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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 them as they reunited for the first time in a decade and went through their two weeks of intensive rehearsals before finally stepping back on stage for a comeback performance.

The first series featured Five, 911, Atomic Kitten, B*Witched, Blue, Honeyz and Liberty X. Another mini-series, entitled The Big Reunion: On Tour, aired from 5–19 September 2013. It followed the groups embarking on their arena tour, and other behind-the-scenes action. The Big Christmas Reunion, a Christmas special, also aired on 12 December 2013. It saw the bands recording a Christmas charity single for Text Santa and looked at how Text Santa helped vulnerable people.

The Big Reunion proved to be an unexpected hit for ITV2; the first episode brought in 1.2 million viewers, becoming the channel's highest-rated premiere in five years, and the show went on to achieve over 1 million viewers every week, making it one of the channel's most popular shows. Due to the huge success, a second series was commissioned. The second series, which premiered on 6 February 2014, featured 3T, A1, Damage, Eternal, Girl Thing, and a supergroup called 5th Story, which consisted of Kenzie from Blazin' Squad, Dane Bowers from Another Level, and former soloists Adam Rickitt, Kavana and Gareth Gates.

On 18 October 2012, it was announced that pop groups Five, 911, Atomic Kitten, B*Witched, Honeyz and Liberty X—who were big names in the UK pop music scene in the 1990s and early 2000s—would be reuniting for an ITV2 documentary series entitled The Big Reunion, followed by a comeback performance at some point in 2013.

Angela Jain, ITV's Director of Digital Channels, and Katy Thorogood, ITV's factual and daytime commissioner, ordered The Big Reunion. ITV Studios' Kevin Lane acted as series producer, while creative director Michael Kelpie and Phil Mount acted as executive producers. Kelpie said: "To reunite these bands, tell the stories of what has happened to them since their heyday and follow them as they prepare to step back on the stage for the first time in a decade is a dream come true." Jain added, "We are thrilled to bring the stories of these pop groups up to date...A lot has happened in the time these bands have been apart - marriages, divorces and changes in careers - and who knows quite what will happen when they reunite!"

The show was narrated by former Live & Kicking presenter Andi Peters. During rehearsals for the comeback performance and arena tour, Paul Domaine acted as the bands' choreographer, while Yvie Burnett, who formerly worked on The X Factor and currently works on The Voice UK, acted as their vocal coach.

Filming for the show began in October 2012, featuring the members of each band telling their individual stories about their bandmates and displaying their own personal lives nowadays, and later meeting together again for the first time in several years. Whilst all the other bands reunited several weeks before rehearsals began, Liberty X did not reunite until the night before, due to Michelle Heaton undergoing a double mastectomy. The rehearsals for the comeback performance took place at the Lilian Baylis Studio in London, beginning on 7 January 2013 and continuing for two weeks. Atomic Kitten's Kerry Katona was the last to arrive for rehearsals due to her being on This Morning talking about Dancing on Ice. The comeback performance took place at the Hammersmith Apollo on 26 February, and was broadcast on ITV2 on 28 March.

Atomic Kitten's three founding members, Katona, Liz McClarnon and Natasha Hamilton, took part in the show. Honeyz's reformation came in the form of a third different line-up that consisted of founding members Célena Cherry and Heavenli Denton, and Mariama Goodman, who replaced Denton when she initially left the group in 1999, and vice versa when Goodman herself departed in 2000. Original member Naima Belkhiati decided not to take part in the reunion, so Cherry called up Goodman as her replacement.[citation needed] Additionally, Five only reunited as a four-piece as founding member and lead singer Jason "J" Brown backed out at the last minute, claiming that he no longer wants to be in the public eye, having initially attended previous meetings for the show. During filming for the show, the remaining four members, Abz Love, Sean Conlon, Ritchie Neville and Scott Robinson, discussed the possibility of auditioning a new fifth member. After they put out a notice, three people auditioned to join the band – ex-Northern Line member Dan Corsi, model and singer Luke Boyden, and Nathan Rawlings, who made it to judges' houses on The X Factor in 2010 as part of boy band The Reason. All auditionees were unsuccessful, however; Five continued on with just the four of them.[citation needed]

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