Kelly Rowland, who has been a judge on shows like “X-Factor” and “The Voice,” is back in the judge’s seat on Netflix’s latest reality TV competition show, “Building the Band.”
The show, which dropped its first episodes on Wednesday, July 9, with the final set arriving Wednesday, July 23, is hosted by AJ McLean and features Rowland among a panel of judges, including the late Liam Payne and Nicole Scherzinger. It has flipped the reality music competition show formula on its head.
Over the course of 10 episodes, six different bands will come together, sight unseen, and develop over weeks, all vying for the top spot. The premise combines concepts from other popular Netflix shows like “Love is Blind.” The show kicks off with the contestants all auditioning for each other anonymously. Based on just their voices and conversations, they have to commit to being in a band before they can actually see each other. Their first real test is whether they can pull off a song together without meeting until the performance.
“I think why people will connect with this particular idea and platform is that it’s still so authentic,” Rowland told People magazine in an interview ahead of filming.
“They’re using their senses the same way they do in ‘Love Is Blind.’ You don’t know what’s going to happen, but isn’t that anything in life? Anything in life is sometimes daring and risky, comes out great or it can come out terrible,” she added. “I’m just really delighted to be on board.”
Since the episodes dropped, six bands have all met, moved in with one another, and successfully completed their first showcase. The first set of episodes ends on a cliffhanger, with viewers left waiting to learn which of the bottom two bands is getting cut.
While it remains to be seen which band is going home, one thing remains clear: the show’s formula may be onto something. Nearly all of the six bands have the chemistry of seasoned bands that have been performing together for years. The show is entertaining to watch in large part because, unlike reality competition shows of yesteryear, it avoids the comically bad singers altogether. Everyone can seriously blow, whether they all work together is the hook.
The bands that have come together so far include: SZN4, a diverse foursome made up of two women and two men who have already delivered two remarkably original renditions of popular songs; SOULIFIDED, another foursome made up of four guys (two of which are white and two are Black but is giving B2K meets Usher in the early aughts); 3QUENCY, a clever play on frequency made up of three women not that unlike 3LW or Destiny’s Child—if either of those groups had a JoJo; Sweet Seduction; another trio of women who may have one too many divas in their set; Siren Society, a foursome that could be the Spice Girls meets Fifth Harmony; and Midnight to Morning; a foursome that could be the second comeing of One Direction complete with their own Harry Styles.
The season thus far has been marked by high-stakes challenges, drama, a romance that nearly saw one band almost break up, and powerhouse performances in between.
While the three judges are each very thoughtful and considerate in their feedback, they don’t mince words either. At least one band, while made up of all strong singers, has yet to fully gel as a unit, and Rowland was quick to spot that. She told them in the band, you have to speak French, ‘It’s oui, oui, oui.’ Payne highlighted that another band, still recovering from nearly breaking up 24 hours before the showcase, had some noticeable jitters and confidence issues.
Speaking to We’re Watching, What about the show, Rowland said, one of the main advantages to starting it in a band, if you can master it, is learning how to “communicate.”
“Right off the bat … Like, you have to talk, you know what I mean?” she explained.
“And you know, It’s like, the honeymoon phase of, like, getting to know somebody,” she added. “Then you gotta start to, like, get underneath some layers. You start to peel back layers in this beautiful way, to where you get to know the person. You also get to know exactly what kind of storytelling you want to do as a group. It just makes you richer, you know, as a band. So I think that’s a really important factor.”
