‘Saturday Night Live’ books Jim Parsons to host, Beck to perform on March 1

“Saturday Night Live” just decided to get a bit of “bazinga” for its upcoming March 1 series, even if it means hiring someone who is basically one of your competitors in primetime.

Jim Parsons of “The Big Bang Theory” is going to host the show for the first time, and he will joined by none other than Beck, who certainly has a rich backlog of music that he can draw from for the appearance. This will mark the first edition of the show since the Winter Olympics, and also the first featuring Colin Jost as the new co-anchor of “Weekend Update” following the departure of Seth Meyers. (Cecily Strong will stay firmly in her post.)

As for whether or not Parsons is going to be a good person for the job, we have reason to be optimistic. While Dr. Sheldon Cooper is a character who many find grating, Jim has a rich history of performing on stage thanks to Broadway, and “The Big Bang Theory” routinely films in front of a live studio audience. While there may not be an opportunity for him here to do multiple takes of anything, he at least knows how to handle himself well in this environment.

In the end, the entire success of this is really just going to be based on the quality of the material that Jim is given. We have no doubt that he is gifted enough to pull it off, but “SNL” is such a collaborative effort. You need to ensure that there are great sketches written for you, and also some interesting things for the other cast members to do to go along with it. Given all the change this year, a few more great hosts need to be added in order to provide a little bit of that stability to proceedings.

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Photo: NBC