Since The Beatles kicked off boy-band mania in 1960, countless groups have tried to pick up where they left off. And after The Monkees took a group formed for a television series all the way to the top of the Billboard charts (yes, both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, multiple times — even knocking themselves off the No. 1 spot of the Billboard 200), modern-day producers took note and followed that formula.
We had Making the Band in 2000 and a Monkees-style Nickelodeon show years after that, and even The X Factor U.K. turned into a boy-band developer thanks to Simon Cowell in 2010. Oh, and a parody boy band that made fun of the Backstreet Boysand *NSYNC types in a TV show in 1999. To continue that boy band-making streak in 2017, ABC is kicking off a new show Thursday night (June 22) simply titled Boy Band in the hunt for the next hottest thing in boy-band history.
In chronological order, these are the TV-made boy bands that resulted in some pretty impressive careers: The Monkees (1965), 2gether (1999), O-Town (2000), Day26 (2007), Big Time Rush (2009), One Direction (2010) and CNCO (2015). They’ve all had their own successes and hits — and poster-worthy attractiveness — but who best proved that they were more than some manufactured TV product?
We gave our take, so now we want to hear who you think is the best TV-made boy band. Vote in our poll below!