Dear Gossips,

Yesterdayin this space, I wrote about the hierarchy of Oscar parties, how the Vanity Fair party has become the appetiser instead of the main course, and former VF editor Graydon Carter’s Importance Index and Seven Room theories of fame. Trevor Noah addressed the very same themes during a Between the Scenes moment on The Daily Show, declaring that in his opinion, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Gold Party is the best of all the Oscar parties, after telling the story of how nobody gave a sh-t about him on the red carpet at VF as soon as JLo arrived. See? Both theories in under five minutes:

Oscar ratings actually went up this year. It’s the first increase in viewership in a few years as people either tuned in because they’ve actually seen some of the films in contention, because the race was too close to call, because it was such a mess going in, with all the controversy recently about the host and the performers and the exclusion and then re-inclusion of certain categories on the broadcast, they were curious to see how it would all unfold, or a combination of all three. That said, even with the ratings increase, it was still the second worst rated Oscars in history, with last year being the worst ever, so they had nowhere to go but up and it wasn’t all that big of an up in the end. Will be interesting to see what changes the Academy proposes and considers before the next Oscars which are happening in less than a year – on February 9, 2020, a week after the Super Bowl, which is three weeks ahead of the schedule they’ve maintained for the last 20 years or so, which was already earlier than the schedule they used to follow. This will mean an even shorter campaign season and a more competitive award show season as several award shows jam up against each other on consecutive weekends.

Will the Oscars 2020 have a host though? I think they would prefer to go back to a hosted ceremony. This year it was actually supposed to be the Rock but he had too many other commitments and his schedule wouldn’t allow for the weeks of preparation. That’s why they hit up Kevin Hart. Apparently the Rock is still into the idea though so, maybe, the timing will work out. If not, some people are wondering if Trevor Noah might be a possibility. You heard about his joke though, right? Here’s his introduction ofBlack Panther:

The joke people were talking about was this part:

“Growing up as a young boy in Wakanda, I would see T’Challa flying over our village, and he would remind me of a great Xhosa phrase: ‘Abelungu abazi uba ndiyaxoka,’ which means, ‘In times like these, we are stronger when we fight together than when we try to fight apart.'”

That’s not what it means. What it really means is “White people don’t know I’m lying”. So, yeah, I would love it if Trevor Noah hosted the Oscars but I’m not sure if the fusty-ass old guard would be into it. Trevor’s style is not Ellen DeGeneres’s or Jimmy Kimmel’s warm and fuzzy style. And if he agreed to it, I feel like he would want to do it by his style and his own brand which would make the discomfort level go up in that room. The thing about change is that it has to be uncomfortable. Are the Oscars willing to be uncomfortable?

Yours in gossip,

1zplay