Oscars: David Hill and Reginald Hudlin to Produce

Reginald Hudlin, left, and David Hill (Photo: AP Images)

By Gregg Kilday

David Hill and Reginald Hudlin will produce the 88th Oscars, it was announced by the Academy on Tuesday.

Hill, who most recently served as the senior executive VP of 21st Century Fox, overseeing programming and digital initiatives, and Hudlin, the writer, director and producer, who received a 2012 Oscar nomination as producer of Django Unchained, will taking over the reins of the show for the first time. Hudlin has some experience producing Academy events, though, having produced the 6th annual Governors Awards, which were held last November.

The awards event will be broadcast by ABC on Feb. 28.

For the past three years, the Oscars have been produced by the team of Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, which allowed for some continuity from year to year in staffing up the complex — an always heavily scrutinized undertaking.

While their first two shows, hosted by Seth MacFarlane and Ellen DeGeneres saw ratings increases, with the DeGeneres-hosted edition hitting a 10-year-high of nearly 44 million viewers, ratings for the most recent show, with Neil Patrick Harris as emcee, dropped by nearly 15 percent to 36.6 million viewers.

The first order of business for the new producers, who will be under pressure to reverse the ratings decline, will be to line up a host to serve as the face of the broadcast.