Director Digital News

Jimmy Kimmel appeared on the latest episode of Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch and Doug Hendrickson's "Politickin'" podcast and spoke candidly about his decision to sit out the 2025 Oscars. The late-night favorite is a four-time Oscar host, having hosted Hollywood's biggest night in 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2024. Kimmel enjoys the gig, but he admitted it comes at a price and is a distraction from "Jimmy Kimmel Live" because all of his focus has to be on the Oscars.

"I just decided I didn't want to deal with that this year," Kimmel said. "Last year, it was just too much. You push everything off until after the Oscars, and then you have to do everything you said you were going to do after the Oscars, after the Oscars. I did it for two years [2017 and 2018], it went well. I did it for two more years [2023 and 2024], it went well. I thought I'd take a little break."

"I'm not good at balancing. I really am," he added. "It's not one of my strong points. I go all in when it comes to something like the Oscars. I think about it morning and night, and when I have ideas, I want to work on them, and then my nighttime show seems like a burden. We have all of our writers from the show working on the Oscars, so it's a distraction for them. It's fun to do, and it feels good when it goes well, but for me it was just too much to do three years in a row."