25 best award show hosts

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler ruled the Golden Globes and Ellen DeGeneres made history at the Oscars. Who else ranks as the best award show hosts?

When the world gathers around the television, or whichever medium of viewing they so please, to watch an award show, the one thing more hotly debated than who will win and what all the famous people are wearing is how the host does.

As the ring leader of the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Emmys, the Grammys, or any of the rest of the glitzy affairs, award show hosts have the daunting task of setting the tone and balancing the social temperature with humor. It’s not nearly as simple as it sounds. The days of calling out a face in the crowd and poking some fun have long faded.

Of course, only a select few comedians and reliable performers are game enough to rise to the occasion. You have your crop of talk show hosts and beloved comedy heavyweights, who will inevitably serve up a monologue brimming with laughs, and then you have the song-and-dance crowd, who fill the evening with musical numbers and non-stop surprises.

But sometimes award show hosts aren’t solely the late-night Jimmys or the triple-threat thespians. For every Tina Fey and Amy Poehler dynamic duo, there’s a pop star hosting some of the less refined affairs, like the VMAs and the MTV Movie Awards. Whether you’re partial to Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh’s unlikely pairing, Billy Crystal’s emcee monopoly, or Miley Cyrus’ wild ride, there’s someone for everyone to love in our list of the 25 best award show hosts.