It was announced during Tuesday’s Disney Upfront presentation in New York — and honestly, at this point, nobody seems surprised. Conan O’Brien is returning to host the Oscars for the third consecutive year, with the 99th Academy Awards set to air live on ABC and Hulu on Sunday, March 14, 2027, from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor made the joint announcement, calling O’Brien “an incredible team” alongside returning executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, who are now in their fourth straight year of running the show. O’Brien’s own producers Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney are also back for their third consecutive run.
The timing has a little irony baked in. At this year’s March 2026 ceremony — which saw One Battle After Another crowned Best Picture — O’Brien joked in his opening monologue that he was “honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards,” adding that next year it would be “a Waymo in a tux.” Disney executive Rob Mills told Variety the next day that the gag wasn’t entirely a gag: “Conan is host for life.”
O’Brien first took the Oscars stage in 2025, pulling a post-pandemic high of 19.7 million viewers when Anora swept the awards. The 2026 ceremony saw a slight dip in total viewership, though social media engagement shot up by more than 42%. The Academy is clearly betting on consistency and O’Brien’s ability to hold a room as they head into the penultimate year on ABC — the Oscars move to YouTube after the landmark 100th edition in 2028, with a new permanent home at the Peacock Theatre in downtown LA for 2029.
