‘Saturday Night Live’ brings in J.K. Simmons to host, D’Angelo to perform January 31

The funny thing about the January 31 episode of “Saturday Night Live” is that it could be January 31, 2005 versus 2015 and few would have really noticed.

The NBC series confirmed today on Twitter that J.K. Simmons, currently on awards tour for his performance in “Whiplash,” has been brought on to be the host for this edition of the show. Meanwhile, he will be joined by musical guest D’Angelo. This is a somewhat odd pairing of people to host an edition of this show for many reasons, with the biggest one being that given that this is the day before the Super Bowl, why not cast someone who is a football icon for the sake of cross-promotion? Was a Peyton Manning or an Aaron Rodgers or an Andrew Luck not available? It’s too bad Richard Sherman is playing in the Super Bowl, since we’d love to see him host (with an Erin Andrews cameo).

Simmons is a skilled and accomplished character actor, but is he really well known to most Americans? We don’t feel like it. This is in contrast to the winter premiere hosted by Kevin Hart, or the upcoming show this weekend hosted by Blake Shelton. Is there any audience carryover from any one of these shows to the next? It feels like three of the most random people imaginable, and we’re also surprised that all of them are men.

Hopefully, this means that we’ll be getting someone really great like Amy Poehler in February. We don’t know how long we are going to have to beg to see that happen.

For now, let us know what you think about the choice of Simmons as host! Also, click here for our review of this past “Saturday Night Live” episode, or here to sign up for more TV scoop on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)