craig Erwich, the president of Disney Tv Group, in a press release.

Subsequent yr O’Brien may also be surrounded by a well-known crew, with Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan returning as government producers of the present and Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney as producers. Academy CEO Invoice Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang stated in a joint assertion that it is an honour to be working once more with the group behind this yr’s broadcast.

“This yr, they produced a vastly entertaining and visually gorgeous present that celebrated our nominees and the worldwide movie neighborhood in essentially the most stunning and impactful approach,” Kramer and Yang stated. “Conan was the proper host — skillfully guiding us by the night with humour, heat and reverence.”

The present additionally succeeded in social media metrics, outperforming each the Grammy Awards and the Tremendous Bowl, in line with Oscars organisers. This was the primary time that the present was streamed reside concurrently on Hulu, which was not with out its glitches.

The timing of the announcement of subsequent yr’s internet hosting and producing groups — lower than a month after this yr’s Oscars — is unusually early for the Movie Academy and ABC.