Did ABC blow their entire Oscars budget on Jimmy Kimmel's promo reel?

The first promo for the 2024 Academy Awards sees host Jimmy Kimmel getting some help from Kate McKinnon's Weird Barbie to find his way to the Dolby Theatre

By Emma Keates  |  February 13, 2024 | 8:17pm
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Did ABC blow their entire Oscars budget on Jimmy Kimmel's promo reel?
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Jimmy Kimmel and Kate McKinnon in the first 2024 Oscars promo clip Screenshot: Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

If you had any doubts that the 2024 Oscars would throw all that they could behind the Barbenheimer phenomenon (except for a few choice nominations, of course), you’d be very wrong. ABC fully revived Barbie Land for their first promo video with 2024 host Jimmy Kimmel, and this writer has one big question after watching the clip: how much fucking money did they spend on this thing? It features Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera, Ryan Gosling, a voiceover from Dame Helen Mirren, and multiple sets! Will the nominees be drinking Josh instead of bulk champagne when the broadcast airs on March 10? We wouldn’t be surprised!

When we say the clip—which aired Monday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live—revived Barbie Land, we mean it really revived Barbie Land. Set to narration from Mirren, the preview opens with Kimmel, a.k.a. “one such dumb-dumb,” lost on his way to the Dolby Theatre. After ascending to the wonky pink house we’ve come to know and love, Kimmel calls upon Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie for help, who proceeds to question whether he’s either “midlife crisis Ken” or “lost everything in the divorce Ken” before showing him the way. (We thought Ken was famously “just Ken,” but moving on.)

Kimmel and McKinnon proceed on a journey that mirrors Barbie’s visit to the Real World in the movie, stopping by the cartoon-ized sets of Poor Things (“even weirder Barbie”), Killers Of The Flower Moon (paired with an odd joke about “growing Italian people” in Oklahoma), Maestro (“Ken-ard Bernstein”), and Oppenheimer before finally reaching his destination.

There, Kimmel gets some coaching from America Ferrera on how hard it is to be an Oscars host à la her monologue from the film, and Ryan Gosling also pops up to do some typical Ken stuff. (The reference to Paul Giamatti’s post-Golden Globes meal at In-N-Out is pretty funny.) “Girls grow into women, but not all boys grow into men,” Mirren concludes as Kimmel and Gosling scream about Greta Gerwig’s best director snub (Barbie was still nominated for eight Oscars, people!) “Some remain hopelessly stuck in a loop of infantile foolishness. One of them will host the Oscars.”

You can watch that foolish host (and hopefully the final event of the Barbie press cycle) live on Sunday, March 10 at 7 p.m. ET.

Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera & Ryan Gosling Help Jimmy Kimmel Get to the Oscars

 
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