LOS ANGELES >> Emmy-winning talk show host and comedian Conan O’Brien has been tapped to emcee the 97th Academy Awards, set for March 2, the academy announced Friday.

This will mark O’Brien’s first time hosting the Oscars, with the academy betting on his sharp oddball wit and decades of live TV experience to inject fresh energy into the ceremony and help draw viewers back to a broadcast that has struggled with declining ratings in recent years.

“We are thrilled and honored to have the incomparable Conan O’Brien host the Oscars this year,” academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang said in a joint statement. “He is the perfect person to help lead our global celebration of film with his brilliant humor, his love of movies and his live TV expertise.”

The 61-year-old O’Brien has honed his distinctive brand of self-deprecating and absurdist comedy over more than three decades of television, beginning as a writer on “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons” in the 1980s and ‘90s before moving into the late-night arena, where he hosted “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” and “Conan.”

After ending his 28-year-run in late-night in 2021, O’Brien found a new audience with his hit podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” and recently returned to the screen with his Max travel show “Conan O’Brien Must Go.” (On the film side, his credits are limited to a handful of cameos as himself and voice work in animated fare like “The Lego Batman Movie” and “The Mitchells vs. the Machines.”)

“America demanded it and now it’s happening: Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme,” O’Brien quipped in his own statement, “In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars.”

In tapping a seasoned veteran, the show’s producers are banking that O’Brien — much like fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who helmed the 2017 telecast during the infamous “Moonlight” best picture mix-up — will have the chops to navigate the unpredictability of live TV while delivering some much-needed levity.