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America's Next Top Model
Role: Host
Premieres: Cycle 11- September 3rd, 2008

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The Tyra Banks Show
Role: Host
Airs: Weekdays (Schedule)

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TV’s 20 Top Earning Women

Supermodels Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum both have one or two things in common with each other, apart from being catwalk beauties. They also top Forbes’ primetime TV’s top-earning women list.

The two reality series hosts and Victoria’s Secret angels, one former and the other one current, are numbers 1 and 2 at the new list compiled by the magazine. Banks, who earned $23 million from June 1, 2007 to June 1, 2008, is ahead of her runway pal by $9 million.

Also, the women of “Desperate Housewives” all made it to the list, with Eva Longoria Parker coming a little bit higher than the rest with $9 million.

The list is ranked according to estimated earnings, not just from their TV jobs, but also from production, movie, endorsement, and fashion ventures in a span of one year. For the women who are lucky enough to have made it on the list, their earnings aren’t just limited to their per episode salary.

Take in for example Paula Abdul, who lands in at number 9 with $5 million. Although her judging stint at “American Idol” is lucrative enough, in order to earn millions in a year, she also had to sell a line of jewelry for QVC and smile for the camera her reality show “Hey Paula!”

Here’s the complete list of Forbes’ 20 Top-Earning Women in Primetime TV:

1.) Tyra Banks – $23 million
2.) Heidi Klum – $14 million
3.) Katherine Heigl – $13 million
4.) Eva Longoria Parker – $9 million
5.) Maura Tierney – $7.5 million
6.) Mariska Hargitay – $6.5 million
7.) Marg Helgenberger – $6 million
8.) Jennifer Love Hewitt – $5 million
9.) Paula Abdul – $5 million
10.) Tina Fey – $4.6 million
11.) Vanessa Williams – $4.5 million
12.) Calista Flockhart – $4 million
13.) Kathryn Morris – $3.9 million
14.) Teri Hatcher – $3.8 million
15.) Marcia Cross – $3.7 million
16.) Linda Cardellini – $3.5 million
17.) Melina Kanakaredes – $3.5 million
18.) Patricia Arquette – $3.4 million
19.) Ellen Pompeo – $3.4 million
20.) Felicity Huffman – $3.4 million

Congratulations Tyra! You definitely deserve every penny of it. Hopefully, 2008-2009 proves to be an even better year!

Posted: September 4, 2008 by Dale
Filed Under: Uncategorized
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America’s Next Top Model’s Top 10 Hardest Challenges

No matter how predictable America’s Next Top Model can be each season — can Tyra Banks please quit breathlessly whispering everything at elimination? — producers and Banks still know how to inject some unexpected life into the show. For instance, during the upcoming 11th season, er, cycle, we’ll see our first transgender contestant, Isis Tsunami.

But the bulk of the surprise often comes in the form of crazy, unenviable challenges that will make you so grateful that you’re sitting on your couch eating popcorn — as a spectator. So in anticipation of the new installation of ANTM, which premieres Wednesday (8 p.m.) on The CW, here are our picks for the Top 10 most difficult challenges to date:

10. Sweaty, Smelly, Stunning?
If there are two times when people don’t look their best, it’s when they’ve been camping or after a strenuous workout. To our knowledge, Tyra doesn’t do camping … but she did have models race up 14 flights of stairs in season three, and then immediately participate in an impromptu photo shoot. Sadly, none of them had enough energy left to kick Tyra’s ass.

9. Stilt-walk
In a challenge that seemed better suited for exotic dancers, models in season six had to practice their balance by strutting around in 10-inch platform heels. I remember covering my eyes and drawing in a sharp breath as a few models’ ankles bent into 90-degree ankles before my eyes. Not surprisingly, injuries ensued.

8. Freak Show
I know how awesome I always feel when I have a blemish or a bad hair day. So being charged with looking attractive as a circus freak (think Bearded Lady, Elephant Woman, Cannibal) was a seemingly impossible task. Truly, some looked less ugly than others, but the results were hard to look at.

7. Laser Precision
In a cycle eight Mission: Impossible-like challenge, the girls had to maneuver through a maze of laser beams, striking lovely poses amongst their attempts at graceful contortion. It required flexibility and a real awareness of one’s body, both of which are more easily achieved after a few glasses of wine – which, of course, the girls did not get.

6. Ice Bath
In season seven, models posed as nymphs while immersed in ice-cold water. And unlike the average person, they hadn’t a shred of body fat for insulation. And I don’t care how cute you are, it’s hard to look gorgeous when your teeth are chattering.

5. Death Becomes Her
In one of ANTM’s eeriest challenges, models in cycle four had to pose as one of the seven deadly sins. In a casket. Which was lowered into a six-foot hole with a crane. Shudder.

4. Creepy Crawlies
Models put on a brave face in cycle three when they were forced to pose for photographs holding a cute, furry, live … tarantula. This thing was trotting all over the models’ faces and heads. To quote Whitney Houston: Hell. To. The. No.

