America's Next Top Model: The Final Rankings Rankings and Commentary by RTVC Senior Staff Writer Jacob D.
December 2, 2010
This week's episode saw the crowning of the fifteenth winner of 'America's Next Top Model.'
14 girls came to compete, but only one could win. Here are the girls who were eliminated and why:
Anamaria- the judges were concerned about her emaciated figure and what message it would send to viewers
Terra- eliminated after makeovers when it didn't seem like she could handle the competition.
Sara- for not making enough of an impact
Rhianna- the judges didn't think she had enough versatility as a model
Lexie- let go after weeks of underwhelming performances
Kacey- the judges were not happy with her dull performance in that week's shoot
Kendal- the judges felt like she was still a little too green
Esther- the judges didn't think she was living up to her potential
Liz- the judges felt she complained too much and made too many excuses for herself.
Chris- the judges felt like she had mentally checked out of the competition at this point.
Jane- the judges didn't think she was showing enough personality
Kayla- the judges weren't sure if she was high-fashion, which is crap.
This left a final two of tall awkward Ann and the determined Miss Chelsey. The girls filmed a Cover Girl commercial, shot a print ad, also for Cover Girl, and had their final test in the form of the usual final runway show. At the last judging panel of the season, the judges debated between Chelsey and her professionalism and Ann and her editorial potential. In the end, just as she had so many times in the past, Ann came out on top and is America's newest Top Model.
So another cycle has closed and it was interesting. Sort of. It started out being very dull, just as Cycle 14 had prior. The first photo shoot had a nice message, but lacked something in execution and the second shoot was a disaster all around. They were fallen angels, but all they had were black outfits and feathers.
Why not take these shoots all the way? And I don't mean something ridiculously misguided and over-the-top like the quintessential convoluted photo shoot idea, the "models backstage at a fashion show running away naked from paparazzi only to end up crammed into a phone booth wearing rubber boots and covering themselves with newspapers shoot" from Cycle Five.
I mean, when are they going to have something really avant-garde and out there, but still polished and beautifully executed like the Garden of Eden shoot from Cycle Two? Not only that, when are they going do some real couture like the Country Life shoot from Cycle Five? It seems like the show toes that line of almost being there, but doesn't always make it.
Then, things started to change with that third photo shoot, the underwater beauty shots. I loved the idea behind it, but most of all, the execution was top-notch and almost all of the girls came away with absolutely stunning photos, Liz' being the only one that didn't blow me away.
The fourth photo shoot wasn't my favorite, the wrestling shoot, but it was at least interesting and produced some good shots. Then that Rodeo Drive shoot was just divine! The scale, the glamour, the photos! Just stunning!
Alas, it was not meant to be. Just as the season suddenly perked up as a whole, it plateaued again with the mostly uninteresting results of the Fashion Legends shoot, took two steps back with that stupid rollerskating water commercial, and then just fell into cruise control from there. The change of scenery was nice, but nothing the girls did in Italy came close to being as amazing as those middle three photo shoots.
Plus there was that absolutely dreadful showing in the go-see challenge where each girl, except for Chelsey, only saw one designer in four and a half hours time and two were still late getting back to the modeling agency. Chelsey won, but I think it was mostly because she saw more than one designer, though she only saw two so it wasn't a huge step up.
That 'moving editorial' was way too cheesy for my tastes while the final Cover Girl assignments were actually interesting and well done.
As far as the cast goes, at the beginning of the season, when we first learned who would be in it prior to the premiere, I had a hard time finding any girls to get excited about. I liked Rhianna and Kendal, but no one drew my interest so intensely pre-season like girls such as Jaslene and Anchal did in the past. That changed somewhat when I finally got to see the episodes and my love for Rhianna, Kendal, Ann, and eventually Esther grew.
