The Oscars have been televised every year since 1953, but only four times has the show received a Primetime Emmy as the year’s best variety program. It first happened in 1979, and again in 1988, 1991 and 2024. The name of category has changed over the years, but the intent has not — to honor the year’s best music/variety program.
The hosts of these four shows were, respectively, Johnny Carson, Chevy Chase, Billy Crystal and Jimmy Kimmel. Carson, Crystal and Kimmel are high on the list of the greatest Oscar hosts of all time, which is not incidental to the fact that these shows won.
Music plays a big part in the Oscars — and all four of these winning programs featured memorable musical performances. The 1979 show featured three of the very hottest stars in pop music at the time: Donna Summer, Olivia Newton-John and Barry Manilow. The 1988 show featured Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes, Little Richard and the unlikely teaming of Starship and Gloria Estefan.
The 1991 show featured Madonna, Reba McEntire and Jon Bon Jovi. The 2024 show featured two performances from Barbie. Billie Eilish and Finneas performed “What Was I Made For?,” which won the Oscar for best original song. Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson headlined an elaborate production number of “I’m Just Ken,” which stole the show.
We’ve prepared this list showing highlights of these four winning programs. One sad note: We can track the show’s declining ratings over the years. The first three shows here all drew more than 40 million viewers in the U.S., but the number had plummeted to 19.5 million viewers for the 2024 show as younger viewers stopped watching four-hour award shows, deciding the best parts will be everywhere and who cares about the rest? I see the logic, but that doesn’t mean I like it. These are the Oscars. Respect must be paid!
Here, let’s take a closer look at these four winning programs.
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1979
Date: April 9, 1979
Venue: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles
Host: Johnny Carson
Producer: Jack Haley Jr.
Director: Marty Pasetta
Musical directors: Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson
Ratings: The telecast drew 46.3 million viewers in the U.S.
Name of Emmy category: Outstanding program achievement – special events
Other Emmy wins: None
Notes: This was Carson’s first time as host. He took over from Bob Hope, who hosted the 1978 show. Carson was then midway through his 30-year run as host of The Tonight Show, which made him the GOAT of late-night talk show hosts.
The show featured performances by three of the hottest pop singers of the era: Donna Summer (“Last Dance”), Olivia Newton-John (“Hopelessly Devoted to You”) and Barry Manilow (“Ready to Take a Chance Again”). I wouldn’t have minded a three-way tie, but the award went to Summer’s sizzling disco smash.
Sammy Davis Jr. and Steve Lawrence performed a sensational medley titled “Oscar’s Only Human,” which was comprised of movie songs that were somehow not nominated for best original song. The show is also remembered for being the final public appearance of movie legend John Wayne, who was given a standing ovation before presenting the award for best picture to The Deer Hunter. On June 11, two months after the ceremony, he died from complications from stomach cancer at age 72.
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1988
Date: April 11, 1988
Venue: The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles
Host: Chevy Chase
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn Jr.
Director: Marty Pasetta
Musical director: Bill Conti
Ratings: The show drew 42.2 million viewers in the U.S.
Name of Emmy category: Outstanding variety-music events programming
Other Emmy wins: None
Notes: Chase hosted the show for the second year in a row. He had co-hosted the 1987 show with his Foul Play co-star Goldie Hawn and also Paul Hogan, the star of Crocodile Dundee. Cher won best actress for Moonstruck. Michael Douglas took best actor for Wall Street.
Best song nominee performances included Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes’ “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing, Little Richard filling in for Bob Seger on “Shakedown” from Beverly Hills Cop II and Gloria Estefan joining Starship to perform “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from Mannequin. The latter song marked the first best song nomination for Oscar perennial Diane Warren.
The show was held during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, which began more than a month before the ceremony. The WGA refused to grant a waiver permitting writers to work on scripted dialogue for the show, so Goldwyn booked comedians such as John Candy, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams to improvise jokes. Crystal was hired as Oscar host two years later and has hosted a total of nine times, second only to Bob Hope, who hosted or co-hosted 19 times.
After being held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for almost two decades, the Academy decided to move the telecast to the Shrine Auditorium. This marked the first time the venerable venue served as the site for the Oscars since the ceremony held in 1948.
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1991
Date: March 25, 1991
Venue: The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles
Host: Billy Crystal
Producer: Gil Cates
Musical director: Bill Conti
Director: Jeff Margolis
Ratings: The telecast drew nearly 43 million viewers in the U.S.
Name of Emmy category: Outstanding variety, music or comedy program
Other Emmy wins (2): Outstanding individual performance in a variety or music program, outstanding writing in a variety or music program
Notes: Crystal hosted the show for the second year in a row. He memorably rode in on a horse, Beechnut, which was prominently featured in his upcoming film City Slickers. Crystal won two Emmys for his efforts: outstanding individual performance in a variety or music program and as one of the show’s writers. (Crystal has won four of his five Primetime Emmys for work on the Oscars — two as a performer and two as a writer.)
Madonna performed “Sooner or Later” from Dick Tracy, which went on to win best original song. Her “date” for the evening was fellow pop icon Michael Jackson. Other best original song performers included Jon Bon Jovi, singing “Blaze of Glory” from Young Guns II, and Reba McEntire, performing “I’m Checkin’ Out” from Postcards from the Edge — just nine days after seven of her band members and her tour manager died in a plane crash.
The show had a theme, “100 Years of Film,” marking the centennial of the development of both the kinetoscope by Thomas Edison and celluloid film by Eastman Kodak.
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2024
Date: March 10, 2024
Venue: The Dolby Theatre, Hollywood
Host: Jimmy Kimmel
Executive Producers: Raj Kapoor, Molly McNearney, Katy Mullan
Director: Hamish Hamilton
Musical director: Rickey Minor
Ratings: The telecast drew 19.5 million viewers in the U.S.
Name of Emmy category: Outstanding variety special (live)
Other Emmy wins (3): Outstanding directing for a variety special, outstanding music direction, outstanding production design for a variety special
Notes: The Barbenheimer phenomenon boosted the Oscar telecast. Oppenheimer won seven awards, including best picture, while Barbie provided much of the entertainment on the show. There were performances of two Oscar-nominated songs from Barbie, “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas and “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson — and, it seemed, a cast of thousands. The performance featured cameos from Gosling’s Barbie co-stars Kingsley Ben-Adir, Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa and Simu Liu, and musicians Wolfgang Van Halen and Slash.
Kimmel hosted for the fourth time, showing a mix of wit and warmth that is uncommon among comedians.
