Is Jimmy Kimmel the Favorite to Host 2014 Oscars?

Jimmy Kimmel Favorite to host Oscars Jimmy Kimmel to host Oscars? Jimmy Kimmel frontrunner to host Oscars.

With Seth McFarlane’s dynamite showing on Sunday night now a distant memory, it’s time to move on with our lives and needlessly speculate about how might be next up to walk the plank as host of the Academy Awards. And word on the street is that it’s none other than ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, and by street, we mean the New York Post .

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No decision will be made on the Oscar host until the Academy appoints its new president. Then that president will appoint the producers and in-turn the host. From there it’s smooth sailing, just ask Eddie Murphy.

ABC hold the rights to host the Oscars until 2020, so that would make Kimmel a likely choice. Network in-fighting prevented the team of Lorne Michaels and Jimmy Fallon taking the reigns this year as producer and host, a choice like Kimmel wouldn’t produce such problems.

But UK and Ireland betting house, Paddy Power, isn’t buying the Jimmy Kimmel hype:

Jimmy Kimmel Favorite to host Oscars Jimmy Kimmel to host Oscars? Jimmy Kimmel frontrunner to host Oscars

They believe the frontrunners are all women with Emma Stone (8/1), Tina Fey (9/1) and Ellen DeGeneres (9/1) occupying the top slots. Strangely, Amy Poehler is lower down at 11/1, a Fey-Poehler show must be an option for any producer after the pairs great job at the 2013 Golden Globes, unless those pesky network politics rear their ugly heads again.

There hasn’t been a solo woman host since Ellen in 2006.