• Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Mar 24, 2000
Season #: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 17
  2. Negative: 3 out of 17

Critic Reviews

  1. Houston Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ann Hodges
    Nov 28, 2019
    83
    "Making the Band" is "The Monkees" meets MTV's "The Real World" and "Road Rules." What a concept...The big surprise is, it works. [24 March 2000]
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Howard Rosenberg
    Nov 28, 2019
    80
    The premiere is tender and seductive. [24 March 2000, p.F2]
  3. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    Nov 28, 2019
    80
    Making the Band proves highly watchable. This story of a bubblegum band gives you something to chew on. [24 March 2000]
  4. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Allan Johnson
    Nov 27, 2019
    80
    Enticing. [19 March 2000, p.3]
  5. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: John Levesque
    Nov 28, 2019
    75
    Even if all eight continue to be as fresh-scrubbed and downright agreeable as they seem tonight, Making the Band already promises to capture a thrill of victory/agony of defeat ethos that's irresistible to the average dreamer. [24 March 2000]
  6. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    Nov 28, 2019
    70
    Sick as it sounds, this should be fun. [24 March 2000, p.1E]
  7. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Terry Jackson
    Nov 28, 2019
    70
    Unlike The Real World, Making The Band has far more hopeful, giddy moments where you can't help but root for these guys to make it. [24 March 2000, p.1E]
  8. San Diego Union-Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert P. Laurence
    Nov 28, 2019
    63
    It worked for the Monkees. Maybe it'll work for O-Town. The concept is almost the same. [24 March 2000, p.E-11]
  9. Reviewed by: Caryn James
    Nov 28, 2019
    60
    A stylish mix of candid documentary film and talking-to-the-camera interviews, the show looks like "The Real World" for a reason; it has the same producers. Musical scenes of the auditions and of dance and vocal practices become sharply edited mini-music videos; another producer is MTV.
  10. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    Nov 28, 2019
    60
    It may not be great TV, but it most definitely is now. Think of it as "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillion-Dollar Contract." [24 March 2000]
  11. Cleveland Plain Dealer
    Reviewed by: Tom Feran
    Nov 27, 2019
    60
    It is revealing in its accidental way and, like the boy bands, rates as harmless diversion. [23 March 2000]
  12. Detroit Free Press
    Reviewed by: Mike Duffy
    Nov 28, 2019
    50
    Slick, mindlessly entertaining. [24 March 2000]
  13. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: John Maynard
    Nov 28, 2019
    50
    For those who can't stomach the syrupy sounds of today's boy bands, consider this your warning. The program is full of the kind of sugarcoated songs that dominate today's pop charts. [24 March 2000, p.C07]
  14. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Ray Richmond
    Nov 28, 2019
    50
    This show looks less like a TV series and more like an attraction at Disney World. ("Hey boys and girls, it's Testosterone Land!") [24 March 2000]
  15. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Robert Bianco
    Nov 28, 2019
    37
    While the young girls who follow these boy bands may be fascinated, their parents are likely to be alternately touched and horrified. These young men are so hopeful, so eager, so openly and innocently ambitious. And if you watch, you'll see how easily some of them are crushed...Tell me why that's entertaining. [24 March 2000]
  16. Reviewed by: Phil Gallo
    Nov 27, 2019
    30
    Hourlong debut is numbingly dull and predictable, a combination of MTV's "Real World" with "Behind the Music" lighting and a random public access "community auditions" show.
  17. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    Nov 28, 2019
    25
    Stranger things have happened, but it's going to take some powerful wizardry to whip Making the Band into must-see TV. [24 March 2000]