LOS ANGELES — If the idea is to stage a goofy television show about a very serious bunch of movies, next year’s Academy Awards are pointed in the right direction.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Oscars, on Tuesday said that Eddie Murphy – whose starring roles over the past the 20 years have come almost exclusively in lowbrow movies like “Norbit” — had agreed to host its 84th annual awards ceremony. ABC will broadcast the show on Feb. 26.
The announcement closely follows the appointment of Brett Ratner, a film director best known for the “Rush Hour” trilogy, as one of the show’s producers. Mr. Ratner joins fellow producer Don Mischer, a television veteran who was one of the Oscar producers last year. Mr. Ratner, whose next film, an action comedy called “Tower Heist,” features Mr. Murphy, has openly said he planned to step up the humor in the show — a considerable challenge, in that much of the broadcast is consumed by the presentation of awards, obligatory montages, and, of course, thank-you speeches.
Too, there is the seriousness of this year’s potential line-up. Though it is too early to predict nominees with any certainty, the year’s contenders are likely to include George Clooney’s “Ides of March,” about political treachery; David Cronenberg’s “Dangerous Method,” which examines the treatment of mental illness; and “War Horse,” Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the hit play about World War I.
Mr. Murphy’s career has been remarkably uneven. After enormous success in films like the “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Nutty Professor,” and “Dr. Dolittle” series, he stumbled into a run of flops, most notably “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” a little seen science-fiction comedy. But on the rebound from those, he was nominated as best supporting actor in 2007 for his performance in “Dreamgirls,” and scored a respectable $95 million at the domestic box-office that year with a critically derided comedy, “Norbit.”
Mr. Murphy’s agreement to host the show marks the Academy’s apparent return to a formula that worked well a decade ago, when masters of live comedy — Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Martin among them — kept the crowd laughing as it watched often somber films like “A Beautiful Mind,” about a delusional genius, and “American Beauty,” about crumbling psyches, win the best picture award. The move back to comedy follows a year in which the Academy, whose 6,000-person membership skews heavily toward people over 50, tried to bridge its gap with younger viewers by hiring two edgy young actors, James Franco and Anne Hathaway, as its hosts. The show fell flat and ratings sagged.
In the previous two years, producers took a somewhat Vaudevillian approach, as they matched up an aging actor duo, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, in 2010, and provided a stagey dose of song and dance from Hugh Jackman in 2009. Those performances followed experiments with the hipper side of television, as Jon Stewart and Ellen DeGeneres alternated appearances, after a hit-and-miss performance by Chris Rock in 2005.
For the Academy, Mr. Murphy’s appearance should bring a shot at improved ratings. In the past, according to figures provided by the Nielsen company, African-American viewers flocked to the show when it had a black host, like Mr. Rock, in 2005, or a strong run of black nominees, as in 2007, when Will Smith, Jennifer Hudson and Mr. Murphy were nominated.
In 2008, by contrast, when Mr. Stewart was the host and Ruby Dee was the most promient black nominee, the percentage of African-American viewers fell by half, to about 6 percent of the whole, down from about 12 percent in those preceding peak years.