Many years ago, in my youth, a man named P. Diddy blessed the airwaves with the iconic talent show Making the Band. Now, 11 years since its final episode, the show that birthed O-Town and Danity Kane is returning to MTV, helmed by Diddy, his children, and choreographer/producer LaurieAnn Gibson.
It’s hard to choose what will be the most exciting part of this reboot: the talent search or watching Gibson, who has been the same age since I was born, verbally destroy any potential band members who can’t keep up with her. Note that she once told Diddy, in a heart-to-heart conversation for the cameras, “You don’t empower a person by calling them a bitch.”
According to Vulture, the search this season will rely largely on social media, with vocal audition booths appearing in Houston, Charlotte, New York, and Atlanta. Band hopefuls can record their audition in the booths and upload them to social media to grow a following. (The next Danity Kane could be floating around Instagram at this very moment.) Diddy’s sons Christian, Quincy, and Justin will serve as judges.Although the original show focused on the creation of what was supposed to be the next great musical act to come out of Bad Boy Entertainment, the true star of those first few seasons was Diddy’s thirst for theatrics. There is no television moment in any decade more famous than when the producer/rapper/showman, annoyed with the members of Da Band in 2003, ordered the entire group to walk to Junior’s Cheesecake in Brooklyn from the Bad Boy offices in Manhattan and get him a slice of cheesecake. They complained the whole five-hour walk, but the cheesecake was delivered, sending Junior’s into the next stratosphere of success.
If viewers are lucky, this season will find its own version of Aubrey O’Day, a Danity Kane member who would argue with Diddy about everything from her look (which is fair) to microphone positioning in the booth. Aubrey fought for it all because she believed her band would go on to make moderately successful club bangers. Making the Band is not the show TV lovers deserve, but the one they need, in the wake of American Idol’s millionth talentless season. The official air date has yet to be announced. Till then, let’s reminisce.