Why is there no "a" or "the" before host here? Isn't that a must? Or can one omit it in some cases?

To everyone who is saying there's an error in the subtitles: You can blame the subtitles for not putting a period after "us" and for not capitalizing "he", but "He is host of the Oscars" is precisely what Kimmel said. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTCMPedUSWU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTCMPedUSWU)

When there's only one of a specific position, the title doesn't need an article (but can use one) because it's like a name unto itself. * "He's the Pope" or "He's Pope" * "He's the King of England" or "He's King of England" * "He's the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers" or "He's coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers" are all basically equivalent. But "He's cashier at Walmart" is wrong because there are many cashiers at Walmart. You'd need to say "a cashier" there. (You *can* say "He's manager at Walmart" because there is only one manager, at least during each shift.) Likewise, "Donald Trump is President of the USA" is correct (when he's in office), but "Donald Trump is *the* 47th President of the USA" (because when you number his term you're now speaking of all the people who've been President).

It's kind of like "host of the Oscar's" is a title.

Yeah, it’s fairly common to do so when it comes to positions. Saying “He’s CEO of the company” or “He is President of the US” is just as common as using the article, especially in the former case where you’re using a contraction. Almost exclusively for “the”, not “a”

I’d say it’s an error in the subtitles

You see that’s the funny thing about being native English speakers is often you will make mistakes and not really notice them unless someone points it out or am I wrong here I’d love to hear other opinions

It's more common with an article but it's fine here. I think "host" may be a specific exception to needing an article or it's just a rule that I don't know. It gives the sentence a kind of fancier feel. You would always use an article in casual speech.

"host of the Oscars" is being used as a title here to describe the person he is introducing.

Like "She is Headmistress". No article before certain titles.

You can think of it like a name. Just like you could say "He's James," you can say "He's host of the..." as the title is likened to a name.

Most people would put "the" here, but it's okay to omit it because "host" is a title. It's like that for any title. You could say "Charles III is king." Or "Charles III is the king."

Weird. It sounds right in my mind but I never noticed that before.

Either he said "he's'e host" or 'Host of the Oscars" is being used as a title. Either way the captioning isn't correct but I've seen way worse captioning

He misspoke

Host means main host, not just a presenter. Host of the Oscars. Later on, when referring to his accolades, you may say he was a host of the Oscar’s because there are more than one hosting over years. But this year, only one. Just like last year.

When describing a person's role in relation to something or someone, it is often okay to omit "the": * He is host of the event. \[*very common*\] * He is pastor of the church. \[*also pretty common*\] * He is doctor to John. \[*this is pretty rare but you might hear it, and it elevates the relationship*\] It's tricky to know exactly when it's okay to do this. I tried to come up with a way to describe it, but every way I tried was just too confusing. At any rate, you are *always* safe using "the" in a situation like this, so I would suggest always including it when in doubt.

Just like 'man of the year', 'king of the hill' and 'president of anything', 'host of the Oscars' is a title. We don't need to use articles before titles.

Everyone is giving great explanations here but a little caution: spoken English is different from written English and applying grammar to it can often get messy. Oftentimes, words are dropped in spoken English because it’s supposed to be conversational rather than professional.

It really should say the but people don't always speak using perfect grammar 🤷‍♀️

It's not exactly proper, but it's understood what he meant and it avoids saying "the" too many times.

There’s a chance the original spoken version is “he is hosting the Oscars.” In this case you of course would not have “a” or “the” as hosting is not a noun.

Because live subtitles are often incorrect ans and without punctuation.

Subtitles like these are written in real time by a computer, it will inevitably omit or mishear some words. “the” should come before “host” here, but he either misspoke or the subtitles missed it

It does appear to be a mistake with the subtitles. However, a quick change to the sentence could make it work without adding "a" or "the" by instead using a comma. You could say: Here he is, host of the Oscars on ABC and Hulu, Ricky Gervais! The addition of the comma clarifies that you are describing the "he" at the start of the sentence and could be used with or without the word "the" while still having the same meaning.

This is not grammatically correct as written in the subtitles. It should be “he is the host” or I guess “he is a host” if there are multiple hosts. You cannot omit the article in this case. It might be that the subtitles missed a word and what he actually said was grammatically correct. If you provide the original source link, I could probably tell you.