Block Watch: New Kids on the Block to Reunite

AP/MSN Music

Following two months of reunion rumors, the five original members of New Kids on the Block made it official Friday with an appearance on NBC's "Today" show.

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The group's "Today" segment confirmed the group's plans for both a concert tour and new studio recordings in the climax to a succession of media leaks that began in late June with an item published by People. People's Web site also tipped fans to the "surprise" NKOTB "Today" segment on March 31. Speculation that the Boston-based quintet (comprising Donnie Wahlberg, Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight, Danny Wood and Joey McIntyre) had spread following the earliest leaks.

A major redesign for the group's official Web site added more pronounced weight to the prospect of a rekindled career.

"The fan response to this has been incredible," band member Donnie Wahlberg told the Boston Herald.

Wahlberg said he was convinced to get back together with his former bandmates -- Joey McIntyre, brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood -- when they decided to record new music. Wahlberg said he wrote 80 percent of the new material with McIntyre and Jordan Knight.

"I had no interest going out on a nostalgia tour and singing the same material," said Wahlberg, 38.

But he added, "We absolutely will do the old songs for sure."

At the height of their popularity, New Kids sold out world tours, marketed millions of dollars in merchandise and spawned a Saturday morning cartoon.

The group disbanded in 1994. Wahlberg has acted on television and in movies, while Jordan Knight, McIntyre and Wood released solo albums. Jonathan Knight became a real estate developer.

MSN Music has obtained new video interviews with members of the group, as well as a teaser trailer featuring clips of broadcast reactions to the prospect of their return. Conspicuous are giddy reactions from female celebs, including Elisabeth Hasselbeck, acting less than their age at the thought of junior high heartthrobs returning to active duty. The timing for a reunion is propitious: This year marks the 20th anniversary for "Hangin' Tough," the group's sophomore album release that established the group's commercial clout through hit singles such as "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)," "You've Got It (The Right Stuff)" and the title track.

A reunion for the platinum act marks a new twist to a time-honored "boy band" tradition that has reappeared for each generation since the 1950s. With the New Kids, it was Gen Y that largely fueled the screams and swoons, reacting to a videogenic group assembled by impresario Maurice Starr in the wake of his crossover strategy for New Edition. NKOTB's success in expanding Starr's teen R&B equation into an even broader pop, hip-hop and R&B mix established a template that would be emulated a decade later by the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and 98°.

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