Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model is back for the ninth season. Yawn. Anyway, Vuzu seems to have woken up late to the super-model phenomenon and is thus screening her catwalk contest for the first time.
From a male perspective, many moons ago I used to look forward to ogling the models. I also used to try to predict who would win. Then the novelty wore off and Tyra’s presence started to grate. Soon I was hoping that she and her show would go away and never return. That pretentious voice of doom she adopts when cutting hopefuls from the show is plain annoying.
Maybe I’m just hating, because Tyra has done pretty well for herself away from her modelling career. She also has a talk show, which, while nowhere near the Oprah stratosphere, has garnered enough of a following to keep running for several seasons.
As we “welcome” her for another season where desperate young girls try for the bitchy big time, it wouldn’t hurt to look at other models who decided to try out on TV.
There’s Tyson Beckford, the smouldering hunk who seemed to be in just about every R&B video in the 1990s . Remember the cocoa muscles preening poolside in Toni Braxton’s Unbreak My Heart? That was him. While he made a good name for himself as a Ralph Lauren model, success has been harder to come by in film and TV. He may make the occasional “hot guy” appearance in a sitcom, but that’s pretty much where it ends. This may explain why he is now part of Make Me A Supermodel, a rip-off of Tyra’s show, except that it also allows male contestants.
Model-cum-TV personality Kimora Lee Simmons has made a far better fist of it. From a Chanel model to Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, the Japanese-American model knows how to draw a crowd. The right contacts don’t hurt either. After appearing in the occasional music video for the likes of Genuwine and Usher, she married hip hop and media mogul Russell Simmons. They’ve since divorced.
Vanessa Williams reigns supreme in this category. She has carved out a successful TV and recording career, with roles in Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty. Despite a nude pic scandal, she has gone about her career with a grace far removed from the tacky antics of Kimora and Tyra.
l America’s Next top Model airs Thursdays at 8.30pm on Vuzu.