I will henceforth be posting reactions to NBC’s press releases regarding upcoming hosts and musical guests on SNL.  My thoughts will have to do with my expectations of the quality of these guests and whether or not I included these choices on my guest prediction list at the beginning of the season.  The lineups for the first two shows in February were the most recently annouced.

2/4/12: Channing Tatum/Bon Iver: I know a lot of ladies like Channing for his face (I guess) and his abs, but I’ve never known him to have much charisma.  He made an interesting face during one part of the Haywire trailer, so hopefully he can capitalize on that.
I am familiar with Bon Iver, but I am not that familiar with their songs.  Justin Vernon’s band seems like just the sort of indie act that ought to be on SNL, and I correctly thought that that might happen this year.

2/11/12: Zooey Deschanel/Karmin: I almost included Zooey on my predictions, but she was the one of the last to miss the cut.  I figured that stars of hit TV shows don’t host SNL until at least the second season of their shows.  The last TV star to host during the first season of his/her hit show was Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 2006 during the first year of The New Adventures of Old Christine, and that could be considered an exception since she was a returning cast member.  Anyway, Zooey’s unmistakably singular quirkiness could lead to a good show, or it could be like Abby Elliott’s impression of Zooey, which makes the mistake of announcing how awesome it is.
And I’m still trying to figure out what to say about Karmin.  Their one “hit” song is the middle-school anti-hater anthem “Crash Your Party.”  They are an engaged couple who seem to actually be musically talented and somewhat intelligent, but are using their musical ability for the purpose of issues that are exclusively the concerns of people much younger than them.  It’s like Michael Jackson singing the songs of Aaron Carter or Willow Smith.