Oscar Viewers Slam Jimmy Kimmel As Conan O'Brien Receives Rave Reviews For His Hosting Skills

Conan O'Brien's stewardship of the 97th Academy Awards broke one important long hosting streak, that of fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who has hosted the festivities four times, most recently in 2024. O'Brien has brought his own wicked sense of humor and off-the-wall sensibility, bringing out Adam Sandler to challenge the audience to a basketball game and gifting every person in the audience with a treat box. Not bad for a guy who used to hide his late night hosing shame by ducking under a desk. And it looks like viewers watching along on X, formerly known as Twitter, generally love the change-up.

"It's incredible how much better Conan O'Brien is at hosting the Oscar's than Jimmy Kimmel," one X user remarked. Multiple viewers declared their preference for O'Brien's hosting, specifically referencing the job Kimmel did in 2024 as being particularly rotten, as it included a cringy joke about Robert Downey Jr. "Yeah... we better not see Jimmy Kimmel ever touch the stage at the #Oscars again," @ReelAvgReviews wrote. 

Conan's hosting seemed to pull in some rave reviews over on Reddit as well. "Calling it already. Conan is the best host in years," one Redditor wrote. "Of course Conan is slaying," another added. However, a number of viewers admit that they do miss Kimmel's ways, no matter how good of a job O'Brien did.

Believe it or not, some Kimmel fans miss the comic's quick wit. Some audience members just weren't picking up what Conan O'Brien was putting down on Oscar night. "Just had it over to Jimmy Kimmel again at this point. Conan O'Brien is a train wreck," wrote @ashwin_kumarV. They weren't alone, as several viewers were happy to praise Kimmel's talents in the face of O'Brien's work. "Jimmy Kimmel was better. This show is boring," one watcher remarked. But some didn't want more of either host. "Unless your name is @NikkiGlaser or @rickygervais, you shouldn't be hosting an awards show," wrote Alanna Rizzo.

Even O'Brien had a joke about Kimmel's previous time at bat. While delivering remarks about the Academy's 2025 Best Picture nominees in what proved to be his most brutal monologue joke, O'Brien said, "'Anora' uses the f-word 479 times. That's more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón's publicist ... Karla if you are going to tweet about the #Oscars tonight, my name is Jimmy Kimmel."