LOS ANGELES-If you can't beat ‘em, hire ‘em to host: Producers of the Oscars ceremony on Monday said Seth MacFarlane, a prolific television writer-producer, will host the Academy Awards telecast, set for broadcast on ABC on Feb. 24.
Mr. MacFarlane is perhaps best known as a creator of the “Family Guy†animated series, though he had a major film hit earlier this year as a writer and the director of the comedy “Ted.†Meanwhile, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which grants the Oscars, has struggle to maintain interest in the film awards, as movie attendance has dropped and film talent has fled to television.
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who are producing next year's Oscars, have been producers of movies, television shows and Broadway plays.
The Academy last year weathered a crisis when Eddie Murphy dropped out as the planned host after the show's producer, Brett Ratner, resigned amid co ntroversy over his public use of an anti-gay slur. Billy Crystal, an old hand who had hosted past shows, stepped in to preside over a telecast that drew about 39.3 million viewers in the United States. That was well below a 1998 peak of 57.3 million viewers, but up slightly from 2011, when two young movie stars, Anne Hathaway and James Franco, were the hosts.
In past years, the Academy often turned to hosts with television talk-show experience, including Jon Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres, David Letterman and Johnny Carson. But it has rarely, if ever, turned to someone who, like Mr. MacFarlane, has been chiefly a creator of entertainment in a rival medium.
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