ABC/Eric McCandlessNow that One Direction is on permanent hiatus and the Backstreet Boys are no longer boys, fans need a hot new boy band, and ABC’s going to give it to them. The network’s new reality singing competition, called — you guessed it — Boy Band, premieres tonight, with a super-producer, a girl group star and a boy band legend along for the ride.
Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, super-producer Timbaland and Spice Girl Emma “Baby Spice” Bunton serve as the “architects” — read “mentors” — for Boy Band. On tonight’s two-hour premiere, 30 young male vocalists — aged 15 to 24 — will audition for the architects, who will cut the 30 down to 18, and then arrange them into three groups of six for the competition’s next phase.
Nick praises the show, hosted by British pop star Rita Ora, as having “a different approach” than other music shows, and believes viewers will enjoy the chemistry between the architects, and the fact that they really care about the contestants. He believes he’s in a unique position to help them.
“I know what it’s like to be in a boy band for over 24 years,” he notes. “So I have a lot to give…[I just want to] make sure they know what they’re getting into and that they really truly want to be in a group.”
As for Emma, she says she’s looking for singers with “energy, power” and “something a bit special.”
“I wanna see fire in their belly,” she adds. “I wanna see that they really want this.”
As for Timbaland, he says the group that comes out of the show is “not gonna be the typical boy band, it’s gonna be very unique…I’m gonna switch it up, and make it very interesting.”
Boy Band premieres tonight on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
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