Who Will Host The 2015 Emmys?

On September 20th, 2015, the Primetime Emmy Awards will once again dole out awards to the best and the brightest television producers in the business. Talented pretty boys Neil Patrick Harris and Seth Meyers are among the most recent batch of beloved celebrities to host the ceremony, but who will host the 2015 Emmy Awards? The honor, it turns out, goes to Saturday Night Live alum and Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andy Samberg, and he's guaranteed to bring a new level of levity and humor to what has historically been an austere evening.

“It’s wonderfully fitting that we have Andy Samberg, an Emmy Award winner himself, as our host for this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards,” TV Academy Chairman and CEO Bruce Rosenblum said in a press release. “Andy has excelled in all aspects of the television universe, both from behind and in front of the camera.”

When it comes to awards shows, each ceremony has its own brand of entertainment. The Academy Awards often take their evening very seriously, focusing more on tributes to cinematic classics than controversial humor. The Golden Globes, on the other hand, are like the Academy Awards' drunk cousin (sometimes quite literally): the audience is actually drinking the whole time, so the hosts can go for bolder humor, and the whole night can get a little raucous. The Emmys are typically somewhere in between: they're more dignified than the Golden Globes in terms of audience/host behavior, but there's more room for surprising moments and spontaneous humor than the Oscars.

Andy Samberg is a decidedly fun choice for Emmy hosting, and it's likely that he'll shake up some of the stuffiness. He's made a whole comedy career out of playing an endearingly immature bro, and it's hard to imagine that he'll suddenly straighten up and fly right for the Emmys. In fact, he's already promised that this year's ceremony's will be anything but quaint.

“Buckle your seat belts, Emmy viewers!" Samberg said in the same press release. “Like, in general you should buckle your seat belts in your car. In fact, even if you’re not an Emmy viewer, you should buckle your seat belt. It can be dangerous on the road. Also, if you’re not an Emmy viewer, you should strongly consider becoming one this year, because I’m hosting, and it’s gonna be a wild ride. So buckle your seat belts.”

There's a good chance that Samberg's warning is more than just a joke: the comedian already has a history of sparking controversy with his Emmy performances. His sketch hip-hop group, The Lonely Island, performed a star-studded medley of their songs from their SNL skits in 2011, including "3-Way (The Golden Rule)" and "I Just Had Sex." The vulgar lyrics and imagery infuriated protective parents across the country, who felt the Emmys should remain a family-friendly affair. Even Jon Stewart made a comment about the questionable content when he won an award later that night, saying he now had to explain a bunch of stuff to his kids, who were watching the show.

Will Andy Samberg play it straight and family-friendly, or will he antagonize parents everywhere with his irreverent antics? Find out for yourself when the ceremony airs on Fox on September 20th. In the meantime, here's hoping The Lonely Island make a return!