NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys both rose to fame due to their “talent” and the boy band craze in the early 2000s. People apparently still love boy bands in 2017, and ABC is capitalizing on it.
ABC has officially ordered a 10-episode series order of Boy Band, a show that will feature various male singers fighting to join/form a new boy band. According to Variety, it will be produced by Matador Content and will debut this summer.
The men competing will fight for five spots in the band that already has a recording contract with Hollywood Records. Viewers will vote from home for the potential members of the band.
The hosts and judges haven’t been picked yet, but ABC is looking at current and former members of various boy and girl bands to join the show. The judges themselves won’t be called judges, though – they’ll instead be referred to as “architects” that mentor the contestants.
Singing shows have been a hit for a while and ABC hopes Boy Band will be no different. Matador Content also produces the hit singing show Lip Sync Battle and ABC is hoping its new show will have the same success. Along with Matador Content, Boy Band will also be produced by Todd Lubin (The Biggest Loser), Jay Peterson (co-founder of Matador Content), Jane Mun (various MTV Movie Awards and Annual People’s Choice Awards shows), and Joel Relampagos (The Biggest Loser).
ABC doesn’t have a major hit singing show much like NBC’s The Voice or Spike’s Lip Sync Battle, and they’re obviously hoping this will give them a foothold in the genre.
For fun, here are some former members of major boy and girl bands we’d love to see as judges:
1. Justin Timberlake (NSYNC) – We know Timberlake has a great personality and is unarguably the most famous member of the former boy band NSYNC. To add him to the show would be big for ABC, and he could take on a similar role as a leading judge of sorts like Adam Levine has on The Voice.
2. Kelly Rowland (Destiny’s Child) – The likelihood that Beyonce joins the show is highly unlikely, so why not go after the other lead vocal of the popular former girls band? Rowland would be a great addition to the show and is still an active singer.
3. Zayn Malik (One Direction) – Malik famously left One Direction in 2015, so he would bring an interesting viewpoint to this show. One Direction was founded through another singing show X Factor, so if ABC were to bring anyone from One Direction on board that would be huge.
4. Victoria Beckham (Spice Girls) – Someone from the Spice Girls should probably be on this show and Victoria Beckham is arguably the most famous name from the band in 2017. She would also be the token British judge if Zayn Malik or someone else from One Direction doesn’t join the show.
[Variety]
