America's Next Top Model

Start date: 2003 Country of Origin: USA Genre: reality Director: Producer: Writer: Tyra Banks Cast: Tyra Banks, Twiggy, J. Alexander, Nigel Barker Quirky Quote:

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America’s Next Top Model is a reality TV show conceived, co-produced and hosted by former supermodel Tyra Banks. The show is now into its ninth ‘cycle’, two of which are currently produced each year.  First broadcast in 2003, the program originally aired on the American station UPN, and was in 2006 moved to UPN’s successor network The CW. Ratings-wise, Top Model has performed extremely well, being the top-rating program on both of these networks. It is broadcast in Australia on Foxtel’s Fox8 station.

Each ‘cycle’ of Top Model begins with the selection of between 10 and 14 young aspiring female models from all over America to take part in the show. Each week the girls not only take part in photo shoots, but receive training about a particular aspect of life as a professional model, and are assigned challenges or activities that test this training. The contestants’ performances in both the photo shoot and challenge tasks are assessed by a panel of judges which currently includes host Banks, 60s model and pop icon Twiggy, former model and current ‘runway coach’ J. Alexander, and photographer Nigel Barker. These judges eliminate one contestant each week, until the final contestant left standing is crowned ‘America’s Next Top Model’. Quite apart from the competitive aspect of the program, its fans also enjoy the show’s focus on the often tense relationships and interactions between the contestants, who share accommodation during the course of the program.