Four reasons why Seth MacFarlane is the right choice for the Oscars

The Academy may have picked a winner, but the nominees haven’t even been announced.

Oscar telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced Monday that Seth MacFarlane will host the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony in February. Meron called the 38-year-old entertainer “the most unbelievable, consummate host choice we could think of.” Zadan said they have long admired MacFarlane’s talent, “so the idea of actually doing the biggest thing that we’ve ever produced with him is just beyond belief. We’re so excited.” Read more

There are lots of reasons to speculate that the well-known voice and much lesser-known face will be a great host. In fact here are four reasons why Seth MacFarlene will likely shine when he takes the stage of the most up-tight (and prestigious) awards show broadcasted across the nation.

Seth MacFarlane has already proven he’s a great live performer

MacFarlane is still best known as the creator and the voice of the hit Fox television cartoon “Family Guy.” While it’s certainly not the only thing on his resume, it definitely deserves a top position. He’s hosted a “Family Guy” live show and this fall he hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live’s 38th season. While he did use his Family Guy voices for what might be one of the most schizophrenic monologues in SNL history, he also broke out a crowd pleasing, traditional song-and-dance.

This isn’t his first rodeo.

And by rodeo, I mean awards show. At the 2009 Emmys, “Family Guy” characters sang a topical introduction to the show. It was a catchy song that hopefully stopped viewers from changing the channel, as well as the celebrity abuse that’s become common at award shows. There is likely to be plenty of both, including the jokes at the expense of famous faces, masked by the voice of a British-sounding baby at this year’s Academy Awards.

Here are Brian and Stewie at the 2009 Emmys.

MacFarlane won’t be pulling double-duty.

Unlike the fate of other stars who have hosted the Academy Awards, it’s not likely MacFarlane will have to play double duty with a nomination as well. True, his film “Ted” could be nominated for something. But the raunchy comedy aimed at dudes about a teddy bear that comes to life, didn’t make this list of early Oscar contenders.

He won’t be this bad:

Don’t get me wrong – I had high hopes for the young duo that was supposed to bring viewers back to the increasingly unpopular awards show. I also didn’t think that their odd pairing was as bad as reviewers claimed the next day. It definitely wasn’t natural, and maybe it wasn’t that good. But it wasn’t bad.

MacFarlane – this is your bar. Do better than this: