TV Review: ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Has Run Out of New Ideas

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CHICAGO – Fourteen cycles into “America’s Next Top Model,” it is now clear that this sometimes-engaging program has lost all hope of rekindling what once made it entertaining. Perhaps realizing that they haven’t cast that many interesting models in the last few years, the producers have turned to torture, trying to make them intriguing by abusing them. It’s not that clever a plan.

TV Rating: 2.0/5.0

How do they abuse the new “ANTM” girls? Well, one of the reasons that the show isn’t nearly as interesting as it used to be is that most of the people on the show now have grown up watching it. They know the system. They know the personalities that Tyra Banks likes to keep around. They know how to be good for TV as well as the runway. And they know that the first episode features a major cut as the finalists are announced. So, in order to mess with them, the producers give the finalists papers that indicate they’re going home. They didn’t make it. Then they pull the switch with a big “Just Kidding!” while the poor teenage girls are still crying.

America’s Next Top Model
Photo credit: The CW

Banks tries to sell this opening bit as a way to teach the contestants that rejection is the norm in the world of modeling. Whatever. It’s a way to hook viewers and tears work on reality TV. And it’s only moments later that the girls are being put in bubbles and sent down a miniature runway over a POOL (as you can see in the picture below right). Is Tyra and her team trying to teach a lesson about the difficulty of runway walking or provide an opportunity for young girls to fall down and get embarrassed in front of complete strangers? She loves to have it both ways but one can’t shake the queasy feeling (especially after seeing previews for next week in which the girls have to shoot with live bees) that Tyra’s starting to take out some her negativity on teenagers.

America’s Next Top Model Photo credit: The CW

Are any of the teenagers memorable this year? Like most years, there are a few frontrunners. There’s a sweetheart names Jaclyn who should be the naive darling of the season. There’s a strikingly unique looking frontrunner named Mikaela. And there’s a plus-size model named Kasia. In general, it’s a reasonably strong group but one can’t shake the feeling that tenth place in the first few seasons would win this year. The competition doesn’t seem as stiff as it used to be. The girl who goes home in episode one never would have gotten past the first cut in the first few seasons.

So, why keep watching? The photography. This is one of the few places on TV that you can actually see quality photographers doing what they do best. Look at that black-and-white photo above. It’s a beauty. And you don’t see quality photography on TV that often (or anywhere for that matter). And, the fact is that a few of the models are entertaining and the Js (J Alexander and Jay Manuel) still provide quality model expertise even if Banks seems a little more self-obsessively crazy every year. Nigel Barker still offers some interesting insight and the guest judge in episode one, the striking Erin Wasson (the only woman on the episode who looks like an actual model) should be made co-judge and replace the useless Andre Leon Talley, a man who has yet to offer one interesting comment in his time on the show.

How do you keep a show fresh this far into its existence? It’s tough. “America’s Next Top Model” has tried variations including shorter models and they usually don’t work. So, they’re not really trying anything new this year except to up the torture. If you can call that new.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]