Neil Patrick Harris has been selected to host the 87th annual Oscars. The news just broke on Twitter (see it below) via Neil Meron, who is back to co-produce for a third consecutive year with Craig Zadan. The Academy Awards will air live on ABC on Sunday, February 22, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
This will be Harris’ first stint as Oscar host, but he is known for his hosting proclivities that have included fronting the Emmys (twice) and the Tony Awards (four times). In fact he even helped out with a mock PSA for the 2013 Primetime Emmys dubbed “Excessive Hosting Disorder.”
“We are thrilled to have Neil host the Oscars,” said Zadan and Meron in a release just put out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “We have known him his entire adult life, and we have watched him explode as a great performer in feature films, television and stage. To work with him on the Oscars is the perfect storm, all of his resources and talent coming together on a global stage.”
The 2014 Oscars hosted by Ellen DeGeneres drew 43.7 million viewers with a 13.1/33 rating among adults 18-49, making it the most-watched Oscarcast since 2000 and the highest rated since 2010.
On the big screen, Harris is currently co-starring in David Fincher’s Gone Girl, which has topped the box office for the past two frames. He also just finished a Tony-winning turn on Broadway on Hedwig And The Angry Inch. His long run as a star of CBS’ How I Met Your Mother ended this past season.
“It is truly an honor and a thrill to be asked to host this year’s Academy Awards,” said Harris, who shot a video to help get the news out (see it below). “I grew up watching the Oscars and was always in such awe of some of the greats who hosted the show. To be asked to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Ellen DeGeneres, and everyone else who had the great fortune of hosting is a bucket list dream come true.”
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