America's Next Top Model

America's Next Top Model (abbreviated ANTM and Top Model) is an American reality television series and interactive competition that premiered on May 20, 2003. It originally aired on UPN, whose merger with The WB created The CW in 2006. The program has aired twenty cycles, and sees several women compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model", providing them with an opportunity to begin their career in the modeling industry. Its premise was originated with supermodel and television personality Tyra Banks, who additionally serves as its executive producer and presenter.

America's Next Top Model employs a panel of three (cycles 13-18, 21) and four (cycles 1-12, 19â€"20) judges, who critique contestants' progress throughout the competition. The original panel consisted of Banks, Janice Dickinson, Beau Quillian, and Kimora Lee Simmons. The panel currently consists of Banks, Kelly Cutrone, and J. Alexander. The series was among the highest-rated program on UPN, and was the highest-rated show on The CW from 2007 to 2010. Advertisers paid $61,315 per 30-second slot during the 2011â€"12 television seasons, the highest of any series on The CW. On November 17, 2014, The CW renewed the show for a 22nd cycle.

§Background

It was announced on January 24, 2006, that Top Model would be part of the new The CW network, a merger between UPN and The WB, when the seventh cycle started in September airing on Wednesdays. The series became the first series among regular programming to air on the network. Prior to the announcement of merging with The CW, UPN had committed to renewing the series through its ninth cycle on January 20, 2006, for which casting was conducted throughout mid-2006. America's Next Top Model is the only show left on the network that was originally from UPN.

With the start of the eighteenth British Invasion cycle, the program converted to high definition, becoming the second-to-last primetime show on the five major English-language broadcast networks in the United States to make the switch, and the last to air in the regular season to do so.

To celebrate its tenth cycle, America's Next Top Model aired a special installment called America's Next Top Model: Exposed in two parts on the CW on Wednesday, February 6 & 13, 2008. It reviewed the best cat fights, mishaps and most memorable photoshoots, personalities, defining moments and contained other segments about the show since Cycles 1 to 9, and featured a special opening fusing all three openings together. Camille McDonald (Cycles 2 and 17), Toccara Jones (Cycle 3), Eva Pigford (Cycle 3 winner), Bre Scullark (Cycles 5 and 17), Cassandra Whitehead (Cycle 5), Joanie Dodds (Cycle 6), Jael Strauss (Cycle 8), Dionne Walters (Cycle 8), Heather Kuzmich (Cycle 9), and Bianca Golden (Cycles 9 and 17) all returned to comment on events that happened in their or other cycles.

After announcing that the seventeenth season will be an All-Stars version, Tyra Banks said on The CW upfronts in May 2011, that there won't be a "normal" season of the show anymore.

The show is syndicated to NBCUniversal's cable division, with Oxygen as well as Style Network carrying the series, usually in marathon form throughout the daytime period on either network, and running through most of or an entire cycle. Bravo, MTV, and VH1 have also aired the series in the past. E! also currently airs reruns of ANTM.

On July 21, 2006, the writers of America's Next Top Model went on strike while working on Cycle 7, set to premiere on the new CW Network in September 2006. The writers sought representation through the Writers Guild of America, West, which would allow them regulated wages, access to portable health insurance, and pension benefits. These benefits would be similar to those given to writers on scripted shows. The strike was the focus of a large rally of Hollywood writers coinciding with the premiere of the new network on September 20, 2006. The dispute was chronicled in a July 24 interview on the website Television Without Pity with Daniel J. Blau, a former TWoP recapper who covered the series, and at the time was an America's Next Top Model show producer. In November 2006, the writers on strike were taken off payroll.

§Format

Each season of America's Next Top Model has from 9â€"13 episodes and starts with 10â€"14 contestants. Contestants are judged weekly on their overall appearance, participation in challenges, and best shot from that week's photo shoot; each episode, one contestant is eliminated, though in rare cases a double elimination or no elimination was given by consensus of the judging panel. Makeovers are administered to contestants early in the season (usually after the first or second elimination in the finals) and a trip to an international destination is scheduled at about two-thirds of the way through the season (usually with five or six contestants remaining.)

§Judges

The series employs a panel of judges that critiques contestants' progress throughout the competition. Throughout its broadcast, the program has cycled through thirteen judges. The original panel consisted of Banks (who also serves as its presenter), Janice Dickinson, Kimora Lee Simmons, and Beau Quillian. From the first through eighteenth cycles, an additional guest judge was welcomed to the panel each week. The current lineup was featured Banks, Kelly Cutrone, and runway coach J. Alexander. For the nineteenth and twentieth cycles, public voting was represented on the panel by Bryanboy. Though not a judge, Jay Manuel served as the creative director during contestants' photo shoots for the first to eighteenth cycles. During the nineteenth and twentieth cycles, Johnny Wujek replaced Manuel as the creative director of all the shoots, and was replaced by Yu Tsai for the twenty-first cycle.

