Review: All hail Conan O'Brien, who could host the Oscars forever and we wouldn't mind

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With the state of the nation worse on pretty much every metric, it’s good we can still gather round our screen of choice to watch film professionals win awards for a few hours on a March evening.This happened Sunday for the 98th time at the Academy Awards, sent via ABC, Hulu, Disney+ and other platforms into the world.The question, this year as it is every year, is how this Oscars night was different from any other Oscars night.

With Conan O’Brien returning as host in 2026, the ceremony was much in the spirit of his first go in 2025, except this was all in all a livelier, funnier show.Not perfect, of course, as the only program to ever occupy three hours of television without flagging was “Sábado Gigante,” but, gagwise — the Oscar broadcast is fundamentally a comedy with speeches — its hits-to-misses ratio was good or better than your average “Saturday Night Live” episode.

Awards The comedian kept his opening monologue light and avoided politics, instead acknowledging the devastating wildfires that struck Los Angeles before the ceremony.O’Brien, whose persona is equal parts madness, sincerity, self-love and self-hate, would seem to be a perfect host for a broadcast that needs to take things seriously, but not so seriously that it alienates anyone who doesn’t belong to the community it celebrates — a show that exists both in the world of Hollywood and the world outside the industry.In a classic Oscars gambit, the broadcast began with a filmed segment in which the host, looking like Amy Madigan’s Gladys in “Weapons,” inserted himself into the movies nominated for best picture and other awards — that included an animated O’Brien in a “KPop Demon Hunters” clip — chased by a mob of children from one to the other and into the Dolby Theatre, where his monologue began.“I’m honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards,” he said.

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