10 Jan – With actor-comedian Kevin Hart – who was supposed to be hosting this year's Oscars – still in hot water, the Academy Awards has decided to forgo a host altogether for its awards ceremony next month. Variety is reporting that in lieu of a host, a crop of A-listers will instead introduce the various segments. This will be the first time in nearly three decades for the Oscars to hold the awards ceremony sans a host. The only Oscars that was ever held without a host before this was the 61st Academy Awards that took place in March 1989, which opened with an 11-minute musical number instead of the usual host monologue. Despite Ellen DeGeneres saying that the Academy planned on reinstating Hart as the host for the upcoming Oscars, as she told Hart during his appearance on her "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" earlier this month, the idea is now reported to be "100% dead". Hart himself told "Good Morning America" host Michael Strahan during his Wednesday appearance, "I'm not hosting the Oscars this year. I want everybody to know I'm done with it." Early last month, the actor had excitedly announced on social media that he was hosting the 2019 Oscars. Two days later, on 6 December, he made another announcement – he was stepping down as host. This was due to the controversy he was engulfed in when homophobic tweets and jokes he had made a decade ago resurfaced after he announced his Oscars hosting gig. The 91st Academy Awards is set to be held on 24 February 2019 at Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles, California, United States.