Chris Rock will finally get his chance to speak after Will Smith beat him on the Academy Awards stage.
Saturday night’s special will be the comedian’s first stand-up performance since last year’s Oscars. It’s in Chris Rock: Selective Indignation, streaming on Netflix at 10 PM EST. Rock will perform stand-up for about an hour from the Hippodrome Theatre, Baltimore. Netflix will bookend the special with star-studded commentary.
Pre-show will begin at 9:30 p.m. and feature Paul McCartney and Jerry Seinfeld, Matthew McConaughey and Cedric the Entertainer. Ice-T will also be featured, along with two other hosts from last year’s Oscars: Wanda Sykes, and Amy Schumer. Dana Carvey, David Spade, and Kareem AbdulJabbar will host guests after Rock’s set.
Although Smith has since apologized for the incident , Rock has stayed away from the many platforms that celebrities use to vent their emotions. Oprah Winfrey never met Smith, and he turned down many media outlets who would love to conduct an in-depth interview.
Rock, on the other hand, has spent much of the last year touring new material as part of his Ego Death tour. These shows were announced prior to the 2022 Oscars and featured performances by Kevin Hart and Dave Chappelle.
Rock often uses jokes and reflections to slap while on the road. However, it has never been more than an aspect of his shows. Although there is no guarantee that Rock will speak about Saturday night, it’s something that many people expect and have long suggested.
Rock broke his silence three nights after the Oscar ceremony in Boston. He asked the crowd, “How was your weekend?” He said that he was still processing the events.
After much processing, Rock will now be in the cultural spotlight a week before March 12 Oscars, when the slap will likely to be revisited again by Jimmy Kimmel, the host of this year’s show. Smith quit the film academy after last year’s events. Smith was banned by the academy board from attending Oscars or any other academy events for a period of ten years.
The annual luncheon of nominees was held last month. Janet Yang, president of the motion picture academy, expressed regret over the way the incident was handled and called the academy’s response “inadequate.” Bill Kramer is the academy’s chief executive. He stated that the academy has now established a crisis communications team to better prepare for the unexpected and respond more quickly to it.
“Selective Outrage,” Rock’s second Netflix special, follows 2018 “Tamborine.” These two specials are part of a $40 million deal Rock signed in 2016.
While there have been rivals who are now streaming live sports and live streaming, Netflix’s “Selective Outrage,” is its first venture into live programming. Netflix has 231 million subscribers worldwide. “Selective Outrage,” however, may just be the beginning of a new trend.
