The Oscars will have no host for the second year in a row
The move comes after last year's ceremony saw a significant increase in viewership
The Academy Awards will have no host in 2020, choosing instead to keep the revised format it implemented for last year's show.
It marks a decisive change in direction for Hollywood's biggest awards, which for decades featured an A-list host to lead the evening's events such as Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Ellen DeGeneres and Chris Rock.
However, after comedian Kevin Hart was forced to drop out of 2019's ceremony due to controversial tweets from his past resurfacing, last year was the first time the Oscars went forward without a host since 1989.
As a result, fans and pundits were curious to see whether the quality of the show would be affected, a factor which may have contributed to an increase in viewership (29.6 million people tuned in, up from 26.5 million in 2018).
Fortunately, the format was deemed a success by many leading publications, with the absence of a host actually helping to ensure the show kept to its three-hour schedule.
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It has now been confirmed that the Oscars will retain this format in 2020, with a post on the Academy's official Twitter account.
This news had been expected for a while, as ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke had expressed an intention to go host-less in 2020 while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter last March.
"We're having those conversations with the Academy right now. We are extremely happy with how the show went. Odds are you'll see us repeating what we consider to be a successful formula," she said.
The nominations for this year's Academy Awards will be announced on Monday 13th January 2020, with the full show taking place on Sunday 9th February.
The frontrunners this year include Joker, 1917 and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, which all walked away with awards at Sunday night's Golden Globes.
