There are a few good, simple reasons why the competitors on "America's Next Top Model" will not become America's next top model, insiders say.
In an industry that is indeed fairly cutthroat, the women who appear on "America's Next Top Model" would have a tough time wedging a flip-flop in the door of most agencies.
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What is not apparent to legions of modeling hopefuls, either on the show or out in TV land, is something that modeling business insiders like Nian Fish, creative director of the fashion production house KCD, tend to laugh about. "The show has become their spectrum, a Midwest, middle-of-the-road simulation of what the business is like." 4 train to Brooklyn saying, 'Omigod, I have to get home because the Tyra show is on,' " said Wayne Sterling, the editor of, a slick Web site that obsessively rates model status. It is Tyra Banks, the show's host and producer, a Victoria's Secret beauty with a snap queen's attitude and the entrepreneurial chops of Donald Trump. The truth at the core of this least-real reality series, now in its fifth season and with nearly five million viewers from the coveted demographic of women age 18 to 34, is that the winner is never Nik or Kim or Nicole or Lisa.
Each Wednesday a challenge is posed: Is Nik too shy or Kim too butch or Nicole too passive-aggressive or Lisa too quirky (and sloshed) to make it in the cutthroat world of high fashion modeling? Why, it is a puzzle to test the mettle of Malibu Barbie!
THE only authentic mystery behind who will come out on top each season on the UPN hit "America's Next Top Model" may be how Americans can be willingly gulled into thinking that the result of this deliciously kooky weekly confection is a cliffhanger.