Conan O’Brien is hosting this year’s Academy Awards, but his most recent successor at NBC’s Late Night says he isn’t looking to follow O’Brien’s footsteps to Hollywood’s Dolby Theater.
“It’s a thankless job,” Seth Meyers explained in a red carpet interview at Sunday night’s Golden Globes.
“This one, I think, is the fun one,” Meyers explained of the Golden Globes ceremony, which he hosted in 2018. “I think once you do this one, it’s very hard to imagine doing anything else. Just the way people are seated, and it feels a little bit less stuffy.”
However, Meyers was quick to add that he’s looking forward to this year’s O’Brien-hosted Academy Awards ceremony.
“With that said, I think Conan’s gonna kill it,” Meyers noted. “I’m very excited about that.”
O’Brien signed on to host the 2025 Oscars ceremony back in November—a first for the longtime late-night talk show host. O’Brien’s selection came after ABC’s go-to late-night talent, four-time Academy Awards host Jimmy Kimmel, turned down the offer to host a fifth time.
“I just decided I didn’t want to deal with that this year,” Kimmel said back in August, though he didn’t rule out making a return in future years. “It was just too much last year.”
“Lot of respect for my buddy Jimmy Kimmel, who I feel like has done an incredible job over the years,” Meyers added. “But he’s never said anything that made me think, ‘Oh, I’d like to do that.’”
Kimmel is also in a somewhat different position than Meyers. In recent years, he has flirted with retiring from late night, which would give him more time to devote to preparing for an Academy Award gig. Meyers, however, has signed on to host Late Night through at least 2028.
The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. They will air live on ABC at 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcast around the world.
