Being a red-carpet host doesn’t sound so bad: just wear something spangly and chat with celebrities on their way into an awards show. Ask a few questions, ideally ones that let actors plug the brands that dressed them, and send them off to collect their trophies.
If only it were that easy.
On the red carpet before the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night, the YouTube star and former late-night host Lilly Singh dutifully performed the role for Netflix’s preshow. She asked Jane Fonda for advice for young actresses, and Pamela Anderson about craft services on her projects. She probed a baffled-looking Harrison Ford for “tea” about Ms. Fonda and Jason Segel.
Some armchair critics on social media were harsh, calling Ms. Singh’s interviews stilted and cringey, her approach overenthusiastic or underinformed. (Her co-host, the actress and comedian Sasheer Zamata, was mostly spared such criticism.)
These moments highlight just how challenging it is to be a good red-carpet host, a slippery role that demands fluency in dozens of films (and sometimes television shows, too), as well as an ability to generate instant chemistry with any actor who sweeps by. Those tapped for the job — a mix of comedians, actors, influencers and reality stars — must squeeze out 60-second, mildly elucidating interviews amid a throng of journalists, publicists and photographers. The exposure is great. The potential for gaffes is high.
It’s a role that has undergone serious transformation since the 1990s, when Joan Rivers, the first host of “Live From the Red Carpet” on E!, began to riff amusingly but savagely about the celebrity procession. She made brutal jabs about peoples’ bodies. She insulted Oprah, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. To hear her tell it, nearly everyone was a tacky disaster.
“Being publicly told that my dress is hideous will never feel quite as awesome,” the actress Anna Kendrick posted on social media after Ms. Rivers’s death in 2014. “You will be truly missed.”
In the post-Rivers era, some wanted to see red-carpet hosts take a different approach to the role. In 2015, a campaign called #AskHerMore from the Representation Project urged red-carpet interviewers including Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Rancic to ask women in Hollywood questions that went beyond their choice of attire.
Laverne Cox, who became the red-carpet host of “Live From E!” in December 2021, updated Ms. Rivers’s typical “Who are you wearing tonight?” with a question she hoped would give interviewees more room for expression: “What story are you telling us with this look tonight?”
If she made the job look easy, it might have been because her preparation was so rigorous. In 2023, she told The New York Times about her process, which involved five-hour study sessions readying questions for every nominee who might walk by, and even the ones who probably would not. She reviewed the pronunciations of surnames and film titles. She aimed to start conversations about clothing, but also about the preparation and physicality that actors brought to their roles.
Ms. Cox approached the carpet as a “fan girl,” she said. “It’s been a different way for me, hopefully, to highlight people’s humanity. As an artist, we’re arbiters of empathy and humanity. And I think it’s possible as a red-carpet host to also do that.” (She announced last month that she was leaving the role.)
The current cadre of red-carpet hosts have each brought their own flavor to the job. Amelia Dimoldenberg, the host of the video series “Chicken Shop Date,” preferred to shamelessly flirt with attendees at the Golden Globes, where Andrew Garfield appeared no match for her charm. Keke Palmer’s effusive enthusiasm on the Met Gala carpet resulted in a viral mini theme song for the rapper Meghan Thee Stallion in 2021. Last March, Vanessa Hudgens said she had “a lot of fun” as a host for ABC’s Oscars preshow, which she has done for the last three years.
All have avoided major dust-ups, whereas other red-carpet interviewers have stumbled. This month, The Associated Press apologized to the singer and producer Babyface after one of its journalists shouted over him during an interview on the Grammys carpet. (She had been trying to grab the attention of another singer, Chappell Roan.) The model Ashley Graham muddled through a terse exchange with Hugh Grant when she was a host on the Oscars red carpet in 2023.
“What are you wearing tonight, then?” Ms. Graham asked the actor.
“Just my suit,” he responded.
She recovered and asked if he’d had fun filming the mystery “Glass Onion.”
“Uh, almost,” he said.
ABC has not yet announced who will host its red carpet before the Academy Awards on Sunday, though Ms. Dimoldenberg will return as a red-carpet correspondent.
She seems to be aware that her work is cut out for her: A representative for Ms. Dimoldenberg said she was not available for an interview on Monday, because she had writing to do.
