Wanda Sykes just gave a preview of what to expect when she co-hosts the Oscars with Regina Hall and Amy Schumer this weekend. And let’s just say, tune in early if you want to see her sober.
The problem, you see, is what she’s getting paid for the gig, which the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” guessed would be around $15,000. That’s what he got when he hosted in 2017 and 2018. Sykes said that sounded in the neighborhood of what she would be getting.
“It sounds like it’s a lot for one night, but it’s months of work leading up to it,” Kimmel said. “You’re getting robbed. Hold out right now, because they need hosts.”
Sykes said she probably would start drinking once the first act was in the can and “you get the big part out the way.”
“Then I’m like, I’m here to have some fun,” she said. “It’s not like I’m getting paid, you know. You get what you pay for. You want sober Wanda, you’ve got to add some zeroes and move that comma. You’re getting free Wanda.”
Out of the three of them, she predicted, whoever was drunk would be the one hanging out off camera.
“So if you see just Amy and Regina out, you can just go, ‘Wanda’s drunk, she’s backstage,’” Sykes said.
She also revealed her true plan for getting paid: She intends to steal an Oscar and sell it off.
Kimmel thought that was a great idea, noting the hot Oscar would “be on ABC and eBay at the same time.”
And while Sykes’ wife, Alex, will attend the show — apparently the hair extensions she got for one Emmys show turned her into “a Kardashian, she loves the red carpet now,” Sykes said — the comedian’s mom will not be in the house. She gave mom the asking-but-not-really-asking routine.
“It’s not like you’re going to get a good seat,” Sykes told her mother. “I’m gonna be onstage working. I said, if I thought you were gonna be, like, sitting next to Denzel Washington, then I would fly you in. But you’re gonna be up in the bleachers sitting next to the guy with COVID. That’s not good. You don’t want that. You don’t need that in your life.”
“And she bought that, huh?” Kimmel asked.
“She bought that,” Sykes replied.
Meanwhile, her co-host Schumer has her own ideas about how she’d like the ceremony to go, including a possible tribute to Ukraine.
The Oscars broadcast on ABC begins at 8 p.m. ET Sunday — though some awards will be given out starting an hour before that.
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