Kevin Hart Sees ‘No Upside’ in Hosting the Oscars After 2018 Scandal

Nearly six years after Kevin Hart resigned from hosting the Oscars in light of resurfaced tweets, he has no plans of going back.

“It’s not gonna happen,” Hart, 44, said during a Thursday, January 11, appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen when asked if he’d emcee the awards show. “Kill the idea of it! Only reason why, like, in this case with Jo [Koy at the Golden Globes], there is no return of good. What is it doing for me? There is no upside at this point.”

After host Andy Cohen pointed out that hosting the Oscars is a “thankless job,” Hart elaborated on his position.

“You can’t discredit the stage that the Oscars presents. It’s a phenomenal stage [with] millions of views attached to it,” he said. “I think at a point in time in my career, it was something that acted as a bump and want, just to get a notch in my belt of something else that I was able to obtain and do, but I’m far beyond and past that. I don’t need that at this point.”

Related: Oscar Hosts Through the Years

What a roster! Over the past 20 years, celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg, Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Kimmel have hosted the Academy Awards. While there is no shortage of incredible stars who have taken the stage at Hollywood’s biggest night, there have also been years where the Oscars chose to go without any emcee at all.  […]

Hart was initially named as the host for the 2019 Oscars. Ahead of the ceremony, previous homophobic tweets surfaced and sparked controversy. The posts have since been deleted from X (formerly Twitter). Following the backlash, the actor stepped down from his hosting duties.

“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s … this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists,” he wrote in a statement at the time. “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”

In Hart’s absence, the Oscars went hostless. When the next year’s ceremony came around, he was not interested in a potential return.

“I’m over it,” Hart said on Good Morning America in January 2019. “There’s no more conversation about it … I’m over that, I’m over the moment.”

Just like Hart had strong opinions about not going back to the Oscars, he opened up on Thursday about watching Koy’s awards show experience. Koy, 52, hosted the 2024 Golden Globes earlier this month, where several of his monologue jokes came across as inappropriate and not funny. Koy has since defended his jokes.

“That’s a tough room,” Hart added. “It’s an industry room, where the expectation is one of consequence. Everybody’s on edge about, ‘What are you going to say about me?’ So, it’s not one that’s attached to immediate laughter. I think the comics that have partaken and have had success [is because] they have a nice understanding of the industry.”