Chris Rock, The Rock both reportedly offered 2022 Emmys hosting gig

Look: It was probably already pretty unpleasant for Chris Rock to get slapped on national television by Will Smith, international famous movie star. Do you think Rock’s going to put himself in a position to get that kind of treatment from a lowly television star, as well?

That’s the question we find ourselves asking in light of a new Deadline article tonight, which reports that stand-up star Rock has apparently been offered—and has subsequently declined—an informal offer to host this year’s Emmy Awards, scheduled for this September. This was all behind closed doors, so we don’t have any reports on how Rock actually responded to the offer, but, seriously: What if he got slapped by Jimmy Kimmel? Nobody’s coming back from a Kimmel-Slap.

Per said Deadline piece, the Television Academy has been aiming high for this year’s hosts; in addition to Rock—who’s generally above the weight class of Emmys hosts anyway, given his massive stand-up success—the Academy also reportedly offered the job to that other pop culture Rock: Dwayne Johnson. (“It does not appear likely that Johnson would take on emcee duties either,” Deadline writes, which, no; we can’t imagine his lingering Ballas affection, or his Young Rock ties, bridging that particular gap.)

Last year’s Emmys saw Cedric The Entertainer take on hosting duties; Kimmel preceded him in 2020, and the year before that, we had the ominous year in which no one hosted the Emmys at all. (SpooooOOOOoooky.) The Academy is presumably aiming high this year, though, because the 74th Emmys will mark the event’s return to the Microsoft Theater, its home for many years, which it was forced to vacate by the pandemic.

Hosting for the Emmys is usually dictated by the network running it on any particular year; NBC, in charge in 2022, last filled the position by tapping Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che and Colin Jost. Production company Done+Dusted has reportedly cast “a wide net” in looking for talent, and, yeah: You’re going to need a pretty damn wide net if you’re hoping to bag The Rock.