Yahoo News ‘Superfan’s’ Keltie Knight on Hustling From TV Host to Creator: ‘Hollywood Likes to Put You Into Categories’
For years, Keltie Knight has been interviewing Hollywood’s biggest stars. A longtime entertainment correspondent, the on-air personality has rubbed shoulders with A-listers on red carpets, at premieres and award shows.
Now, she’s recruiting those stars to appear on her own show, “Superfan,” which premieres Wednesday night on CBS.
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“Superfan” is a musical game show where fans compete in multiple rounds of trivia to prove that they are their favorite artist’s No.1 fan. Each episode will feature a different musical icon, and one deserving super-fan will win a once-in-a-lifetime prize each week. Gloria Estefan, Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Pitbull, Shania Twain and LL Cool J are among the first season’s celebrity talent.
Knight — who has interviewed all of these celebrities — created the show and serves as executive producer and host. “Superfan” is a passion project for Knight, who comes from a musical background, getting her start as a backup dancer for Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, and as one of the Radio City Rockettes.
Known to TV audiences for her work as a correspondent on the syndicated newsmagazines “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Insider” and for hosting “The Thanksgiving Day Parade” on CBS, Knight’s relationship with the network dates back years. On “Superfan,” she’ll be partnered with another prime CBS talent, Nate Burleson, co-host of “CBS Mornings.” While serving as creator and host of the shiny-floor CBS competition, Knight still holds her position as chief correspondent on “E! News” and continues to host her popular podcast, “The Lady Gang,” which has inspired live tour dates and a reality show.
“This has been the most rewarding time of my life,” Knight tells Variety of becoming the boss and stepping into a creative position behind the scenes as both producer and host.
“What was so funny is that when we got down to who would want to be my co-host for the show, the name that would always come up — and has always come up when I’m auditioning or up for anything — is like, ‘Who is the new Ryan Seacrest?'” Knight shares. “I literally would always look around in the rooms of people, and I’d be like, ‘It’s me! It’s me. I’m the new Ryan Seacrest!’ Like, if you are looking for a man, you’re wrong because the new Ryan Seacrest is a woman. I’ve been so inspired by him in his career, and I am in my Ryan Seacrest era — I’m at ‘E! News,’ I’m creating shows, I have a hit podcast, which is kind of like radio-ish. But honestly, creating the show has been scary and terrifying, and so rewarding.”
Here, Knight talks to Variety about “Superfan” and her career progression from on-camera host to creator…
Where did the idea from “Superfan” come from?
I have no musical talent, and if I did, I would definitely be in a band. But I spent my entire adult life loving and wanting to be in the music business without any musical talent. I was a backup dancer for Beyoncé and Taylor Swift and then switched into hosting and dated a lot of rock stars and married a music manager. This has been in my world for such a long time. There’s an art to the fan. And being a fan is my talent. I can’t sing. I can’t do fire like on “America’s Got Talent,” but being a fan is my life’s calling.
What is the format of “Superfan?”
Viewers are going to see a one-hour huge, explosive, exciting music special on the biggest artists in the world — and we see it through the lens of the super fans. During the show, five super fans compete in rounds of gameplay where the fans have to prove their musical knowledge, their trivia knowledge, how well they know the artists, their passion, lip syncs, and then there is a huge performance by the artist. Then, America votes and that person wins.
What do they win?
First of all, you rule the fandom. But most importantly, you’re winning these once in a lifetime opportunities — for Kelsea Ballerini, her prize is that you get all of these things from her past and merch, but you also get to pick any song that she’s ever released and she’s going to fly you out and have you come on stage on tour and sing it with her. It’s the craziest prizes ever.
How did you get the stars on board?
I have to be honest, it was not easy. Obviously being on the network that has the Grammy Awards really helped. And I’m not going to lie, my husband who’s a music manager definitely made some calls for me. I got on zooms with artists’ managers and artists themselves. I had a zoom with LL Cool J where I pitched him myself, and I just explained that I want to create a place for music on television again, there is really nowhere for these A-list celebrities to go anymore — there’s no MTV with music anymore. We’re giving these artists a one-hour primetime special after “Big Brother” to show the world about their new music and their new tours. That’s really huge.
This show has been years in the making. I know it was out of your control when it finally got on the air, but why is now a good time for this show?
