The Academy Awards might be welcoming Chris Rock back to the 2023 Awards ceremony as the new host, a boss at ABC has teased.
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Chatting to Deadline about the controversial Oscars ceremony, which saw Will Smith slap Chris after he made a joke about Will's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, ABC president Craig Erich said that he was open to Chris returning as the emcee next year.
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He also opened up about the ceremony, saying: "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."
He continued: "It was the biggest bounce back of any award show this season. If you look at what they were trying to do, which is really bring entertainment back to the program, they had three amazing hosts, clips, and incredible musical performances, I thought it was a great way for the show to reclaim its place on the mantle."
Will slapped Chris at the 2022 Oscar
Chris has yet to speak about properly about the event, and hasn't revealed whether he would like to return to the Oscars to host. However, he has made some jokes about the situation during his stand-up, with The Telegraph reporting that at one gig he said: "Don't expect me to talk about the [expletive]. I'll talk about it at some point … on Netflix. Your tickets were expensive, but not that expensive."
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The Academy released a statement at the time apologising for how the situation was handled, writing: "We want to express our deep gratitude to Mr. Rock for maintaining his composure under extraordinary circumstances. We also want to thank our hosts, nominees, presenters and winners for their poise and grace during our telecast."
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