Going bilingual, Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment will be producing a boy band competition, La Banda on the Spanish language channel Univision.
According to The Hollywood Reporter La Banda will search both the U.S. and Latin America to put together the “ultimate Latino boy band.” This is Cowell’s first venture after Fox cancelled his X-Factor, which left the mogul without a show in the U.S. for the first time in over a decade.
Cowell stated about his partnership with Univision, "They are fantastically ambitious, and most importantly for La Banda, they are totally focused on discovering and creating the next music superstars.”
The winning group will score a record contract with Sony Music Latin and Cowell’s Syco Music, with the latter being home to that fairly unknown X-Factor U.K. boy band One Direction.
No news on who might judge the reality competition yet but Time Magazine suggests recent X-Factor alum Paulina Rubio might be a likely candidate. From the original Latino boy band Menudo, Ricky Martin’s name has also been suggested to fill a judge slot.
La Banda is set to air on Univision in 2015.