‘Saturday Night Live’ preview: Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Moynihan, and a new ‘Hunger Games’

From the standpoint of marketing alone, it’s a brilliant move to air a new episode of “Saturday Night Live” featuring Josh Hutcherson this weekend. This is one of the biggest young movie stars out there right now thanks to “The Hunger Games,” and there is a new version of the franchise out this weekend in “Catching Fire.” The only potential risk that the show runs into is that so many of the fans are out catching the movie over the weekend that they are not actually able to catch the show.

As for how in the world Hutcherson is actually going to fare as a host, that is a worthy question. The things that the 21-year old actor does well do not necessarily translate to being on stage, at least not as much as someone like a Seth MacFarlane or a Justin Timberlake, who has more experience performing in front of live audiences that want to laugh. We compare this experience for him in some ways to when Jennifer Lawrence hosted the show earlier this year, at least in that they both have a resume of performing, but this is a very different sort of beast for them to take on.

Personally, we expect this to be a somewhat hit-or-miss show, unless Hutcherson comes out and completely blows us away. It also depends on what sort of material the writers actually choose to hand to him. It would not stun us at all to at least see one “Hunger Games” spoof, just as it would not surprise us to have it mentioned throughout his opening monologue. The other problem they could have right now is a lack of material; last week’s show benefited heavily from the Rob Ford scandal in Toronto. Where’s the big news story of this week to make fun of?

What do you think about this preview, and are you excited to see what more is coming up for Hutcherson this weekend? Be sure to share below, and click here if you want to watch some of the highlights from Gaga’s version of the show.

Photo: NBC