'Building the Band' has Liam Payne's last major appearance before his death

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Netflix’s new reality show, “Building the Band,” unexpectedly became Liam Payne’s last major appearance — moments the show’s hosts say they, along with contestants and viewers, are lucky to have.

The show features Payne as a guest judge, offering pointed but witty advice to young bands chasing success not unlike what he achieved as part of the culture-shifting boy band, One Direction. Payne died in October after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina, not long after the show’s production wrapped.

“Getting to see the real, true him that the world gets to remember him for, which you’ll see on this show, is just a beautiful thing,” says the Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, the show’s host.

“Building the Band” flips traditional music competitions on their head, bringing together 50 up-and-coming artists who are tasked with singing for each other and forming groups based on those performances. The catch? They can’t see how anyone looks.

The first batch of episodes premiered in early July and the last few episodes, including the finale, will drop Wednesday. The show ultimately follows six bands working to develop their group sound and performances — until only one band is left standing, winning the $500,000 prize.

The show is hosted by McLean, with Pussycat Dolls frontwoman — and newly minted Tony winner — Nicole Scherzinger mentoring the bands and Destiny’s Child star Kelly Rowland serving as a guest judge alongside Payne.

The series opened with a dedication to Payne and his family, in which McLean said they “never imagined we'd soon be saying goodbye to our friend” while filming the show.

Payne first appears in the seventh episode for the showcase, where each band performs in front of a live audience and the judges, only about a week after they form.

“We were amazing dancers, obviously, in One Direction,” Payne joked in the episode while offering critiques to boy band Midnight ’til Morning, whose members expressed hesitations with dancing onstage. Band member Mason Watts then revealed his family had won tickets to sit front row at a One Direction concert when he was 11, stoking applause from the crowd and a heartfelt response from Payne.

“Ever since that moment, I wanted to be in a group,” Watts, originally from Australia, said in the episode. “It’s kind of a full-circle moment to be here with a group and performing in front of you. So, thank you, man.”

Landon Boyce, a member of the show's other boy band, Soulidified, told The Associated Press that Payne left a lasting impact and was a leading example of how he hopes to carry himself as a performer.

“I remember Liam just said, ‘Have fun,’” Boyce says. “He just told us, ‘I wish One Direction kind of, like, did what you guys were doing.’ And I kind of just took that as like, let’s just have fun and dance.”

Payne is seen nodding along with excitement during the band's showcase performance, when they sang “Sure Thing” by Miguel. Bradley Rittmann, another Soulidified member, told the AP they were “on Cloud 9” after Payne said he would join their band.

Payne applauded their ability to own the stage and acknowledged the unconventionality of their band due to the members' varying musical and fashion styles, saying he “wouldn’t put you guys together, but the result was amazing.”

This show mashes together the likes of “Love is Blind” with music competition shows like “The Voice,” secluding contestants in pods, where they can only hear each other. Contestants can express interest by hitting a button during the performance, and then speak through voice chats to test their chemistry.

The initial 50 contestants dwindled to just 22, comprising two boy bands, three girl bands and one mixed-gender group. Contestants chose their bandmates without input from the host or judges.

“It formed in the most real, raw, authentic way,” says Aaliyah Rose Larsen, a member of the mixed-gender band SZN4. “I think we would have re-found each other in a million other lifetimes, in a billion other shows, because we were always meant to find each other.”

The result of this process, judges say, are bands that labels traditionally wouldn’t form, given members’ differences in style and appearance — an important pillar of the show, McLean and Rowland say, given the current state of the music industry.

“Back in the beginning of our careers, your sophomore album was the one that would make or break you. Now you get one shot,” McLean says. “To be able to give the power back to these individuals, to let them put each other together based on just raw talent and chemistry, never seeing each other, is a testament to truly what it is to be in a band.”

An audience vote determines which bands continue on after each live performance. The last episode of the first batch left viewers on a cliffhanger, as Midnight 'til Morning and girl group Siren Society were voted in the bottom two. The next batch will reveal who was eliminated.

Rowland says Payne was fully invested in the process and checked in regarding the bands' progress after filming. Payne had also expressed interest in mentoring the bands after the show ended, Boyce remembers.

“He was just honest. He called everything out, you know what I mean? Before they saw it, before we saw it,” Rowland says, adding that Payne had “many shining moments” during his storied and decorated career, “but this was a really incredible one.”

Nori Moore, a member of 3Quency, “had a lot of firsts” in the show as a young performer and says Payne’s advice to contestants that they claim the moment every time they walk onstage was pivotal to her development as an artist.

