Ahead of his fourth time hosting the Academy Awards, Jimmy Kimmel is putting the finishing touches on his monologue and sharpening his bits.

So what brought him back to the high-profile, high-stress gig? One big reason is that huge hits like Barbie and Oppenheimer are in the running for Best Picture, he says.

He tells ABC News, “It’s a big part of why I decided to host the show this year, because I do know that there are movies that people have actually seen, which makes it a lot easier to make jokes about them.”

On that note, Ryan Gosling taking to the stage and belting out the Barbie ballad “I’m Just Ken” will be a must-see moment, Jimmy teases. “It’s a big production and Ryan takes this stuff very, very seriously.”

He continues, “It’s funny because I think Ryan was lying for a couple of months leading up when he’s saying, ‘Oh, I haven’t been asked to sing.’ That’s untrue. He had been asked repeatedly to sing at the Oscars. And I think … he came in and he looked around at the space, he looked at the theater, and he’s like, ‘OK, yeah, I think I will do this.’ And now he’s in.”

This year, the broadcast on ABC will start at 7 p.m. ET, an hour earlier than usual. Kimmel jokes that he hopes people know this by now. Otherwise, he says, “You will miss my monologue. Which is very important — maybe not to the viewers, but to me. … So that is I think the big X factor going into this particular show, will people miss the whole first hour of it?” 

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