Ellen DeGeneres Excited and Nervous About Hosting Oscars

Her stage and screen roles have made millions of people laugh, but her entire life, Ellen DeGeneres has held out for one gig: hosting the Oscars.

(ABC News)

On Sunday night, she'll get the chance to fulfill her dream.

Hosting the Academy Awards will be one of the biggest challenges of DeGeneres' career, and she's been working overtime to make it happen.

ABC's Robin Roberts sat down with the Oscars' leading lady to find out how she was getting ready for the big night.

DeGeneres is no stranger to the awards-show stage. She hosted the Grammys in 1996 and the Emmys in 2001 and 2005. All the while, she waited for the opportunity to host the biggest show of them all.

"I was hoping for a while they'd ask me. Every year I'd wait. Nope, not me this year. Nope, nope. And I just gave up," DeGeneres said.

At first DeGeneres thought her lack of movie experience would be the reason she wouldn't be allowed to host. But DeGeneres remembered that her idol, Johnny Carson -- a talk show host -- was a veteran of hosting the Academy Awards, so she held out hope.

"Finally they came to me, and I'm excited," DeGeneres told Roberts.

She will be taking a page out of Carson's book on Sunday night.

"The thing about Johnny Carson is that he made everybody feel like they were safe, in good hands. That's sort of what my goal is for Sunday night. I want first of all for people to have a good time," she said.

The Oscars crowd can be hard to please, with public scrutiny on what people are wearing, where they're sitting, whom they're with, and whether they'll take home a prize.

DeGeneres said that her goal was to help settle those nerves.

"Some will be paying attention to me, and some will just be in their head, just you know, freaking out. I will remind them early on that most of them will lose. So that they are not so like: 'Oh, what if I win.' And it's like it's not a surprise when they lose," she said.

DeGeneres says that despite all the jokes she's humbled by the enormity of the experience.

"I don't take this for granted for a second," she told Roberts. "This is the biggest event, you know, probably to date that I've done."