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Bulletin: 'Band' boys to go out for pizza Published in The Orlando Sentinel on April 7, 2000. Get this: We hear the O-Town guys will be watching tonight's episode at band creator Lou Pearlman's NYPD Pizza on the corner of Orange and Livingston in downtown Orlando. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. -- so if you want a chance to stake out a booth by the guys -- get there early. Leave your cameras at home, though, they won't be allowed in the restaurant. WARNING: Skip the rest of this item if you want to be surprised on the show about what has been happening to the band while filming here in Orlando. The coolest thing is that it can't be the show's eight finalists at the pizza place tonight because the three who got cut have long since been sent home. As Sentinel readers know: Ikaika Kahoana makes the cut -- then quits. So the five in town these days are Ashley Parker Angel, Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor Penick, Jacob Underwood and the guy they all voted to replace Kahoana in the group: Dan Miller. Oddly enough, Miller wasn't one of the eight finalists. He was a favorite among all from the 25 finalists seen on the first show. He's the dark-haired hunk from Twinsberg, Ohio, who brought his blonde girlfriend to his audition in Nashville. Make the ratings Making the Band wound up tied for 84th place in last week's ratings, but Pearlman isn't concerned. "Our goal for the show was always a 3-4 point rating. We were astonished when, in the premiere episode, the ratings were a 4.6. "However, the lead-in show for the premiere was Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which has been the highest-rated show on television for 14 weeks. The lead-in show for last week's episode was Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which has a considerably smaller audience. In addition, the time slot is 9:30 p.m. on Friday nights, which is typically not a time that teenagers are at home watching television." Pearlman knows all too well that the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync didn't make it overnight. "It takes time," said Pearlman. "The audience has an opportunity to learn more about the band members throughout the next few episodes, we know they will be hooked and love the show." |