ABC Takes Page out of SPIKE Playbook, Orders Show Based on Jimmy Kimmel’s “Who Knows…”
SPIKE hit a homerun when it turned Jimmy Fallon’s late night “Lip Sync Battles” into a full series and just last week the network announced it was also producing a one off special based off James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. This week ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel and Banijay Studios are teaming up to bring us “Big Fan”, the ultimate superfan game show.
Kimmel will produce and Andy Richter will host this foray into potentially hilarious awkwardness. The concept is simple, each half hour episode will feature a different celebrity and three “superfans” of said celebrity. The superfans will answer questions about their favorite celebrity to determine who is superfan supreme. Once the lesser fans have been eliminated, superFan supreme will go head-to-head against their favorite celebrity! You read that right. People will go on a game show to compete with a celebrity, in hopes that they know more about the celebrity than the celebrity knows about themselves. In an age of reality television and accessibility to celebrities via social media, I could see why developing this concept into a series could be enticing. Celebrity clips go viral on social media almost as effectively as kitten videos do. As a human being, the concept is terrifying and triggers images of speechless civilians panicking under the pressure of not looking stupid in front of the people they admittedly obsess over.
In a perfect world, starstruck fans will get a life changing experience and the celebrities will get a unique look at their superfans and feel connected to people they touch so deeply. In a not so perfect world, this looks like a gateway drug to some restraining orders.
Jimmy Kimmel; David Goldberg, Banijay Group President and Banijay Studios North America CEO; and Caroline Baumgard, chief creative officer, Banijay Studios North America, will serve as executive producers. No word yet on a premiere date.
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