§List of judges

§Series overview

The first three cycles of America's Next Top Model were filmed in New York City, and it was relocated there in cycles 10, 12 and 14. Los Angeles has been filmed throughout most of the cycles starting with the fourth cycle.

Notes

§Partnerships

America's Next Top Model was also very connected with Banks' talk show: several contestants have made appearances on it, most notably Natasha Galkina (Cycle 8), who worked as a correspondent for the show. The show's stage was also used for the Cycle 5 reunion show.

Tyra launched a new reality show inside the Tyra Show, called Modelville which featured Renee Alway, Bianca Golden, Dominique Reighard, Fatima Siad and Lauren Utter vying for a $50,000 contract. Dominique won and received a contract from Carol's Daughter.

The ANTM franchise has released a clothing and accessories line based on the television show. The line is sold at most Walmart stores. The line ranges from cosmetic products to handbags.

§Reception

§Impact in pop culture

The show has been referred to in many series, such as ABC Family's GREEK, CBS's The Big Bang Theory, and Fox's Family Guy. It also had its own E! True Hollywood Story episode, featuring past contestants Ebony Haith, Giselle Samson, Elyse Sewell, Adrianne Curry, Camille McDonald, April Wilkner, Mercedes Scelba-Shorte, Toccara Jones, Ann Markley, Amanda Swafford, Eva Pigford, Michelle Deighton, Brittany Brower, Naima Mora, Ebony Taylor, Lisa D'Amato, Kim Stolz and Bre Scullark as well as judges & personals Janice Dickinson, Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker, J. Alexander, Jay Manuel, Ken Mok and Michelle Mock-Falcon. It covered the first five cycles and recently reaired with a few added minutes of footage which cover cycles 6 to 10 and Stylista.

Oxygen Network, which has acquired the cable rights of ANTM, is going to air a series of documentary called Top Model Obsessed, featuring past contestants Lisa D'Amato, CariDee English and Bianca Golden.

§U.S. television ratings

For the 2006â€"2009 and 2010â€"2011 television seasons, America's Next Top Model was the No.1 show in average viewers on The CW.

^[a] America's Next Top Model, Cycle 1 does not have a ranking for the 2003 season because it aired in the summer of 2003 and not within the official 2002â€"2003 U.S. television season.
^[b] The finale for Cycle 14 was actually on May 12, 2010. The recap was shown a week after the actual finale.
^[c] Episodes aired Wednesdays at 8:00 pm during from February 23 to April 13, 2011, when the show moved to 9:00 pm at the following week. Re-airing of previous week's episode took the old time slot to avoid clashing with Survivor, Minute to Win It, and American Idol.

§Criticism

Yahoo!'s Shine lifestyle website said the show contained cruelty and elements of humiliation, and that some critiques from the judges are "really cruel and cringe-inducing", claiming that the show "humiliates and degrades young women." The site created the list "10 reasons why 'America's Next Top Model' is bad for women, humans", citing such things as giving the contestants and women viewers unrealistic visions of life as a model, and "always espousing empowerment and female strength and then forcing the contestants into embarrassing scenarios far outside the realm of real-life modeling". One such scenario highlighted was when two final contestants "were made to wear bikinis so skimpy that the producers had to blur out Allison's butt cheeks", and performed a "creepily sexual mud fight," after which contestant Teyona Anderson was "commended for taking her weave in her hand and whipping it around on the runway like a sexy feather boa."<

Allure magazine criticized the show in its October 2006 issue, saying that ANTM "hasn't exactly produced any actual supermodels."

Ken Mok and Tyra Banks noticed that most of Cycle 8's girls were unusually heavy smokers. "Tyra and I understand the influence 'Top Model' has on a generation of young people, and we want to make sure we get the right message to our audience," Mok said, which then prompted the "green" theme of Cycle 9.

The winner of Cycle 9, Saleisha Stowers, was discovered to have been in a Wendy's commercial, on a catwalk in the Cycle 6 show and an episode of Tyra Banks Show prior to the Cycle 9 event. The CW network said she had revealed her role in the Wendy's commercial, and "after reviewing the commercial, it was determined that her appearance did not amount to 'modeling' experience, and therefore did not exclude her from participating in the show."

After filming Cycle 10, the producers of America's Next Top Model were served with a lawsuit from Michael Marvisi who owns the loft used as the Top Model house. The lawsuit claims that the contestants as well as the production crew caused an estimated $500,000 in damages to the loft. Marvisi claims the contestants engaged in food fights, made holes in the walls, caused water damage to the bathroom, damaged a $15,000 chandelier beyond repair, and caused $90,000 worth of damage to an electrical store. Also, the production crew has been accused of damaging the flooring and making holes in the ceiling for lighting equipment.

