Conan O’Brien’s second consecutive Oscars hosting turn was lively and often funny, according to several contemporaneous critics. The filmed Weapons parody and topical monologue stood out as hits; a self-mocking Oscar-win sketch and a sagging late stretch drew reservations. The audience figures tell a separate story: they measure the telecast, not O’Brien’s individual effect.
What critics thought of O’Brien’s hosting
O’Brien hosted the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, returning after hosting the 2025 ceremony. The Los Angeles Times judged the show livelier and funnier overall than the previous year’s, while noting imperfections. Its comparison of the jokes-to-misses ratio to an average Saturday Night Live episode was one critic’s impression, not a measured score or audience poll.
Bill Carter of LateNighter described O’Brien’s tone as “signature O’Brien: wit on wry.” Carter also emphasized his energy and practiced skill at steering a live television event through its lulls. Taken together, the reviews support a favorable but qualified verdict: O’Brien was an engaging host, though not every segment landed and the show did not sustain its strongest energy throughout.
The hits: a committed cold open and a topical monologue
The Weapons parody
The opening filmed sequence put O’Brien into scenes inspired by the year’s nominated films. In its most distinctive bit, he appeared as Amy Madigan’s character from Weapons and was chased by children from the film. TVLine praised the commitment and said the sequence helped warm up the room; the Los Angeles Times also highlighted the nominated-film sequence.
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The broad parody was a risk as well as a strength. Carter thought viewers unfamiliar with Weapons might find the cold open confusing. Its payoff therefore depended partly on recognizing the film’s imagery, but its physical comedy gave O’Brien a memorable opening showcase.
The monologue’s mix of silly and serious
The Guardian’s account of the monologue describes it as moving between silliness and sincerity. O’Brien joked about nominated films and the tense U.S. political climate, touching on subjects including Chalamet, Amazon, U.S. healthcare, AI and Jeffrey Epstein. That range made the opening remarks topical without being exclusively political.
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The Chalamet joke
One of the monologue’s sharper references concerned Timothée Chalamet’s earlier remarks about ballet and opera. O’Brien joked that he faced possible attacks from “both the ballet and opera communities.” TVLine praised the gag, and the Guardian recounted both the joke and Chalamet’s response. It worked as a current-events punchline with a clear connection to the night’s movie-industry audience.
Where the show lost momentum
The imagined Oscar win
Carter singled out a later sketch in which O’Brien imagined winning an Oscar and becoming an emperor. He thought the bit “never quite caught fire,” although he liked its moment involving a papal blessing. The distinction matters: a joke or sketch missing its mark is a performance criticism, not proof that the entire show failed.
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The late stretch and presenter introductions
Carter also felt the humor drifted late and that presenters’ written introductions did not consistently bring energy or laughs. His review portrays a capable host guiding a show that had quieter patches, rather than a telecast in which every transition worked equally well.
A broadcast mistake that was not O’Brien’s joke
TVLine reported that a red-carpet broadcast graphic mistakenly identified Kirsten Dunst as Kathy Bates. That was an on-screen production error, not part of O’Brien’s hosting material, so it should not be counted as one of his comedic misses.
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What the audience numbers do—and do not—show
The ratings fell from 2025, but the reported size of the decline depends on the comparison method. The Associated Press reported just under 17.9 million viewers for the 2026 ceremony, 9% fewer than the 19.7 million it reported for 2025. It also reported a 14% year-over-year decrease among adults aged 18–49. These are AP’s March 2026 figures for the telecast; they do not isolate the host’s contribution.
LateNighter reported 17.86 million viewers under Nielsen Live+Same Day measurement and a 12.2% drop on its revised, like-for-like comparison using Big Data Plus Panel figures. It reported 5.34 million Live+Same Day viewers aged 18–49, down 13.8% on that comparison. Those percentages differ from AP’s because the comparison bases differ; they should not be treated as contradictory estimates using an identical method.
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AP also reported that the ceremony remained the 2025–26 season’s top primetime entertainment telecast, that primetime social impressions rose by over 42%, and that Academy social-platform video views exceeded 129 million. These measures indicate continuing reach and online activity, but they do not establish that O’Brien caused either the ratings decline or the social engagement increase. The reviews cited here are critics’ opinions, not a representative survey of viewers’ reactions to the host.
Verdict
O’Brien’s strongest moments combined commitment and specificity: the Weapons cold open, a monologue that moved between topical jokes and sincerity, and the Chalamet gag. The main reservations were a sketch that failed to ignite and weaker energy later in the program. On the available reviews, he did well as a host, even if the telecast had uneven patches.
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