Comedian. Movie star. Director. Writer. Producer. Chris Rock has conquered show business in so many different ways, it’s easy to forget he also once hosted the biggest awards telecast of them all. Eleven years after poking fun at the ubiquity of Jude Law at the 2005 Academy Awards, Rock will return to host the ABC telecast on February 28, 2016.

“Look who’s back. #Oscars,” Rock tweeted on Wednesday to his 3.6 million Twitter followers.

When Rock hosted in 2005, the Oscars telecast saw a surge in ratings from the key 18-34 age group over the previous year, a boost that would be welcome after the annual event saw its ratings fall sharply by 16% in 2015 under host Neil Patrick Harris. In response, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced in September that the 2016 ceremony will have new producers David Hill and Reginald Hudlin. A longtime veteran of live TV, Hudlin also produced the pilot episode of Rock’s now-defunct TV series Everybody Hates Chris, and his involvement sparked widespread speculation that Rock would follow suit as host.

Rock’s 2005 Oscars performance received mixed reviews at the time, but in retrospect had a refreshingly pointed perspective, with a political bent not seen before or since. At the time, he made stinging barbs about diversity in Hollywood, and will almost certainly look to do so again this time around, when the topic is as timely as it’s ever been. In 2005, Rock joked that no “straight black man” would watch an Oscars telecast, but much has changed in the 11 years since, and ABC will look to the combustible, controversial comic to bring in new viewers in 2016.

“When you have a new host that strikes some sparks,” said Bruce Davis, Academy executive director, in an interview last week with the BBC, “there is evidence that ratings go up.”

Read more at The Guardian.

Image by Armando Arorizo/EPA

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