Larsen says viewers can watch the show and “see his heart.”

“We know how much he loves the show,” says Katie Roeder, another SZN4 member. “I know he’s very proud of us and looking down on us.”

Zachary Newbould, from left, Conor Smith, Mason Watts and Shane Appell of Midnight Til Morning pose for a portrait to promote "Building the Band" on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Brianna Mazzola, from left, Nori Moore and Wennely Quezada of 3Quency pose for a portrait to promote "Building the Band" on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

CORRECTS NAME OF BAND: Shade Jenifer, from left, Bradley Rittmann, Malik Heard and Landon Boyce of Soulidified pose for a portrait to promote "Building the Band" on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

AJ McLean poses for a portrait to promote "Building the Band" on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Aalith Rose Larsen, from left, Cameron Goode, Donzell Taggart and Katherine Reorder of SZN4 pose for a portrait to promote "Building the Band" on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As anger and outrage spilled out onto Minneapolis’ streets Thursday over the fatal shooting of a woman the day before by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, a new shooting by federal officers in Oregon left two people wounded and elicited more scrutiny of enforcement operations across the U.S.

Hundreds of people protesting the shooting of Renee Good marched in freezing rain at night down one of Minneapolis’ major thoroughfares, chanting “ICE out now” and holding signs saying, “killer ice off our streets." Protesters earlier vented their outrage outside a federal facility that is serving as a hub for the administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major city.

The shooting in Portland, Oregon, took place outside a hospital in the afternoon. A man and woman were shot inside a vehicle, and their conditions were not immediately known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating. Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city until a full investigation is completed.

Just as it did following the Minneapolis shooting, the Department of Homeland Security defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying the incident occurred after a Venezuelan man with alleged gang ties and who was involved in a recent shooting tried to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the officers. It was not yet clear if witness video corroborates that account.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly characterized the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.

Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was a “victim of left-wing ideology.”

“I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it is a tragedy of her own making,” Vance said, noting that the officer who killed her was injured while making an arrest last June.

But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video recordings show the self-defense argument is “garbage.”

The shooting happened on the second day of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which Homeland Security said is the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are taking part, and Noem said they have made more than 1,500 arrests.

It provoked an immediate response in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of people turning up to the scene to vent their outrage at the ICE officers and the school district canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.

Good’s death — at least the fifth tied to immigration sweeps since Trump took office — has resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as protests took place or were expected this week in many large U.S. cities.

“We should be horrified,” protester Shanta Hejmadi said. “We should be saddened that our government is waging war on our citizens.”

Protesters blocked the street where Good was shot with makeshift barricades constructed out of garbage cans, Christmas trees and canopies. People gave out coffee and water, while fires burned in metal drums to keep visitors warm.

The Minnesota agency that investigates officer-involved shootings said Thursday that it was informed that the FBI and U.S. Justice Department would not work with the it, effectively ending any role for the state to determine if crimes were committed. Noem said the state has no jurisdiction.

“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” said Drew Evans, head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Gov. Tim Walz demanded that the state be allowed to take part, repeatedly emphasizing that it would be “very difficult for Minnesotans” to accept that an investigation excluding the state could be fair.

Noem, he said, was “judge, jury and basically executioner” during her public comments.

Frey, the mayor, told The Associated Press: “We want to make sure that there is a check on this administration to ensure that this investigation is done for justice, not for the sake of a cover-up."

Several bystanders captured video of Good's killing, which happened in a neighborhood south of downtown.

The recordings show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward, and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It is not clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer, and there is no indication of whether the woman had interactions with agents earlier. After the shooting the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb before crashing to a stop.

The federal agent who fatally shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for almost two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Noem has not publicly named him, but a Homeland Security spokesperson said her description of his injuries last summer refers to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, in which court documents identify him as Jonathan Ross.

Ross got his arm stuck in the window of a vehicle of a driver who was fleeing arrest on an immigration violation. He was dragged roughly 100 yards (90 meters) before he was knocked free, records show.

He fired his Taser, but the prongs did not incapacitate the driver, according to prosecutors. Ross was transported to a hospital.

A jury found the driver guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

Attempts to reach Ross, 43, at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not successful.

DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin also did not confirm his identity but said the officer involved in the shooting was selected for ICE's special response team, which includes a 30-hour tryout and additional training.

Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski and Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis; Ed White in Detroit; Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas; Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Jim Mustian in New York; Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

Protesters confront federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino arrives as protesters gather outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

A protester pours water in their eye after confronting law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)