Joey Fatone, Other Insiders Expose Dark Truth About Boy Bands in New Docuseries: ‘This Is a Scam’
Groups like NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys were pop music royalty in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. But there was a dark side to being a teen idol, those who lived it say in the trailer for ID’s new docuseries, Boy Band Confidential: A Hollywood Demons Event.
“I was sitting on the 38th floor balcony of my New York apartment, and I just thought about jumping off,” Ashley Parker Angel of O-Town confesses in the teaser for the four-part series, which premieres April 13, leading into a new season of Hollywood Demons.
‘Boy Band Confidential’ explores the ‘human cost’ of pop culture craze
Produced by NSYNC’s Joey Fatone, Boy Band Confidential explores “how the industry transformed young performers into marketable commodities while exposing untold stories of abuse, addiction, and financial manipulation,” according to ID. In candid conversations, interviewees open up about “the secret machinery of manufactured superstardom and the devastating human cost of the era’s glossy perfection.”
In addition to Fatone and Angel, viewers will hear from Lance Bass of NSYNC, AJ McLean of Backstreet Boys, Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees, Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men, Brad Fischetti of LFO, and others.
“This is a scam,” Lachey says in the trailer, which features other interviewees hinting at the dark reality behind the glossy facade, including betrayal, drugs, guns, and abuse.
“The people we thought had our backs didn’t,” one person says.
“Being in a boy band was one of the greatest experiences of my life but it also came with challenges we didn’t always understand at the time,” Fatone said. “This project gave all of us a chance to reflect, to be honest, and to share what really happened behind the spotlight.”
“Boy Band Confidential goes beyond nostalgia. It’s an honest, unfiltered look at a cultural phenomenon that shaped an entire generation,” said ID president Jason Sarlanis. “With Joey Fatone bringing together a who’s who of artists from the era’s most iconic boy bands, we’re illuminating the pressures, vulnerabilities, and surprising realities of life at the height of pop stardom with a level of access rarely achieved in music documentaries.”
New season of ‘Hollywood Demons’ looks at ‘16 and Pregnant’ and ‘The Jerry Springer Show’
After digging deep into the truth about the boy band boom, Hollywood Demons will explore more hard truths about pop culture touchstones in its second season. Upcoming two-hour episodes will revisit The Jerry Springer Show, Saved by the Bell, and 16 and Pregnant, “delivering deep investigations into the emotional and systemic costs of fame.” Season 2 will also look at child stars whose lives took a shocking turn as adults, as well as the world of “celebrity doctors” who’ve been implicated in the deaths of beloved stars like Matthew Perry and Prince.
Boy Band Confidential: A Hollywood Demons Event premieres on Monday, April 13 and Tuesday, April 14 from 9–11 p.m. ET/PT on ID. The second season of Hollywood Demons premieres Monday, April 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ID. All episodes will stream on HBO Max.
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