It's confirmed! The Oscars this year will not have a host

In what might not come as a surprise anymore, the Oscar ceremony this year will run without a host. This will only be so for the second time in the history of the prestigious awards ceremony. The news came out on February 5 as an ABC television executive confirmed the same. This is the full list of nominees.

Karey Burke, ABC entertainment president said that the event will not have a host and "just have presenters host the Oscars." For the uninitiated, ABC is a unit of Walt Disney Co that televises the Oscars ceremony annually and is closely involved in planning the telecast.

Oscars never planned to go hostless but it happened after comedian Kevin Hart stepped back from the role, two days after accepting it. He dropped from the job after there were reports that he was asked to apologise for his past homophobic tweets. Read what happened here.

After the withdrawal, Burke said that the Academy was clear on not getting a replacement. She told reporters, "After that, it was pretty clear that we were going to stay the course and just have presenters host the Oscars. We all got on board with that idea pretty quickly." 

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On whether Oscars is still relevant, she said, "I have found that the lack of clarity around the Oscars has kept the Oscars in the conversation and that the mystery has been really compelling. People really care."

The only time Oscars went without a host, was in 1989.