ABC Developing Music Competition Series

Even as ABC gears up for another season of American Idol , the network is apparently looking for the next great music competition series and pinning its hopes on a new show called Who’s in the Band.

Deadline reports ABC has ordered a test shoot of Who’s in the Band; enlisted Simon Cowell, Mel B, and Savan Kotecha as judges; and brought Rei Ami on board as host.

The test shoot will film at Eastbrook Studios in London on October 30, and the resulting presentation will not air on ABC but instead serve as a proof of concept.

Deadline adds that Who’s in the Band is a search for the next One Direction, the popular boy band Cowell famously assembled from contestants on the British X Factor. Casting materials cited by the site indicate Who’s in the Band contestants will perform the same song in color-tinted tubes.

Cowell became a household name in the U.S. as an original judge of Fox’s version of American Idol, which debuted in 2002. Since then, he has judged The X Factor UK and America’s Got Talent.

Mel B is a singer known as the Spice Girls’ Scary Spice, one of the five members of the British girl group, and she, too, has served as a judge on The X Factor UK and America’s Got Talent.

Kotecha is a songwriter whose credits include songs by Ariana Grande (“One Last Time,” “Into You,” “No Tears Left to Cry”), The Weeknd (“Can’t Feel My Face,” “In the Night”), and One Direction (“What Makes You Beautiful,” “Kiss You”).

And Rei Ami is a singer known for her viral collaboration with Sub Urban on the song “Freak,” and she also provided the singing voice for the character Zoey in the hit Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters.

The project comes from Yes Yes Media, a new media company that British TV presenter Richard Bacon founded in 2023. According to its website, Yes Yes’s backers include Courteney Cox along with Kotecha and fellow songwriter Johnny McDaid, Cox’s partner.

Auditions are already underway for American Idol Season 24, meanwhile, and that season is set for an early 2026 premiere date.