There's a One Direction-shaped hole in the world of pop music right now, and ABC producers think they're the ones to help fill it – possibly with the help of a young local singer.

Shorewood native Brady Tutton, 15, is currently one of the few remaining contestants on ABC's reality show musical competition, "Boy Band," in which young singers from across the country compete to become the next Backstreet Boys (or, worst case scenario, the next O-Town). 

The show, which premiered this debut season on June 22, gathered 30 boys together to audition for its judges – or "architects," as "Boy Band" calls them – which include Timbaland, Emma Bunton aka Baby Spice and actual Backstreet Boy Nick Carter (pop singer Rita Ora hosts). Those industry pros then slashed the number of guys down to 18 and grouped them into three different bands, each one performing for the judges (*sigh* fine, "architects") and for America  – with a member of the group getting the ax each week.

After those early shows, "Boy Band" picked up the pace, rotating and reorganizing the guys around into new groups each week and having all three perform per episode, with one guy still knocked off at the end (or two, as seen in episodes six and seven). 

And yet, through all of that, Tutton has stuck around, constantly surviving through weeks of performances – as well as weeks of terrible band names, from Reverb to Tr5ble – to make it tonight's finale episode, where the show will chop down its remaining eight singers to the final official five. The architects have occasionally knocked him for being too technical and needing more soul in his singing, but he's still never been in the bottom throughout the entire season.

In his last group performance two weeks ago with *cringes* Never Gone, Tutton was the only member of the trio to fully live up to the band's very dumb name, easily earning the right to stay while the other singers in the group landed in the bottom two, with one shown the exit. Then, in last week's penultimate episode, each of the eight finalists performed solo for their spot in the group, with Tutton crooning a swoon-inducing rendition of Sam Smith's "I'm Not The Only One."

The Shorewood singer was no stranger to the spotlight before "Boy Band." Tutton's IMDB filmography includes a small role in the 2012 Miley Cyrus teen dramedy "LOL," as well as a seven-episode stint on the ABC sitcom "Fresh Off the Boat" as "Brock." It would appear, however, that music and boy-bandom is Tutton's mission now, and considering his reality show-ready backstory – according to his bio on ABC's "Boy Band" website, he suffered from a severe stutter as a child that was only cured by singing – and ridiculously high-pitched golden pipes ...

... he's got a legitimate chance. 

The season finale airs tonight at 7 p.m. on ABC.