Putting Ann aside for a moment, because you know I'll get to her in a bit for obvious reasons, I felt like Rhianna was sort of robbed. She had a very unique look and style and the judges greatly underestimated her underwater beauty shot. Plus, they never seemed to really give her credit for her lovely photo from the Fallen Angels shoot. I just don't think she should've been knocked out in 11th place.
Kendal had been a favorite of mine all season long with her fierce look and great style at the various judging panels, but she was a bit up and down in the photo shoots and never seemed totally present or focused. Esther was someone who was not a favorite of mine at first. I didn't see anything modelesque about her first two photos, but her third photo, from the underwater beauty shots session, completely blew me away! Capital B, capital M, capital A! Such a gorgeous face, such a unique look, such proportions, the way her photo just exuded glamour, everything about it is absolutely sublime.
She went on to do well in the wrestling shoot and she was again my hands down favorite in the Rodeo Drive shoot. She looked so fresh and young and beautiful and polished and approachable and so on. Esther was my glamour girl and I loved her for it. It's just too bad she didn't know how to build on that momentum.
As for the rest, I can't say any of them really held my interest as consistently as Kendal or changed my mind as much as Esther did. Terra was too discombobulated, Sara and her horrible makeover, at least with the eyebrows, and Lexie were dull. Even though I defended Kacey in my articles when the crap hit the fan, she was never a favorite of mine. I also was never really a huge fan of Liz, whom I thought should've been eliminated after the Rodeo Drive shoot. Chris' personality overshadowed her work and she petered out towards the end and Jane was Miss Invisible. The only girl I really did not like though was Anamaria, both for her superior attitude and boney figure, and she was eliminated first, thank goodness.
I'm still ticked about the circumstances surrounding Kayla's elimination. All season long, she showed that she could take stunning pictures and the judges lauded her for said photos and her chameleon-like ability, her versatility. She was only in the bottom two once and went into the final four riding the wave of two First Call Outs. Then, the judges did a complete 180 and decided she wasn't really very high fashion, completely contradictory to how they acted all season up to that point and unceremoniously dumped her.
I don't begrudge Chelsey one bit for making the final two over Kayla; I just think Kayla deserved better even if she was just told, "I'm sorry but we've decided to go with Chelsey this time." Would've been better than hypocrisy and unfairness.
As for Chelsey, she was good, she was determined, and she was well-rounded, but her story all season had been wanting it, but never quite coming out on top and it only seemed, sadly, fitting that she ended things that way. Still, she has a strong body of work, went a long way, and now has more exposure than she's ever had.
Now we move on to Ann. I know people are going to say stuff like, "She's too gangly, she's too awkward, she had no real personality, she was overrated," but the bottom line is it's the judges' decision and Ann was the one they loved the most, which should've been apparent after FIVE consecutive First Call Outs. It's not just bias either because Ann really did turn in a number of amazing photos and has incredible high-fashion appeal. It also wasn't just the judges as Ann seemed to cast a spell over everyone she met. If she can gain more confidence, sharpen up her walk, and show she can be commercial, she'll be unstoppable.
So in the end, three good photo shoots, two of them great, plus a couple of interesting girls and some good photos does not help this cycle be anything more than, "Ok." It's definitely not as bad as Cycle 12, as misguided as Cycle Four, as dull as Cycle Nine, nor as disappointing as Cycles Seven and 13, but neither is it as great as Cycles One, Eight, Ten, and Eleven, which I feel have been the best seasons. It's also not towards the top like Cycles Three and Five, but somewhere in the middle, maybe lower-middle. I would put it behind Cycles Two, also near the top, Six, and 14, which started slow and gained steam as it went on.
Top Model has been in a bit of a slump since Cycle Eleven so I'm hoping that Cycle 16 will pick things back up when it premieres next year. Until then, Cycle 15, an ok season but not great, comes to a close. Congratulations on your success Ann!
And all you readers, join me for Cycle 16, which will be the eleventh season that I've covered for RTVC! Eleven seasons done already? Where does the time go? See ya there!
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