Building the Band Review – Love is Blind meets X-Factor and The Voice

The Review Geek

09-07-2025

Season 1
Episode Guide
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
*Review based on the first 4 episodes and sneak-peeks at what's coming up*
It's been a while since we've had a proper singing competition show on screens. Between X-Factor, The Voice, and the Got Talent series in its many global guises, the genre's seen its fair share of amazing singers. Not one to miss a trick, Netflix are back with their latest summer reality show, tapping into the best and worst parts of singing competitions.
Don't expect off-key auditions or ordinary folks plucked from obscurity though, as Building the Band cuts straight to the good stuff. The singers are hand-picked off-screen, and they're all competent from the get-go. The twist? These guys and gals have to form their own bands and judge each other's talent.
50 singers are introduced inside individual glass cubes (think Love is Blind), with limited windows to talk and a finite number of 'likes' (5 in total) they can give after performances. Those likes are used to signal interest in forming a group. Performers are judged by their peers, with reactions shown in classic X-Factor style. Expect clapping, gasps, and plenty of thumbnail fodder for reaction YouTubers! Overseeing all this sonic chaos is host AJ McLean, who serves on narration duty.
Some singers arrive with a clear goal here, wanting to be the next big boyband or girl group. Others though, are far more flexible. While the self-curation process is quite intriguing, it's also deeply flawed. Early performers benefit from a full pool of likes and no eliminations, allowing their fellow singers to be much more lenient.
Conversely, those later in the queue are judged more harshly with fewer likes left in play and bands starting to be formed together. Episodes 3 and 4 make this imbalance painfully clear.
The looming pressure comes from the fact that only six bands can move forward to the next stage. Groups can be made up of between three and five members, so if six trios form early on, everyone else is out. This is an interesting little mechanic that could have injected strategy and mind games like Beast Games did earlier this year, but never fully delivers on that potential.
Having said that, when the bands do click, they really click. A standout cover of Bruno Mars' Finesse is particularly strong, and several groups show real chemistry.
The middle chunk of episodes appear to move into the rehearsal phase, with Nicole Scherzinger lending her coaching skills, honed through her time on The X-Factor. These guys and gals are likely to then head onto the main stage, where judges Liam Payne and Kelly Rowland lend their expertise to look at the quality on offer, with the winning band taking home a cool $500,000 prize.
There are a few missed opportunities here to tighten up the process though. Allowing singers to chat freely before hearing each other sing could have added an emotional dimension missing from the rehearsals. Letting everyone perform first with unlimited likes and a tight band-forming deadline could have also solved the fairness issues entirely too.
As it stands, Building the Band is flawed but watchable. There are a few eye-rolling moments (including Scherzinger's awkward comment about how 'a label would never have put them together' – someone please remind her how One Direction was formed?), but it still scratches that music reality show itch. If you've missed the genre, this one's worth a look but don't expect it to reinvent the wheel.