💥 BREAKING NEWS: Jimmy Kimmel’s long-awaited confirmation as Oscar host unleashes a whirlwind of anticipation as he braces for the chaos ahead ⚡.NH

It’s one of the most thankless jobs in Hollywood, and he’s getting it with only 12 weeks to prepare. But congratulations, Jimmy Kimmel: you’re our new Oscar host! Now get to work, so we can blame you for everything.

On Monday, hours after the Hollywood trade press began reporting that he’d booked the job, Kimmel confirmed it, tweeting, “Yes, I am hosting the Oscars. This is not a prank. And if it is, my revenge on @TheAcademy will be terrible & sweet. Thx to @alsformalwear.”

As the late-night host on ABC, the broadcast home of the Oscars, Kimmel would have seemed the obvious choice to emcee the show, especially after ABC increased its leverage with the Academy in a new deal struck. Late this summer, the Academy extended its contract with ABC through 2028, with the network gaining more control over the broadcast in exchange for the contract extension that will help the Academy pay for its $388 million new museum, set to open in 2018 on Wilshire Boulevard.

Kimmel only burnished his credentials with a well-reviewed Emmy hosting gig in September, prompting ABC president Ben Sherwood to tell reporters, “Jimmy has earned [the Oscars], and we’re very hopeful that Jimmy will get it.”

But more than two months passed before the offer was formally made—precious time when it comes to preparing a live, three-hour television broadcast for the biggest non-sports audience in the world. The December pick came much later than in years past, when Oscar hosts were named in October (Chris Rock, Neil Patrick Harris, Seth MacFarlane), September (James Franco and Anne Hathaway) and even August (Ellen DeGeneres).

The Academy announced first-time Oscar producers Michael DeLuca and Jennifer Todd on November 4, also much later than most of their predecessors. That left the team little time for the standard procedure of conducting network research on potential hosts, or even finding an entertainer with a calendar clear enough to accept the job. Meanwhile, Kimmel sat—and, according to a source, grew irritated.

For their part, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and C.E.O. Dawn Hudson must please their own 54-member board of governors, an eclectic group with often competing agendas. The Academy is grappling with a diversity problem, and selecting a white male host doesn’t help when it comes to matters of perception. One of Kimmel’s better improvised moments at the Emmys suggests he’s aware of that fact. After Transparent creator Jill Soloway yelled, “Topple the patriarchy,” while accepting a directing prize, Kimmel quipped, “I’m trying to figure out if ‘topple the patriarchy’ is a good thing for me or not. I don’t think it is.”

Now that he has the job, Kimmel and Oscar producers DeLuca and Todd will have to establish trust and chemistry quickly, coming to an agreement on format decisions, writing teams, and bits they can plan before Oscar nominations are announced January 24. Previous teams have struggled to keep the show moving while giving out all 24 prizes, including such obvious audience bathroom breaks as best sound editing and best documentary short subject.

Historically, the best years for Oscar ratings come in tandem with box-office hits among the nominees, and there’s no guarantee of that this year. So far, Clint Eastwood’s Sully, which has crossed $200 million worldwide, and the Amy Adams–starring Arrival, which has crossed $100 million worldwide, would seem like the best hope among live-action films, while original song performances from Moana and Hidden Figures could also attract some eyeballs.

Over the years, ratings for Kimmel’s own post-Oscar specials on ABC have closely tracked those for the Oscar telecast itself, hitting a high of around 7 million viewers in 2014—the year DeGeneres hosted.