§Broadcast history

§International broadcasts

America's Next Top Model is currently shown on TV internationally in 170 countries and regions, namely: Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and the whole Southeast Asia (except Timor-Leste). The following table shows countries and regions that have aired this show:

The channel in bold also broadcast their own version of Top Model.

§Spin-off

In October 2008, The CW announced that it had ordered a spinoff pilot of America's Next Top Model, titled "Operation Fabulous". The proposed show would have starred ANTM creative director Jay Manuel and runway coach Mrs. J. Alexander as they travel the country to provide makeovers to everyday women. Tyra Banks and Ken Mok would have served as executive producers for the new show. However, The CW ultimately declined to pick up the show.

§Distribution

Until 2012, only season 1 of ANTM had been released domestically on DVD. This is because the home video license was formerly held by UPN, and was distributed for them by Paramount Home Entertainment. Since the series is now independently produced, the video rights to the remaining seasons have, until recently, been open for acquisition (and therefore, the remaining seasons had yet to be issued on DVD or Blu-ray). However, on May 30, it was announced on the CW that Cycles 2 & 3 were available to pre-order on DVD via new licensee CBS Home Entertainment. They are now available for purchase on Amazon.com

§Sponsors

For cycle 1, Revlon sponsored this show with the products and prizes. Between cycle 2, Sephora replaced Revlon as the commercial sponsor. Through cycles 3-18, CoverGirl replaced Sephora as the continuation on products and prizes. For cycle 19, shoe retailer Nine West and Smashbox sponsored with campaigns, but the cosmetics sponsorship has ended. For cycle 20, Guess sponsored with a US$100,000 ad campaign for the winner.

§Contestants' crossover appearances

• In Cycle 3, Taye Diggs from Kevin Hill appeared in the acting challenge, which was won by Yaya DaCosta but it was the cycle's winner Eva Pigford who guest-starred on the show. She later starred on other UPN/CW shows such as Smallville.
• The winner of the following cycle Naima Mora also got to guest-star on a show, Veronica Mars.
• Kim Stolz (Cycle 5) and Furonda Brasfield (Cycle 6) were given small guest-starring roles on episodes of Veronica Mars. Kim and Furonda's roles were cameos in the same series.
• CariDee English (Cycle 7), who won the acting challenge in Episode 9, guest-starred in an episode of the series One Tree Hill. More recently, she had a cameo appearance in an episode of Gossip Girl.
• For Cycle 8, the acting-themed episode had Tia Mowry of CW's The Game give the girls a crash course in acting, although the "crossover" was limited to Mowry's appearance, as the challenge winner was not given a guest role as a prize. Instead, Renee Alway, who won the challenge, got a surprise visit from her husband and son in which she shared with Dionne Walters, whose family also showed up for a surprise visit.
• Also several contestants (winners or not) have landed roles in shows by UPN or The CW, such as Mercedes Scelba-Shorte, Ann Markley, Toccara Jones and Cassandra Whitehead.
• Analeigh Tipton and Samantha Potter (both Cycle 11) were featured in an episode of The Big Bang Theory which featured the main characters locating the top model house.
• At the E! News preshow for the 81st Academy Awards five contestants were featured modeling Oscar gowns: Ambreal Williams, and Saleisha Stowers (both Cycle 9), Samantha Potter (cycle 11), Nijah Harris and Natalie Pack (both Cycle 12)
• On May 12, 2010, Angelea Preston, Jessica Serfaty, and Simone Lewis from Cycle 14 appeared on a Jay Walking All-Stars segment on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
• On February 24, 2012, Brittany Brower, Bre Scullark, and Lisa D'Amato from Cycle 17 appeared on a Jay Walking All-Stars segment on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
• On November 21, 2012, Allyssa Vuelma, Jessie Rabideau, and Kiara Belen from Cycle 19 appeared on a Jay Walking All-Stars segment on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
• Jenascia Chakos (Cycle 2) appeared in 2010 in an episode of Wheel of Fortune.
• Analeigh Tipton played Jessica Riley in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love.
• Cycle 13 contestant Courtney Davies appeared in the ABC family TV series Pretty Little Liars as Quinn in a recurring role for 2 episodes in 2011.
• Cycle 9 contestant Lisa Jackson, as a model paired with designer Michelle Lesniak Franklin, was the winner of the 11th season of Project Runway.

§See also

• List of reality television show franchises
• Make Me a Supermodel (U.S. TV series)

§References

§External links

Media related to America's Next Top Model at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• America's Next Top Model at the Internet Movie Database
• America's Next Top Model at TV.com
• "List of America's Next Top Model Episodes". TV Guide. Archived from the original on June 23, 2011. Retrieved July 16, 2011.