Joel McHale joins Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and T.J. Miller as the latest comedian and actor confirmed to be hosting a major awards show. In McHale’s case, it’s the People’s Choice Awards, reports Variety.
McHale had some fun in acknowledging that this awards ceremony isn’t quite as high profile as the Academy Awards, which Kimmel has been confirmed to host, or the Golden Globes, which Fallon will head up. (Miller, meanwhile, hosted this year’s Critics’ Choice Awards.) “The people have spoken,” he joked, “and they want Jimmy Kimmel to host the 2017 Oscars! And the people have also spoken and said that it would be okay if I hosted the 2017 People’s Choice Awards. Well, one person said that. Luckily, that person was Les Moonves, so no one questioned it.”
McHale is no stranger to hosting gigs. Along with serving as host of his own E! show The Soup for an impressive 12 seasons, he also previously hosted the 2014 White House Correspondents Dinner, and the 2015 ESPY Awards. As an actor, he’s also shown strong comedic chops, most notably in cult favorite Community on NBC. He now appears in The Great Indoors on CBS, as an adventure reporter for an outdoors magazine who finds himself dealing with a team of millennials once the publication goes digital only.
Mark Burnett, executive producer of the People’s Choice Awards show, calls McHale a “brilliant comedic talent.”
The 2017 People’s Choice Awards, which honors the best in movies, television, music, and pop culture, will air live on CBS on Wednesday, January 18, from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Unlike other awards shows, as the name implies, viewers and fans vote online to select the winners in categories like Favorite New TV Comedy, Favorite Movie Icon, and Favorite Social Media Celebrity.
