The second series of the British reality-documentary series ''

The Big Reunion ''The Big Reunion'' is a British reality-documentary series that began airing on ITV2 on 31 January 2013. The show featured chart-topping bands who were big in the UK pop music scene between the 1990s and early 2000s, and the programme followed ...

'' began airing on ITV2 on 6 February 2014 and ended on 27 March 2014. The show features 'teen' bands, some of whom were big names in the UK pop music scene between the 1990s and early 2000s, and the programme follows them as they reunite for the first time in a decade and go through their two weeks of intensive rehearsals before finally stepping back on stage for a comeback performance. The bands who reunited for the second series were 3T, A1,

Damage Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...

Eternal Eternal(s) or The Eternal may refer to: * Eternity, an infinite amount of time, or a timeless state * Immortality or eternal life * God, the supreme being, creator deity, and principal object of faith in monotheism Comics, film and television * ...

and

Girl Thing Girl Thing were an English-Dutch girl group, consisting of members Jodi Albert, Anika Bostelaar, Linzi Martin, Michelle Barber and Nikki Stuart. They were formed in 1998 by Simon Cowell and were originally intended to rival the Spice Girls, but ...

. Additionally, Kenzie from

Blazin' Squad Blazin' Squad were an English hip hop group. The group had seven top ten hits, including " Crossroads", a cover version of the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony original. Jon O'Brien of AllMusic called them the "self-proclaimed pioneers of ' chav' cultur ...

Dane Bowers Dane Leon Bowers is a British singer, songwriter, DJ and producer. He was a part of pop boy band Another Level between 1997 and 2000 when he performed on seven Top 10 singles, before taking up solo projects with True Steppers and Victoria Beckh ...

from Another Level, and former soloists

Adam Rickitt Adam Peter Rickitt (born 29 May 1978) is an English actor, singer and model. He portrayed the role of Nick Tilsley in the ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'' from 1997 to 1999, and again from 2002 to 2004. He later joined the pop group 5th St ...

, Kavana and

Gareth Gates Gareth Paul Gates (born 12 July 1984) is an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show ''Pop Idol'' in 2002. As of 2008, Gates had sold over 3.5 million records in the UK. He is ...

, joined together to form the supergroup

5th Story 5th Story were an English supergroup consisting of 1990s-early 2000s pop stars Dane Bowers, Gareth Gates, Kavana, Kenzie and Adam Rickitt. They were formed in 2013 exclusively for the second series of the ITV2 reality-documentary series ''The ...

Background

Due to the massive success of the first series of ''

'', which saw the reunions of

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

911 911 or 9/11 may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * September 11 ** 9/11, the September 11 attacks of 2001 ** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that outed the democratically elected Salvador Allende * November 9 Numbers * 91 ...

Atomic Kitten Atomic Kitten is an English girl group formed in Liverpool in 1998, whose current members are Liz McClarnon, Jenny Frost and Natasha Hamilton. The group was founded by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) members Andy McCluskey and Stuart ...

B*Witched B*Witched are an Irish girl group consisting of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou and Sinéad O'Carroll. Originally active between 1997 and 2002, they enjoyed success in both Europe and North America between 1998 and 2002, r ...

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

Honeyz The Honeyz are a British R&B girl group, composed of members Celena Cherry and Mariama Goodman. The group had five UK top 10 hits between 1998 and 2000, with " Finally Found" (1998), " End of the Line" (1998), " Love of a Lifetime" (1999), " ...

and

Liberty X Liberty X (originally called Liberty) are a British-Irish group originally consisting of Michelle Heaton, Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Jessica Taylor and Kelli Young. The group was formed by the five finalists of the 2001 ITV talent show '' Popstar ...

, it was widely reported that a second series would be commissioned. Groups were rumoured to be reuniting for series 2 included

Big Brovaz Big Brovaz (pronounced as "brothers") are an R&B and hip hop music group from London, England. In their seven-year career they released two studio albums and eight singles. There were three line-up changes with two of the original members le ...

Hear'Say Hear'Say were a British pop group. They were created through the ITV reality TV show '' Popstars'' in February 2001, the first UK series of the international '' Popstars'' franchise. The group, who were signed to Polydor Records, originally ...

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, Busted,

Mis-Teeq Mis-Teeq were a British girl group, consisting of Alesha Dixon, Su-Elise Nash and Sabrina Washington. They had two top-ten albums and seven consecutive top-ten singles, with chart-topping success on the UK Singles Chart as well as across Eur ...

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, All Saints,

, A1, Cleopatra and Another Level. S Club 7 were reportedly in talks to reform for their own rival show to ''The Big Reunion''. In regards to

reuniting,

Myleene Klass Myleene Angela Klass (born 6 April 1978) is a British musician, singer, presenter, model and businesswoman. She was a member of the pop group Hear'Say, and later released two solo classical crossover albums in 2003 and 2007. More recently, Klass ...

said, "I just can't imagine it. What are we going to do - sing ' Pure and Simple' on loop? It was nice and it was a great time in our lives, and where it was at that time is just perfect." It was also reported that Eternal could reform without

Louise Redknapp Louise Elizabeth Redknapp (née Nurding, born 4 November 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and media personality. She was a member of Eternal, an R&B girl group which debuted in 1993 with their quadruple-platinum studio album '' Always & ...

, who initially walked away from the group in 1995. On 27 December 2013,

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

announced that the six bands taking part in the show's second series would be A1, Eternal,

, 3T,

and a supergroup called 5th Story, which consists of

, Another Level's

, Kavana and

's Kenzie. As previously reported, Eternal reunited for the show as a three-piece as Redknapp chose not to take part in their reunion. Additionally, Damage's Coreé Richards and A1's

Paul Marazzi Paul Thomas Leo Marazzi (born 24 January 1975) is a British musician. He is the oldest member of boy band A1. Marazzi was the first to join A1, a British/Norwegian boy band whose first single, "Be the First to Believe", was released in 19 ...

chose not to take part either, although Richards did appear on the show to talk about the band. Richards chose not to take part due to conflicts with the band. Another Level were on the verge of signing up for the show, but Bowers' ex-bandmate Wayne Williams has since announced that he will not take part. In an interview with

MTV UK MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & ...

, he said: "I decided not to participate in ''The Big Reunion'' because it wouldn't feel right to me...I'm in a totally different space in my life and I don't feel any need to look back." On 26 January 2014, it was announced that series 2 would begin airing on ITV2 on 6 February 2014. The bands' comeback gig at the Hammersmith Apollo took place on 21 February 2014.

Bands

* 3T * A1 (without

) *

(without Coreé Richards) *

(without

) *

(supergroup consisting of Kenzie from

from Another Level,

, Kavana and

)

Episodes

Reception

Ratings

The first episode of the series was seen by an audience of 463,000, less than half the audience of the series 1 premiere. The second episode fell even further, bringing in 324,000 viewers.

Critical reception

Reviewing the first episode, Digital Spy's Catriona Wightman wrote, "if this first episode proved anything, it's that ''The Big Reunion'' is not about the music. It never has been, really - our obsession with Abz was really down to his hats, farming and tough post-fame life. And with

, their story of the hype, the arguments and the crashing fall was an interesting enough insight into the world of the music business that we stopped caring about the fact that they never made it big. Honestly, that was kind of the point." In a negative review, the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

''s Kevin O'Sullivan said, ""This rigidly formulaic show is simply repeating itself. But take it away hopeless narrator Andi Peters: They scaled the icy unforgiving edifice of the artistic mountain we call pop..." Who writes this crap?'

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Reunion 2014 British television seasons British music television shows