Neil Patrick Harris was not the Academy’s first choice to host the 2015 Oscars. Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron first begged last year’s host, Ellen DeGeneres , whose turn at the podium netted an 8 percent increase in viewership over the year prior. (That all-star selfie didn’t hurt, either: The picture that broke Twitter was worth $1 billion in publicity , according to one estimate.) But despite Zadan and Meron’s appeals, DeGeneres — who earned mixed reviews for her performance (including a negative one from this publication) — was firmly against hosting the ceremony for a third time.
