ABC’s ‘Boy Band’ pits 18 young men against each other for five spots in a new boy band

If “Boy Band,” the reality TV singing competition that premieres Thursday on ABC, seems familiar, it’s because the same network more or less came up with the same idea with “Making The Band, which after its debut in 2000 jumped to MTV and ran in different versions over the decade that followed.

But does a good idea, or a successful boy band ever really go away? Judging from the 17,000 or so grown women who lost their cool and reverted to their tween-aged selves when New Kids On The Block and Boyz II Men (and Paula Abdul as the sole non-boy band act) took the stage at the Hollywood Bowl recently, the answer then is a giddy, squeal-inducing ‘No!” which is surely the same result ABC is hoping for with “Boy Band.”

The format of the show, which includes a handful of young men from around Southern California, is familiar to anyone who’s seen a show like “American Idol,” “The X Factor,” or “The Voice.” The 18 young men who made it through the auditions will be formed into boy bands by judges, no, coaches, well, actually here they’re called “architects” for some reason. Can you actually “architect” a boy band? Maybe into a human pyramid?

The architects include mega-hyphenate Timbaland, a singer-songwriter-rapper-DJ-producer, actual boy band member Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys, and Emma Bunton, who at 41 probably doesn’t wanted to be called Baby Spice anymore, but that’s always going to be her legacy from her membership in the Spice Girls, a girl version of a boy band, also known as a girl group, we suppose. Singer Rita Ora serves as the host.

In the end, the contestants will sing, they’ll dance, you’ll vote, and when the 10-episode summer show is over, America – or at least the portion who tune into the show – will meet its latest, possibly-but-probably-not greatest boy band.

The singers range from the baby of the group, 14-year-old Jay “J Hype” Gilbert of Las Vegas, to the grizzled old man, 24-year-old Zack Taylor of Kansas City, Missouri. You’ll meet them all as the show gets underway, so today we’ll just briefly introduce you to the locals, the six fellas who listed Southern California cities as their hometowns. Starting with …

Chance Perez

Age: 19

Hometown: Seal Beach

Bio: Chance is a product of the show choir machine at Los Alamitos High School, including its SoundFX ensemble. As a member of that group in 2013 Perez won best male soloist at a prestigious national competition in Orlando, Florida. He’s attended college at Santa Ana College and Cypress College, and like most of these guys has a thriving YouTube channel where he posts his solo performances of various cover songs.

Randomly odd tweet:

Mtn Dew is pretty good

— Chance Perez (@ItsChancePerez) May 4, 2017

Story line: Perez is a teen dad with an adorable young daughter. Surely we’ll hear about how he’s doing this for her?

Andrew Bloom

Age: 19

Hometown: Yorba Linda

Bio: Andrew is no stranger to reality TV singing shows, having appeared on “American Idol” at 17, winning a golden ticket to Hollywood and bringing along his friend and Olympic sprinter Ryan Bailey, and “The Voice” when he was 15, though no chairs turned for young Andrew. He plays bars and restaurants around Orange and Los Angeles counties, including a regular gig as Mozambique in Laguna Beach.

Randomly odd tweet:

Throwback to a legendary day😂 the man himself #ronjeremy pic.twitter.com/nheCfBiIOh

— Andrew Bloom (@andrewbloomexp) July 12, 2016

Story line: But can he dance? In a clip released by ABC before the premiere, Nick Carter singles out a few contestants with good voices but suspect dance moves.

Jaden Gray

Age: 16

Hometown: Hawthorne

Bio: Jaden comes from a musical family — his older brother Jyon Gray is a singer with a good measure of success in the Christian music community, and at times the two Grays have performed in churches together. He also bumped into superstar rapper Kendrick Lamar at church one morning recently, too.

Randomly odd Instagram: 

Story line?: One of the younger contestants on the show, will his age and church background be a help or a hindrance?

Timmy Thames

Age: 17

Hometown: Malibu

Bio: Like Andrew Bloom, this ain’t Timmy’s first reality-TV-contest rodeo. In 2013 he appeared on season 3 of “The X Factor” and impressed enough that Rolling Stone magazine listed him as one of “the 12 most-robbed contestants,” comparing the then-13-year-old to a young Michael Jackson and saying he should have lasted longer on the show.

Randomly odd tweet:

“So the bald guy is the head of the evil people?” – My grandma referring to Voldemort. Yes, grandma. The head of the evil people.

— Timmy Thames (@ItsTimmyThames) July 31, 2016

Story line?: His hair. I’m serious, you’ve got to see these flowing tresses to know how important they’re going to be. Will his “architect” give him a makeover?

Mikey Jimenez,

Age: 17

Hometown: East Los Angeles

Bio: Well, what can we say but he’s the mystery man in the show? We had trouble finding any social media footprint for him, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Randomly odd tweet: Do you even tweet, bro?

Story line?: What’s he hiding? Kidding, kidding, he’s probably living a nice, old-fashioned private life. To be continued.

Matthew Dean

Age: 19

Hometown: Thousand Oaks

Bio: Matthew has been practicing his boy band vocals for a while now, filming covers of Harry Styles and Niall Horan songs – they, of course, being members of One Direction, another little boy band that was formed on a TV show.

Randomly odd tweet:

I like me better when I’m with you

— MATTHEWDEAN OFFICIAL (@Matthew_Dean_) June 9, 2017

Story line?: From his social media, it looks like Matthew might do a bit of modeling, so we’ll predict a pretty boy – can he make it? – arc.

‘Boy Band’

When: Premieres at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 22

Channel: ABC