Billy Crystal will host the Oscars for the 9th time on February 26th. This is the first time since ’04 that Crystal has hosted, and I believe will be my first Billy Oscar show. Maybe the Muppets will still present an award, or Kermit will win for Best Actor.
The Twitter, Facebook and website campaigns were fun – even though they are no longer necessary. While having the Muppets host would certainly have been a technical nightmare for everyone producing the show it would have undoubtedly been more entertaining than any Academy Award telecast in recent memory.
But movie fan and Oscar fans love Crystal. And obviously it didn’t take much to convince him to take the gig, one day after Eddie Murphy backed-out. However, most young people don’t even know who Billy Crystal is, so if the Academy is still hoping to grab a hipper, younger audience (as they tried last year) they’re going to have to add more to the show that just a veteran host.
He was a safe choice in the middle of a controversy. We’ll see if he was the best choice.