Several TV critics suggested turning to another comedian who made an all too brief appearance on the telecast. Lowry lamented, "(w)hen Jerry Seinfeld presented best documentary, referring to the five "incredibly depressing" nominees, he instantly made you wish he was hanging around a little longer." And Aaron Barnhart of The Kansas City Star thought, "his two bits — the other was a classic Seinfeldian rant against movie theaters that ask patrons to pick up their trash — were more memorable than anything said or done by the show’s putative lead comedian, host Ellen DeGeneres."

But can any host overcome the constraints of presenting two dozen awards, not to mention the honorary ones when the TV audience only cares about the top few?

As Lowry notes, "(a)s is so often true, the show also exhibited a peculiar sense of time management -- rushing through certain promising elements and awkwardly lingering on others. Nor did it help in terms of getting the evening rolling that the first 50 minutes were devoted strictly to lower-profile categories (art direction, makeup, animated and live-action shorts, sound editing, sound mixing) before viewers saw their first recognizable winner, Alan Arkin for "Little Miss Sunshine." Garron did give Ziskin an A for effort if an E for execution: "Never before has a producer put so much thought and effort to breathe life into the long and dull string of awards that precede the ones for which nearly all viewers tune in." And Mick LaSalle of The San Francisco Chronicle thought, "(t)his year's program was even more interminable than usual, with lots of filler, including interpretive dances and a sound effects choir. Does anybody want to see stuff like that? Does anybody really believe anyone wants to see it? The answer is no, probably no in both cases, so why the same nonsense, year after year? The most telling moment came when an announcer, four hours into the program, said, "Now it gets interesting."

There were a few critics who liked the host but even they gave the overall show a collective thumbs down. For AP, Frazier Moore writes, "(t)easing but unassuming, DeGeneres is always pleasant company. Like her, the evening was easygoing, comfortable and reliably unsurprising. It was all very comfortable, but too often bordering on the dull, even dreary." And Matt Roush in TV Guide thought, "(k)eeping her cool, and her genuine aura of chipper goodwill, throughout three costume changes (in suits from red velvet to all-white to royal blue) and what seemed once again like an overindulgent excess of movie montages (we definitely could have done without Michael Mann’s fuzzy survey of cinematic American history), Ellen was welcome nearly every time she popped up. Offering a spec script to Martin Scorsese, directing Steven Spielberg on how to take her photo with Clint Eastwood, asking the megastars in the front row to lift their legs as she vacuumed the Kodak past midnight (ET), while informing us that Helen Mirren had just asked for a rum and coke (sounded pretty good to me at the time), Ellen did her darndest to deflate the bloat and pomposity that infects nearly every Oscar telecast."

Roush was one of the few who found lots of things to like in the telecast: "There’s no question this year’s show went on way too long, but that’s nothing new. This was still a classier event than most, and at least there were many creative moments to capture our fancy, from the shadow art of the Pilobolus dance troupe to the choir that sang in sound effects. The sensational “Comedian at the Oscars” number (co-written by the reliable Marc Shaiman), featuring Will Farrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly, helped elevate the first hour, which was heavy on the “boring” awards we usually are forced to sit through during the show’s middle portion."

And Tom Maurstad of The Dallas News thought "one of the biggest surprises at the 79th annual Academy Awards was what an entertaining show it was. And while it may have been no surprise to Ellen DeGeneres' fans how funny she was, she also proved to be the perfect foil for a night that so often sinks under the weight of its pretentious airs and self-importance." Perhaps Mike Duffy, of The Detroit Free Press, summed it up best: "DeGeneres was everybody's Oscar pal. She worked the aisles later in the telecast, amiably chatting up folks like best director nominee Martin Scorsese, sparking good-natured laughs when she tried to hand him a movie script. But even Ellen's agreeably sweet 'n' funny disposition couldn't mask the annual slow poke, hit-and-miss reality of the Oscars as TV entertainment."