The thing that has always gotten me through any hard time in my life is music. I think that one of the most beautiful things in the world right now is a sense of community, and a lot of those communities are built around musicians, whether it’s the Beyhive or the Swifties, and I think the sense of belonging that comes with being a part of a fan base is so special. This is a show where I can watch it, my mom can watch it, the kids can watch it. It’s just such a joyous celebration. It’s emotional, there are huge laughs, there’s a lot of glamour, there’s the fantasy of Hollywood. It really feels like a good time to have something positive and special we can escape into.
It’s not typical for on-air talent to create their own show. Tell me about the pitching process.
I was hosting the Grammy red carpet live special for CBS in 2018. I remember turning to Jack Sussman, who is EVP at CBS, and Jodi Roth, who was the SVP of specials at CBS and is now my producing partner, and I was like, “We need to do more music. The Grammys is the best day of my life, and I want this to be every day.” And Jack looked at me, and was like, “Well, bring me a show.” It sounds easy, but it was not. It’s been a very long, stressful process. I will believe it when it’s on the air.
Statistically, we know there are far less women than men behind the camera who are actually in a position to make decisions. Stepping into this role as a female creator of a major network show, where do you think Hollywood is in terms of progress for women in power?
I hate to say it, but the Mindys and the Shondas of the world make it look easy when it is still pretty dismal. I think there’s just general this feeling like, “These are the guys we’ve always bought shows from, so we’re just going to buy more stuff from them.” Getting in the door with other projects that I’ve been taking out has been really difficult. There is this sense that it’s still this boys club on the production side. But what is interesting is that I’m pitching mostly to women — the SVPs and the heads of development at a lot of the networks and the streamers are female, which is awesome.
Do you believe people have underestimated your abilities because you have mostly been known as an on-air TV host covering the celebrity space?
1,000%. I think that that Hollywood likes to put you into categories — you’re either talent or a producer. That’s why I look up to Mindy Kaling so much because she is brilliant at both. But it’s certainly this thing of like, “You’re the girl on ‘E! News,’ so there’s no way you can also be smart.” I feel like I’ve been fighting against that my entire career. “The Lady Gang” was one of the first female podcasts. We were the first podcast that had a television show. We were the first podcast to do books and tours and things like that. I have created segments for shows throughout my career. So, I’ve been creating for a long time.
How has your experience working with celebrities as an entertainment reporter helped informed your role on this show?
What I realized after interviewing every huge celebrity on the planet for over a decade is that nobody has any idea what they’re doing. Most of the time, when you finish interviewing this huge celebrity, they’ll look at you and say, “Did I do okay?” Sitting with the most powerful people, interviewing them and getting a look into their lives — listen, they are supremely talented and they’re incredibly beautiful and they’re hard workers, but they don’t have a secret sparkle pair of wings. It’s just very simple. It’s hard work. It’s tenacity. It’s good ideas. It’s overcoming rejection. Nobody knows what they’re doing. And that is very comforting to me.
Was there any pushback with you wanting to host the show that you created?
No, there wasn’t any pushback. With my background, being on the beat of music and then being married to one of the biggest music managers, it all made such sense that like the musicians that came on the show would trust me. But I think there is still pushback in Hollywood to have females host shows by themselves. It’s just not the norm. It’s usually a guy and a girl together, or just a guy. But it worked out perfectly with Nate Burleson — we have so much in common and became such good friends that I do believe everything happens for a reason.
As you pitch more shows, are you hoping to always have an on-camera capacity on your projects?
It’s terrible to say, but I really do want it all. I love being in front of the camera. I love connecting with the audience at home. It means the world to me. But I also have ideas for shows and are working on things where I’m not the right host for it.
Formats like “Superfan” can run for decades. What do you envision for the future of the show?
I know we are going to have many seasons of this show because people need music television. We are also in talks with many countries around the world to do versions of “Superfan” for their territories. Fingers crossed that we have the new shiny floor television format, but we’ll see what happens.
Should there be future seasons of “Superfan,” do you have a wish list of celebrity guests?
There have been conversations about a second season, and I have already submitted my wish list to the network. I already have two massive artists that heard about the show after the fact that want to sign on for Season 2. But for me, I need Harry Styles and I need Nicki Minaj — although I did hear she’s usually at least six hours late for everything, so they probably won’t let me book her, but I would love to have her. And obviously, we need Beyoncé and we need Taylor Swift.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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