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Kimmel to host the upcoming Oscars telecast

Jimmy Kimmel hosting the Emmy Awards in September. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Jimmy Kimmel is set to host the Academy Awards telecast, which will air on Feb. 26.

It makes business sense, to some extent. The Oscars will air on ABC until 2028, as part of a new deal with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Kimmel is the star of ABC’s big late-night gig, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The network is scratching its own back.

And the Kimmel decision may make creative sense, too. It’s hard to know.

Kimmel has not hosted the Oscars, which is a uniquely difficult task, as critically pummeled hosts from David Letterman to Anne Hathaway can attest. Even the most promising hosts can flop. They need to be funny in just the right ways – to tease Hollywood to its face with enough truth to amuse TV viewers but not so much truth that the audience sours; to fill in with spontaneous one-liners; to be shrewd but likable.

But Kimmel has hosted the Emmys twice, in 2012 and 2016, and he did a decent – if not outstanding – job both times. He has the right mixture of flip cynicism and schlubby everyday-guyness to appeal to a number of broad segments of viewers. He knows how to deploy mockery, but he also has an old-school vibe about him, shrugging his shoulders and smiling about absurdity.

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Let’s see if he can draw viewers, after last year’s Oscars ratings fell to an 11-year low at 34.3 million. Chris Rock was a brilliant host, perfect for a year marked by outrage over the lack of nominations for actors of color; but still, he failed to ease the Oscars’ Nielsen woes.

One thing is likely: There will be Matt Damon jokes, since Damon and Kimmel have been taunting each other public ly for many years. Ben Affleck, too, has been a part of their spitball fight. If “Manchester by the Sea” – produced by Damon, starring Casey Affleck – gets a lot of nominations, we can probably count on shenanigans.

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Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.