Celebrity Intelligence, a service for tracking famous people, ranks 2017 Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel at #828 on its Buzz Index. For comparison: Jimmy Fallon, #234. Last year's Oscars host, Chris Rock, #1,357. This is a competitive list, based on tweets and media coverage and things that approximate popularity, and Kimmel's respectably ranked. So why are the Oscars paying him a paltry $15,000 for hosting the awards show? That's less than $5,000 per televised hour!
Kimmel said in a radio interview that he was told the fee was in line with what past Oscars hosts (Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen Degeneres, Billy Crystal) received. The numbers seem a little out of whack, though. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey got $4 million each to host the Golden Globes, according to gossip reporter Perez Hilton, and the Academy Awards itself brings in around $93 million in revenue.
The Oscars had about 34 million viewers last year — not its best haul, but definitely a mega-audience. Perhaps Kimmel is banking on exposure to make the gig worth it. We'll check back in on Feb. 27 to see if it moves the needle on the Buzz Index.
UPDATE, February 28: Despite a pretty lame set that included brotherly jokes about Mel Gibson (racist) and Casey Affleck (accused sexual abuser), Kimmel's Buzz Index ranking is #76 post-Oscars, between Charlize Theron and Shirley MacLaine.
