The Academy tried to go younger for it’s Oscar broadcast last year. They hired director Brett Ratner to produce and he was going to hire Eddie Murphy to host. But then Ratner went and did something stupid and now he’s making GLAAD commercials to make up for it. Murphy got dumped and Billy Crystal stepped in to host at the last second.

Now The Academy is trying again, but they want NBC Late Night host Jimmy Fallon. But there’s a hitch. Fallon hosts the show on NBC, who competes with ABC’s late night host Jimmy Kimmel. The Oscars are hosted by ABC. ABC doesn’t want an NBC host on their big broadcast. DRAMA.

Of course, The Academy doesn’t care what ABC thinks. They can do whatever they want, so YOLO right? However, current talks with Fallon are on hold. The Academy’s old president Tom Sherak was negotiating and his reign ended last week. New Academy president Hawk Koch (that’s his real name) says his first priority is a new host and producer.

Typically, just by the way, The Academy selects a producer and then that producer chooses a host.

Reports were that Sherak was working on bringing in SNL and Jimmy Fallon producer Lorne Michaels to produce the show, which makes a world of sense because he’d just pick Fallon anyway.

My guess is Koch continues Sherak’s work and tries to bring in the Michaels-Fallon duo. Why? Koch has a relationship with Michaels already, as he’s executive produced two of his films – Wayne’s World and Wayne’s World 2.

Fallon would be a good choice too. He’s not controversial (Ricky Gervais) and he’s good at hosting (after a rocky start, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has evolved into a really funny show). [THR]

jimmy fallon, oscars