Donnie Wahlberg, Nick Lachey Team for Boy Band Reunion Sitcom ‘Encore’
New Kids on the Block‘s Donnie Wahlberg and 98 Degrees‘ Nick Lachey have teamed to produce a scripted comedy series about a boy band that reunites after 20 years apart.
Entourage creator Doug Ellin penned the pilot for Encore, which resulted out of conversations Lachey and Wahlberg had about how their lives have changed between the height of their boy band popularity and now, where they’re balancing reunions with their lives as parents, Variety reports.
Lachey and Wahlberg previously worked together when Wahlberg’s New Kids on the Block reunion and Lachey’s 98 Degrees partnered – along with Boyz II Men – on 2013’s The Package tour.
CBS, the network that airs the Wahlberg-starring cop drama Blue Bloods, will broadcast Encore. Wahlberg also serves as executive producer on Rock This Boat, a reality series about obsessive NKOTB fans, for CBS’ Pop TV.
Encore is the second boy band-based scripted series to enter into a development deal, following Zayn Malik’s drama Boys, which the former One Direction singer is producing alongside Law & Order mastermind Dick Wolf. That series is based on Malik’s experiences in the chart-topping British quintet.
Ellin previously teamed with another Wahlberg, Donnie’s younger brother Mark, on the long-running HBO series Entourage, a fictional take on the Boogie Nights actor’s experiences in Hollywood.