ABC President Karey Burke told reporters "there wasn't messiness beyond the Kevin Hart situation" when it came to planning the show
The Oscars may be without a host this year, but the show will go on with one “exciting” opening number.
ABC President Karey Burke spoke about the awards show during the ABC executive session at the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour on Tuesday.
“From what I’ve heard, we have a very exciting opener planned,” Burke told reporters. “We are not going to go straight into people thanking their agents.”
Despite Hart stepping down from his hosting gig after previous homophobic tweets resurfaced, Burke said “there wasn’t messiness beyond the Kevin Hart situation” when it came to planning the Oscars.
“After that, it was pretty clear that we were going to stay the course,” she explained. “There was an idea that they were going to have the presenters just host the Oscars. We all got on board with that.”
She added the show will be kept to three hours after a lengthy awards show in 2018.
Burke also admitted going host-less for the Oscars made her nervous but said, “It no longer does.”
“Ironically, I have found that the lack of clarity around the Oscars has kept them in the conversion,” she said. “It’s really compelling. People really care.”
She added the Oscar nominee luncheon on Tuesday “was a very exciting room to be in.”
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“The list of presenters is phenomenal and growing,” Burke said. “This is going to be a big turnout for this. There are big popular movies being nominated.”
Hart, 39, apologized for his past comments in a tweet after stepping down as Oscars host and during his SiriusXM radio show Straight from The Hart in early January.
The 91st Annual Academy Awards will air live Feb. 24 on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.