As Conan O’Brien prepares to kick off the 97th Academy Awards as a first-time host, his friends in late-night are rooting for him.
Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the last two years’ Oscars, had help from a different Oscar as he wished his pal good luck in hosting Sunday night’s awards show at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, airing at 7pm ET/4pm PT on ABC and streaming live on Hulu.
“Happy Oscars Sunday!” he captioned a photo of himself with Sesame Street‘s Oscar the Grouch during a recent Jimmy Kimmel Live sketch.
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As Oscar displayed his iconic “scram” cardboard sign in the photo, Kimmel held up one of his how that read, “Good luck Conan!”
During a press conference, O’Brien praised three-time host Kimmel and wife Molly McNearney for their support, joking that they invited him to an expensive restaurant and ordered “tons of appetizers that I don’t eat. I don’t eat shellfish. He ordered it and then stuck me with the bill, while Molly gave me all of the pitches and the things that I should know. Molly’s the genius in that equation.
“They’ve been very supportive and very helpful,” added O’Brien. “And so, that’s nice because I came up in a very different era of late-night when not everybody was chummy and friendly, and you didn’t just pick up the phone. So this new era where people are so lovely to each other is something I don’t take for granted.”
Although O’Brien also joked that he “only hosted so that I could be invited to the Oscars,” perhaps a nomination is in his future after the comedian’s rare dramatic performance in A24’s upcoming film If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You.
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