5 hours Ago By Brittany Busch
Netflix is going ahead with plans to screen its new talent discovery show despite the death of judge and former One Direction singer Liam Payne, according to The Hollywood Reporter . The first season of the musical reality competition Building the Band , in which Payne appeared as a judge and mentor, was filmed in the UK just months before the singer fell from a balcony in October and died aged 31. Tributes were left by fans outside the hotel where Liam Payne was found dead last year.
Credit: AP The series will see contestants join and rehearse a singing group without ever having seen the other members, the idea being to build a musical act on talent and chemistry alone. One Direction famously came together in just such a way on the British talent show The X Factor in 2010. The other judges on the show have similar singing-group experience, with Pussycat Dolls’ Nicole Scherzinger – who corralled Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson into performing together rather than as solo artists while she was a judge on The X Factor – set to flex her skills against Kelly Rowland (Destiny’s Child) and the now-deceased Payne.
Scherzinger and Payne remained close over the years. “I will forever cherish and treasure the time we shared together, from 15 years ago when One Direction was born, right up until just a few weeks ago,” she wrote on Instagram following the Strip That Down singer’s death. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Netflix has been in conversation with Payne’s family about the appropriateness and timing of the show and will announce more details about the upcoming talent quest, including the release date, in the near future.
It comes after the first posthumous release of one of Payne’s songs, Do No Wrong , was paused indefinitely. Collaborator Sam Pounds had said he would release the track in the weeks following Payne’s death, hoping to “eclipse the negative echoes” around the tragedy, but ultimately hit pause and said he would leave the decision to Payne’s family, the BBC reported. Payne’s sister, Ruth, co-wrote the song.
Netflix will also need to contend with how to honour Payne’s memory in the new reality show and mitigate viewer discomfort at seeing him at work in the months leading up to his untimely death. How they plan to do so has not yet been confirmed, but could include a tribute from Scherzinger and Rowland, and possibly also host AJ McLean (The Backstreet Boys)..
