Lachey started his professional singing career at
Kings Island with best friend
Justin Jeffre in the mid-1990s singing in a doo-wop singing group quartet throughout the park and water park. Lachey was a member of the boyband
98 Degrees along with his brother,
Drew, Justin Jeffre, and
Jeff Timmons. Their debut album was the self-titled
98 Degrees; however, the band's first real success came with their follow-up album
98 Degrees and Rising. 98 Degrees has sold over 10 million records. 98 Degrees performed a one-off summer reunion show in Hershey, Pennsylvania, at the Summer Mixtape Festival on August 18, 2012, their first concert in more than a decade. During the summer of 2003, the
reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, starring Lachey and then-wife
Jessica Simpson, began airing on MTV. The couple starred in the television special
The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour, which aired in 2004 and was compared to
The Sonny & Cher Show. In 2005,
Newlyweds won a
People's Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show before wrapping shortly after. On November 11, 2003, his solo debut album,
SoulO, was released. Despite being released during the success of
Newlyweds, the album was a commercial failure. Lachey took a recurring role in the series
Charmed where he played a dyslexic ghostwriter between 2004 and 2005. in April 2005 ''
What's Left of Me was released on May 9, 2006, and debuted at number two on the Billboard'' 200. The album was certified Gold, after selling more than 500,000 copies domestically. The first single from the album was the title track, "
What's Left of Me", released on February 21, 2006. The song became a hit, reaching a peak position of number six on the
Billboard Hot 100. The video for "What's Left Of Me" featured former MTV VJ,
Vanessa Minnillo. Lachey recorded "
Ordinary Day" for the
Oprah Winfrey-produced film,
For One More Day. Lachey began working on his third solo album in 2007. Lachey also starred in a well-known TV series,
One Tree Hill, as a singer at Red Bedroom Productions. It was announced in January 2010 that Jive Records had put his new album on hold indefinitely. In June 2010, Lachey confirmed that he had parted ways with Jive Records. In July 2010, Jive Records confirmed they had parted ways with Lachey.
Taking the Stage, a musical reality show documenting the personal lives of high school students at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, premiered on
MTV in March 2009. It was produced by Lachey. In December 2009, he hosted
The Sing-Off, a long form four-part American singing competition featuring a cappella groups, a role he reprised in December 2010 for the show's second and third seasons on
NBC. Lachey was a contestant in the
NBC celebrity reality competition series called
Stars Earn Stripes. On January 16, 2014, VH1 announced Lachey would resume hosting
Big Morning Buzz Live, upon its return on March 3, 2014. On September 6, 2017, Lachey was announced as one of the celebrities who will take part in the
25th season of
Dancing with the Stars, competing against his wife Vanessa. He was paired with professional dancer
Peta Murgatroyd. Murgatroyd's husband,
Maksim Chmerkovskiy, was paired with Vanessa. On October 23, Lachey and Murgatroyd were the fifth couple to be eliminated from the competition, leaving in ninth place. Lachey hosted a musical competition on
Nickelodeon titled ''
America's Most Musical Family'' which premiered on November 1, 2019. Lachey and his wife currently co-host the Netflix reality shows
Love Is Blind and
The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On. Lachey also hosts
Perfect Match for Netflix, solo. ==Other ventures==