TV show aims to find new Menudo

NEW YORK, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A new MTV reality show aims to create a new version of the wildly popular 1980s boy band Menudo, the New York Daily News reported.

MTV and Epic Records have joined forces on the show, "Making Menudo," which follows 15 teen-age contestants as they compete for a slot in the five-person group.

"At first I wasn't too sure about it since it was the whole boy-band thing," 15-year-old contestant Christopher Moy told the News, "and the boy-band thing was kind of 1990s."

After seeing how popular the original incarnation of the music group was by watching footage on YouTube, he said he changed his mind.

"I saw how many people were in those stadiums," said Moy, "and I just said: 'Wow, this is huge. I want to do this.'"

"The group was probably the greatest experience of my life," said Charlie Masso, who joined the original Menudo in the early 1980s, when he was just about to turn 12.

"In that era, everyone wanted to be in Menudo because the girls were crazy about them," he said. "In our time, we had to go radio station by radio station. ... Now it's global."