Reality Roll Call

McKey has taken the top slot in Cycle 11 of America’s Next Top Model. Though her celebration was certainly not as memorable as Danielle’s when she won cycle 6, McKey did still manage the Olympian feat of picking Tyra up.  Tyra did her best to make it look fierce. McKey beat out Analeigh and Samantha, neither of whom were able to convey the complete high fashion and commercial package as well as the winner. Where McKey managed to look high fashion in person and on paper, Analeigh was always too sweet looking for high fashion (though she had a fabulous body) and Samantha looked too commercial in person(though she managed to look high fashion on paper).

In this week’s episode of America’s Next Top Model, Marjorie took Tyra’s critique of her maddening twitchiness to heart and decided to relax, have fun and let out the new Marjorie. But this girl wasn’t necessarily more likable, or more interesting, she was just slightly calmer, though not less nerve-wracking. The other models watched her with an air of trepidation, unsure of whether to accept her or hide the kitchen knives.

If you’re still undecided about the presidential race and chose to exercise your intellectual muscles by watching Barack Obama’s prime-time special, you need not worry about having missed your favorite brain musher America’s Next Top Model. Since I’ve already voted, I watched ANTM for you. Last night, the Tyraettes arrived in Amstardam to be greeted by Holland’s Next Top Model host Daphne Deckers. (Sidebar: It’s amazing how the Top Model series is compelling even when you can’t understand what the judges are saying.)

Deckers tells the girls that they will be placed in groups of two and that the first challenge is to find their house using a variety of clues. The concept is ripped straight from the Amazing Race, but fun nonetheless as the girls take a train, a cab and ask for directions to get to their house. The first couple to arrive will get 50 extra frames during their photo shoot. Samantha is unhappily grouped with Elina, but the thought of 50 extra frames keeps her on task. They are the first to arrive. Meanwhile Marjorie hilariously tries to buy a train ticket with US dollars, and Sheena, thinking she and McKey had won the challenge, does a victory lap only to find out that they are actually the last to arrive.

This week’s episode of America’s Next Top Model opens with a model war that is falling out on continental lines–it’s the U.S. versus Europe, with all the American models supposedly tired of the whining and complaining of the two European models (Elina and Marjorie).  What are they whining about? Everything. Twitchy, uncomfortable Marjorie can’t understand the concept of optimism, while Elina who hates her mother and wants to ban the use of all animal products, and maybe eventually take over the world, can’t get over her need to control her own every movement, which she says has to do with her European background. In fact the two have a very Pinky and the Brain quality about them–of course minus the joy. Perpetually sunny Samantha and Sheena are the most flumoxed by it all and at one point Sheena asks Elina (who happens to have been in the U.S. for 11 years) why she doesn’t go home if she’s so unhappy. It’s the immigration question of the ages.  In response to a clearly scripted question from producers about her feelings on Elina and Marjorie’s dissatisfaction tour, Joslyn says she doesn’t have time to worry about “immigration issues,” she’s more concerned about being kicked out this week.  And worry, she should.

From the CW:

TYRA ANNOUNCES THE OVERSEAS LOCATION The ladiespull a disappearing act for this week’s challenge. As is Top Model tradition, the remaining girlstest theiron-cameratalents when they shoot their CoverGirl commercialwith the help ofcycle 10 winner, Whitney Thompson. During judging, Tyra reveals this cycle’s overseas destination and one girl is sent home.

Tyra Banks‘ hit reality competition show, America’s Next Top Model will be giving birth to its first spinoff on the CW. The show, Operation Fabulous, will feature ANTM stars J. Alexander and Jay Manuel, as they tour the country, turning ordinary women into “model” citizens. Get it? “Model citizens”? It’s a play on words…never mind. This is a makeover show, not a competition. The women will get complete overhauls and fashion advise that suits them as individuals.

Anyway, this will be the third fashion-themed reality show on the CW, including their newest, “Stylista”, which debuts on October 22.  All shows are produced by Tyra Banks and Ken Mok.

With two girls lopped off of America’s Next Top Model last week, and seven more to go, the competition has gotten particularly fierce. The girls quietly snipe at each other, with one of them telling Analeigh she’s pretty but not model pretty. In one of their first challenges, Tyra, wearing black heels and a black leotard, coaches the girls in the art of developing a signature look or pose. Analeigh is up first and of course she tries to take advantage of her training as an ice skater, but her effort falls flat. Tyra says her poses are pretty but empty then encourages her to go for rebel ice skater, whatever that means. When Lauren Brie of the perpetual pretty picture steps up, Sheena says, “Lauren Brie is like her hair—translucent and bland.” LB feels her signature is her awkwardness, but no one can do awkward quite like Marjorie, who based her pose off of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Whoever said hunchbacks aren’t pretty? Instead, Tyra anoints LB as a surfer chick. The result is awkward, but not in a good way.

However, this time they actually mean to be. From the CW:

THE GIRLS POSE AS NATURAL DISASTERS The contestants are thrilled when Paulina shows up to show them how to model unflattering clothing with style. Jay takes the girls to a new level when he asks them to pose as Los Angeles’ “natural” disasters including an earthquake, tidal wave, heat wave and a traffic jam. Tyra Banks, Paulina Porizkova, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker are the judges

From the CW:

TWO GIRLS ARE SENT HOME IN A SURPRISE ELIMINATION The ladies practice their strut down a catwalk while wearing blindfolds and one girl shocks the judges when she decides to lift her dress while posing. The winner of the blindfold challenge will pose for designer Kira Plastinina in a Seventeen Magazine advertorial. In this week’s photo challenge, the girls pose with their eyes. After the judges deliberate, one girl is sent packing. Tyra Banks, Paulina Porizkova, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker are the judges.

And don’t forget to read Lakiya Emerson’s recap on RealityRollCall.com.

Lakiya Emerson’s recap of America’s Next Top Model will return next week. There were some circumstances that prevented her from blogging this week, and as we all know, stuff happens.

However, she wants her Reality Roll Call readers to know that she will be back with her recap next week.