No One Wants to Host the 2019 Oscars, So Kevin Hart Will Do It

Kevin Hart has accepted the job no one else wanted.

After learning that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had yet to find a host for the 2019 Academy Awards—something the organization usually has on lock by October—we offered up a carefully curated list of suggestions. That was promptly ignored. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kevin Hart (not Gritty) has accepted the challenge to host the Oscars.

Hart announced the news on his Instagram account on Tuesday. “For years I have been asked if I would ever host the Oscars and my answer was always the same… I said that it would be the opportunity of a lifetime for me as a comedian and that it will happen when it’s supposed to,” he wrote in the caption. “I am so happy to say that the day has finally come for me to host the Oscars. I will be sure to make this years Oscars a special one… now it’s time to rise to the occasion.”

Everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Justin Timberlake, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Dwayne Johnson to longtime hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler had reportedly declined the chance to host. Considering Hart just starred alongside Tiffany Haddish in Night School, he’d be wise to bring her along for the ride.

Whatever the case, congrats to Hart. I look forward to him figuring out how to top the marriage proposal at the 2018 Emmys, because a high bar has been set.