ABC Open To Chris Rock Hosting Next Year’s Oscars

The 95th Annual Academy Awards are just under a full year away. That doesn’t mean that ABC, who will broadcast next year’s show, is not thinking ahead. The broadcast giant’s executives already have a host in mind.

Chris Rock was famously slapped by Will Smith at this year’s version of the Oscars. Rock had made a joke about Jada Pinkett’s hair. Will took offense and jaw-jacked him on national television.

Craig Erwich, ABC’s president of entertainment, said he would be open to the idea of Chris Rock hosting next year’s ceremony. He said this year’s version was extremely successful despite the Will Smith incident. The positives outweighed the negatives, and they would not mind having Rock host at all, according to Deadline.

“My assessment of the Oscars was that it was really a successful year for the show. Obviously there was a lot of controversy, which overshadowed a lot of the positive things about the show, but I was really happy with the program. Even before that very unfortunate moment, the show started off up year over year, and we came back in a big way.”

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The latest edition of the Oscars saw a 60% increase in total viewership. The key demo was up 73%. With that kind of momentum, the network is open to anything that will keep the show growing.

Time will tell if Chris Rock gets the official invite to host the 2023 Oscars. We are still quite a ways out from nominations even being announced. Chris Rock hosting the show would bring in some eyeballs just based on what he might say.

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