O-Town, Where Are They Now?

Before Diddy turned "Making the Band" into his project for finding great pop/ urban singing sensations, and then putting them through an ordeal of training, the show began in 2000 showing the cultivation of the boy band O-Town.

Managed by Backstreet Boys' and NSYNC's former manager Lou Pearlman, the group members were Ashley Parker Angel, Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor Penick, and Dan Miller. The original "Making the Band" with O-Town lasted for three seasons with two on ABC and a third on MTV. The group released their first self title album "O-Town" in 2001 and had a hit with the song "Liquid Dreams," but with the shows novelty wearing off and the popularity of boy bands winding down due to saturation true success didn't come to the group as it had for Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. Even with a change in managers and the backing of Clive Davis the band never really became a super pop sensation. After the release of their second album "O2" J records drop the group in 2003. The group has since disbanded and are all working on different projects.

According to the Myspace Page of Erik-Michael Estrada after a hiatus he has started writing new material for an upcoming solo album saying: "It's not about TV, it's not about the group... it's about me... my life and my loves... The music speaks for itself".

Jacob Underwood also has moved on to his own projects. According to his Myspace page he wants to bring Southern rock back saying, "Music is emotional I know, I just feel it should be used to feel better not worse."

Back in 2004 according to http://popdirt.com/tag/trevor-penick/ group member Trevor Penick said this in 2004 about the "Making the Band" show to hiphoponline.com: "I hated it. I can't say I hated the show, but I hated that it was constantly taking away from the reason we started the TV show," he said. "The reason was to put together a successful group in our heads and it seemed like it was almost always sabotaging our music careers for the better television ratings. Yes, I am glad that we have just one thing to focus on. I am also glad that the show gave us that boost. In that regard it was a good thing." Penick's myspace page and other internet pages such as the blog site "Livejournal" haven't been updated since the early to mid 2000's so his whereabouts are questionable.

Another band member who seems to have disappeared is Dan Miller who has apparently went from stage front to backstage, becoming a music producer.

Ashley Parker Angel is the group member who has had the most celebrity success since the show after the group disbanded. In 2006 Angel was given a reality TV show with MTV called "There and Back" chronicling his time after "Making the Band" and trying to find himself as a musician, father, boyfriend, and son. Unfortunately the solo album he released called: "Soundtrack to Your Life" didn't make it in sales and his relationship didn't work out either. In 2007 he was in the Broadway production of "Hairspray" as Link Larkin. Now he does a lot of voice over work for video games and cartoons and some acting.