"I saw the joy it brought to Liam," Scherzinger has said in an interview about making Netflix's new reality contest.

Acknowledging the loss right off the bat, the first episode opens with a touching tribute to Payne.

And in the opening moments of the competition series’ first episode, AJ McLean — who hosts Building the Band — paid tribute to his late friend. “When we came together to film Building the Band, we never imagined we’d soon be saying goodbye to our friend Liam Payne,” the Backstreet Boys member tells the camera.