Conan O’Brien gets Oscars off to a snarky start

Host Conan O’Brien got the show and his monologue off to a start filled with his usual sarcastic humor.

O’Brien poked fun at the Oscars, Hollywood’s biggest night “which starts at 4 in the afternoon.” He also poked fun at himself. “I know what you’re thinking: ‘Did Conan not have work done? Seriously. He looks his age.’” And he jabbed at Netflix for having price increases.

He also implored the Oscar audience to sit down — after not getting a standing ovation.

A Wicked-ly fun opening

The 2025 Oscars opened with its biggest musical voices. Wicked star Ariana Grande launched into The Wizard of Oz classic Somewhere Over the Rainbow, following a visual package celebrating the city of Los Angeles.

She ditched her usual Glinda pink for a ruby red gown, channeling Dorothy’s iconic shoes. She was followed by Elphaba herself, Cynthia Erivo, nailing Home from the The Wiz. (The late Quincy Jones supervised the adaptation of songs from the Broadway musical for the 1978 film starring Michael Jackson.) Then Grande and Erivo teamed up for a dynamic duet of Defying Gravity. And yes, they hit the note.

How does Oscar voting work?

There are about 10,500 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences global members. Some are actors, some directors, some editors, some costume designers, some hair and makeup people … you get the idea.

In 22 of the 23 categories, it’s a simple system: The nominee with the most votes wins. Easy. Voting is done online, ballots are not released publicly and only two partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers know the winners before they are revealed to the world.

For best picture, the system is different: enter ranked choice voting. Voters rank the nominees in order, and the film that gets 50% or more of the vote is the winner.

Here’s where it gets confusing, so we’ll let the academy explain it in its own words: “If one movie doesn’t get 50% out of the gate, the one with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the members who voted for that as their top choice have their votes added to the film that was next on their list.

“What happens if their second choice was the one that was eliminated? Well, their votes then go to their third choice, and so on. That process continues until one movie gets 50% or more of all the votes.”