Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Conan O'Brien is a famous American comedian. He has hosted many TV shows.
He will host the Oscars again next year. The Oscars are big movie awards.
This will be his third year in a row. That is rare. The last person to do this was Billy Crystal.
The show will be in March 2027. People will watch it on TV in many countries.
- comedian
- a person who makes others laugh for a job
- host
- the person who runs a show
- Oscars
- famous awards for movies
- award
- a prize for doing something well
- movie
- a long film you watch in a cinema or at home
- year
- twelve months
- in a row
- one after another with no breaks
- TV
- a box that shows pictures and sound
Level 2 — Elementary
Conan O'Brien is a famous American comedian and talk-show host. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on May 12, 2026, that he will host the 99th Academy Awards in 2027.
It will be his third year in a row as the Oscars host. The last person to host three years in a row was Billy Crystal. Conan will join a small group of comedians who have held the role multiple times.
The show will take place on Sunday, March 14, 2027. It will be live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The Oscars will air on ABC and on the streaming service Hulu.
Two producers will return for a fourth straight year: Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan. Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney, who work closely with Conan, will also be back. Mike Sweeney will be the head writer.
- Academy
- a group of experts; here, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- host
- the person who leads or presents a TV event
- talk show
- a TV program where the host interviews guests
- in a row
- one after another with no breaks
- Dolby Theatre
- the venue in Hollywood where the Oscars take place each year
- streaming service
- a website or app that lets you watch shows on demand
- producer
- a person who plans and runs a movie or TV show
- head writer
- the main writer who leads the team for a TV show
Level 3 — Intermediate
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, that Conan O'Brien will host the 99th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 14, 2027 — his third consecutive turn at the podium. The disclosure came from Academy chief executive Bill Kramer and Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor at Disney's upfronts in New York, ahead of the network's annual advertiser presentation.
O'Brien's three-peat is rare in modern Oscars history. The last host to take the stage three years in a row was Billy Crystal, who held the role from 1990 through 1992 and added several non-consecutive appearances after that. By contrast, the past two decades have leaned toward one-off hosts, single-year duos, and the occasional unhosted broadcast.
Many of the production roles will also be familiar. Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan return as executive producers for a fourth straight year, while O'Brien's longtime collaborators Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney are back as producers, with Sweeney taking the head writer chair. Continuity at the producer level is unusual in a show whose creative team is often reshuffled after a single cycle.
Broadcast logistics remain unchanged: the ceremony airs live on ABC and on Hulu from the Dolby Theatre at the Ovation Hollywood complex, beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern. Industry observers will be watching whether the third O'Brien outing can hold or grow the ratings rebound the show enjoyed during his first two ceremonies, which the Academy credits to a renewed emphasis on pacing, comedy and on-stage tributes to films and craftspeople.
- consecutive
- following one after the other without a break
- upfronts
- an annual event where US TV networks present new shows to advertisers
- three-peat
- winning or holding a role three times in a row
- unhosted
- without a single named host leading the program
- executive producer
- a senior producer who oversees a project's creative and business sides
- continuity
- the quality of being consistent over time
- tribute
- an act of respect or admiration for a person or work
- ratings
- numbers that measure how many people watch a show
Level 4 — Advanced
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, that Conan O'Brien will host the 99th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 14, 2027, returning to the Dolby stage for a third consecutive year. The announcement, delivered jointly by Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor at Disney's New York upfronts, anchors a producing team that has now been kept intact across two cycles — an unusually long horizon by recent Oscars standards.
O'Brien's three-peat carries historical weight. The last host to occupy the role in three successive years was Billy Crystal, whose 1990 through 1992 run became the template for the comedian-as-host era of the show. The intervening three-and-a-half decades have been characterized by rotating presenters, the occasional two-year repeat, and a handful of unhosted broadcasts that the Academy now regards as cautionary tales for an audience that consistently rewards a single strong on-stage voice.
The producing apparatus around O'Brien is, if anything, more entrenched than the host. Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan return as executive producers for a fourth consecutive year, while O'Brien's longtime creative partners Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney resume their producer roles — Sweeney also handling head-writer duties — for what will be the third Oscars under their stewardship. The Academy frames the continuity as a deliberate response to the modest but real ratings recovery observed across the 96th and 98th telecasts.
Operationally, the broadcast will run as before. The ceremony airs live on ABC and Hulu from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern, with the usual Sunday evening tape delays for international markets and a slate of pre-show coverage on red carpet and streaming partners. The strategic question is whether a third O'Brien show, on top of a producing team approaching the end of its second cycle, can maintain the renewed appetite for a writer-led, comedy-anchored Oscars in an awards-show ecosystem that has otherwise been hollowed out by streaming and by the migration of cultural attention to social platforms.
- horizon
- the time span over which something is planned or considered
- template
- a model that is copied to make similar things
- cautionary tale
- a story used as a warning about possible harm
- apparatus
- the team or system organized to do something
- entrenched
- firmly established and difficult to change
- stewardship
- responsible management or oversight of something
- telecast
- a television broadcast of a live event
- ecosystem
- a system of interconnected parts working together
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