James Maslow Says Unaired Original “Big Time Rush” Pilot Cost $1M to Make, Thought the Show Was ‘Done’ After It Was Scrapped
James Maslow Says Unaired Original “Big Time Rush” Pilot Cost $1M to Make, Thought the Show Was ‘Done’ After It Was Scrapped
Tereza ShkurtajSat, July 11, 2026 at 8:29 PM UTC
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James Maslow of Big Time Rush.Credit: Michael Tullberg/Getty -
James Maslow made an appearance on The Joe Vulpis Podcast on July 6, 2026, where he looked back on the early days of Big Time Rush
The singer and actor revealed that the show’s original $1 million pilot never aired and admitted he thought the opportunity was over after it was shelved
He also reflected on how the cast eventually transformed from actors playing a band into a real-life group with lasting success
When Big Time Rush first came together, the goal was to create a television series about a fictional boy band. Instead, the project evolved into something much bigger, turning James Maslow, Kendall Schmidt, Carlos PenaVega and Logan Henderson into a real-life group with a devoted fanbase years after the show’s original run.
Looking back during an appearance on The Joe Vulpis Podcast, Maslow reflected on the uncertainty that came before the success, including a costly first pilot that never made it to television.
Maslow explained that he auditioned for the show at age 17, but it didn’t actually air until two years later. While PenaVega and Henderson were also hired for the show at the time, producers originally cast another actor in Schmidt’s role.
“Some super fans know this, it’s not a secret ... but we shot a million-dollar pilot without Kendall. It was with a different actor,” he shared.
Kendall Schmidt, Carlos Pena, Logan Henderson, and James Maslow of Big Time Rush.Credit: Robert Voets/Nickelodeon/courtesy Everett
However, Maslow noted that the original pilot — and therefore the original version of the show itself — was shelved as producers went back to the drawing board, feeling like it “was not quite right” and they needed to do “another national cast.”
“The reality is, and I remind myself of this all the time, [we] could have gone through those two years, those four screen tests, the million-dollar pilot, and then back to nothing, and then got it picked up, and then it still could have not worked,” Maslow, 35, told Vulpis. “So, I’m just grateful that so many people fell in love with the show and the band.”
For Maslow, the biggest surprise wasn’t so much the cost of the unaired pilot as the fact that the project got another chance at all. After investing in a version of the show that never made it to television, he assumed the opportunity had come and gone.
“I mean, for the most part, you think it’s done,” he recalled. “You’re like, well, they’re not going to do that again. It’s like, I guess it didn’t work.”
At the time, Maslow was still a teenager trying to understand an industry that rarely explained itself. Between multiple screen tests, recording songs and waiting for decisions that were completely out of his hands, he said there was no way to know whether the series would be revived or quietly disappear.
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Big Time Rush.Credit: Nathan Posner/Shutterstock
“While you’re technically an adult, you’re a young adult,” he highlighted. “So the comprehension of, like, how does the movie industry work? How does Hollywood work?... Like just trying to understand all of that, much less trying to figure out why people do what they do when they do.”
When the project was eventually reworked, Maslow said another unexpected development unfolded behind the scenes.
“I think initially [the creators] thought, ‘We’ll just write [the music] for them,’ but they picked four guys who actually write music and want to contribute,” he said, before explaining how the project naturally evolved into something much more authentic.
“So it became art imitating life in many, many ways where they set out going, ‘Hey, we’re going to hire actors to make a show, and maybe they can play music or something outside of this,’ but we proved to be like, no, we’re actually going to be a band,” Maslow shared.
James Maslow of Big Time Rush in 2025.Credit: Matthew Medina/Shutterstock
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That shift helped turn the band into more than just a hit Nickelodeon series. Maslow, Schmidt, PenaVega and Henderson went on to become a successful recording and touring act after a journey that once felt far from certain.
“At that stage in my life and all of our lives and careers, that was it. It’s like this either works or it doesn’t,” he recalled. “And if it doesn’t, I don’t know what to do, but I guess it’s back to the drawing board and I guess I’ll figure it out.”
Fortunately, the gamble paid off, transforming an unaired $1 million pilot into the launchpad for a career that is still going strong today.
“Thank God it worked and it gave us a hell of a start,” Maslow told Vulpis.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
