‘Saturday Night Live’: Christoph Waltz to host show eight days before Oscars

In what has to be a pretty smart move for himself when it comes to being in the public eye, Christoph Waltz has booked for himself the perfect way to advertise his skills just before the ballots for the Academy Awards are due in: he is set to appear on “Saturday Night Live.”

NBC announced Wednesday that the star of “Django Unchained,” who is currently a frontrunner to ultimately win his second Oscar following a victory at the Golden Globes, will host the broadcast on February 16. If he ends up completely nailing this show, it may just be that extra thing that considers Oscar voters could use to make their final decision. Is it supposed to be all about the movies? Sure, but how often does it really work out that way?

As for the musical guest, Alabama Shakes is going to be stopping by to perform a pair of tracks. This continues something that we love “Saturday Night Live” for: their continued support of up-and-coming artists rather than just big-name artists that you are sure to have heard about. Some of the guests this season already include the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Passion Pit, fun., and the Lumineers. (Of course, we also had a visit from Sir Paul McCartney thrown in there for all of you music legends.)

Even though we do not know at the moment whether or not Waltz is going to be as fantastic on live TV as he is in movies, it’s still a smart move for him to try and show off some other parts of his talent. Plus, it has to go better than the disaster shows taken on by Jeremy Renner and Daniel Craig from the fall. (Jennifer Lawrence’s, meanwhile, was hit-and-miss.)

What do you think of the choice here? If you want to check out the most-recent “SNL” highlights featuring Adam Levine, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: NBC