Each year, there is much talk about what the Academy Awards host will do or say at the opening of the show –which makes it all the better that Sunday night's host, Jimmy Kimmel, is giving viewers a little preview in what to expect from his opening monologue.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the late night host said that while the format will be a little more of what fans are used to, he does plan to utilize a more relaxed style with things that play more off of the live audience.
"I'm gonna do basically the same thing but with different jokes," the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" host explained. "It's kind of the same drill. I feel like I learned little things, subtle things. Every time you do something like this you gain wisdom because the audience is not like the audience of your talk show. They're not there to see you. You're there to see them, so it's just a different approach."
He then added: "I've learned not to overplan the show. I've learned you should play to the audience in front of you rather than the audience at home, and to keep it loose if possible. Some of these things tend to be very tightly wound."
Never one to shy, Kimmel is planning on addressing the controversies that surround major Hollywood figures right now, including the many sexual harassment and assault allegations. He continued that he will speak to #MeToo as well as Time's Up, however he'll do his best to keep things comfortable with the humor.
"It's very tricky because when people are scared they don't laugh, and when there's a camera in their face they behave differently than they do in a comedy club or in the audience on a talk show," he said. "When you're put in that position, those in the audience become a little bit of a deer in the headlights. That's the part [where] you have to rely on experience and the knowledge of your medium."
As far as what the Academy Awards producers expect from the late night star, co-producer Michael De Luca says that Jimmy treats the Oscars as a different sort of gig than he does his show.
"Jimmy's job as the host of his own show is different than his job as the Oscars host," De Luca said to USA Today. "(He) intuitively knows what the Oscars call for."