• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, August 8, 2023

I am not a particular superfan of anything, but after watching CBS’s new summer show “Superfan,” I wonder if I might be missing something.

The contestants on this show are all superfans of a particular music artist. They seem like exuberant, fun-loving people as they live their lives in adoration of their idols.

In my own defense, I can be exuberant and fun-loving at times too, but my innate journalistic cynicism prevents me from going too overboard in my admiration for a singer or anyone else.

I admire many performers, and some sports stars, but I have never memorized their songs or stats, bought t-shirts with their images on them, wore the same clothes as they do, or stood in line for days to buy tickets to see them. 

Take all these people who are dressing up in pink to go and see Barbie. I wouldn’t be caught dead in pink.

Everyone else is certainly entitled to their fun, but I find it difficult to join them. For example, years ago, I went to a midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (at the Biograph in Chicago) and then as now, I didn’t do the time warp. 

Thus, it was with great curiosity that I previewed portions of Episodes One and Two of “Superfan” last week. The show premieres Wednesday on CBS.

The two shows featured CBS star LL Cool J and Shania Twain (dressed in green in the photo above) and their fans -- five of whom were chosen at random from the studio audience to compete for the title of Biggest Superfan.

Other stars slated to come face to face with their superfans on future episodes of “Superfan” include Gloria Estefan and Pitbull. 

After seeing Pitbull perform at the close of an Upfront presentation a few years ago, I became a fan, but here again, not a superfan.

Hosted by celebrity journalist Keltie Knight and CBS sports personality Nate Burleson, “Superfan” is positioned as a salute to fandom, a word that the TV Blog began to hear only recently.

After being plucked from the audience, the five superfans are each positioned behind a podium, game-show style, to vie for a grand prize.

On the Shania Twain show, the contestants were challenged to name her various songs based on the playing of two or three notes from the original recording. This did not present much of a challenge to the superfans.

The prize for winning the Shania Biggest Superfan title was an opportunity to drink a glass of champagne backstage with Shania. This didn’t seem like much to me, but I’m not a Shania Twain superfan.

“Superfan” premieres Wednesday (August 9) at 9 p.m. Eastern on CBS.