3. Creepy Crawlies, Roach Clip Edition
If you think tarantulas are icky, at least they don’t make noise. In season six, models walked the runway while holding and/or wearing enormous Madagascar hissing cockroaches, which had been bedazzled with rhinestones and turned into living brooches. I actually felt sorry for the models and the roaches.

2. Aural Assault
Models in cycle nine had to impress judges by dancing in an Enrique Iglesias video. First, it was a long, grueling day. Second, they were wearing high heels and skimpy outfits. Third, they had to listen an Enrique Iglesias song on a loop all day long. (Honorable mention: In season two, girls were forced to dance in Tyra Banks’ lame music video for “Shake Ya Body.”)

1. Dead Meat
Tyra takes the models to the meatpacking district, where they are forced to pose amongst animal carcasses while wearing halter tops and/or underwear made of meat. First of all, can you imagine how heavy and awkward it is to wear a pair of steak panties? Second, how unsanitary!

SOURCE: BuddyTV.com

Posted: September 4, 2008 by Dale
Filed Under: America's Next Top Model
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Top Model – TOMORROW!

Are y’all ready for it? It premieres tomorrow night on the CW! Be sure to tune in to watch Tyra ask the competitors the almighty question; “Do you wanna be on top?”.

Posted: September 3, 2008 by Dale
Filed Under: America's Next Top Model
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TV to See: America’s Next Top Model

“America’s Next Top Model” launched in 2003, a pioneer of the model-themed reality series. It has an impressive following, even if it doesn’t churn out the kinds of models described in its title. The show has grown from its rather fantastical premise into, in many cases, a career-starter with a positive message. A steady stream of promising contestants has meant, as for the long-running shows “Project Runway” and “American Idol,” the strength of the show has not faded over time. Moving to the CW network in 2007 after the WB merged with UPN, “ANTM” became a centerpiece of the teen-targeted station, and along with shows like “Gossip Girl” and mainstays like “One Tree Hill” and “Smallville,” it has helped keep the fledging network afloat.

Since starting the show five years ago, Banks has simultaneously been working on other projects, the biggest of which is her daytime talk show, “The Tyra Banks Show.” The talk show reflects her admiration of Oprah Winfrey; both have production companies with similar programming. It caters to girls and women, and deals with topics like self-esteem, friendship, school, sexual health, family and more. There has been some overlap between Banks’s two shows, with Banks holding informal group discussions with the girls on “ANTM”—particularly when they aren’t getting along. Her talk show has also featured past contestants and judges, and included episodes devoted to the modeling industry and makeovers.
A Slice of “Reality”
Like most reality TV series that force a group of strangers to live together, “ANTM” is full of drama: cattiness, physical fights, jealousy, incendiary commentary and an unwillingness to do the dishes. It’s unclear what part of the show draws the most viewers: the glammed-up photo shoots that let young viewers (and contestants) live vicariously through the supermodel lifestyle, or the off hours, when the girls tour foreign cities, grumpily rise before dawn, fight over lifestyle differences and shower schedules, and hold dramatic discussions in the kitchen of their souped-up makeshift model house. It must be a combination of the two. But unlike a lot of present-day reality shows, there is a viable competition involved in “ANTM” with money and careers at stake. This is an undeniable part of the show’s stickiness.
The Boundaries of Beauty
Sources in this Story

* The CW: America’s Next Top Model—Cycle 11
* The New York Times: Who Is America’s Next Top Model, Really?
* The Tyra Banks Show
* New York Post: A-Plus Model
* ETonline: Paulina Porizkova To Replace Twiggy on ‘ANTM’
* Reality TV World: ‘Top Model’ producer: Transgender model to help “redefine” beauty
* The CW: Video

Whitney Thompson is a plus-size model with bone structure that immediately captivated Tyra Banks and the other Season 10 judges. She pushed the envelope for the show, exuding confidence and proving that the camera loved her with photos that ranged from grungy to classic. Thompson beat out Anya, whom the judges believed to have more of an “in” look—pale, Eastern European features—and suddenly the show had raised the bar. It had included plus-size models in past competitions, but none had ever reached the final. Like other past winners, Whitney was featured on the cover of Seventeen and won a contract with a top agency, Elite Model Management. The New York Post, the first publication to interview Thompson, called the result a “shocker.” Thompson told the Post, “People always say you have to be stick-skinny, emaciated and unhealthy and I’ve kind of stood up for [being full-figured] my whole life.”

Thompson added in that interview that she believed Tyra Banks, who has dealt with weight gain during her successful career as a model, related to Thompson and was “pulling for” Thompson “deep down.” The finalist is decided by Banks and other panelists: last season, they included long-time “ANTM” judge and photographer Nigel Barker and supermodel Paulina Porizkova, who replaced British icon Twiggy for Cycle 10.

The new season of “ANTM” has been creating buzz since the early summer, when it was revealed that one of the contestants is transgendered. The show has been welcoming of openly lesbian and bisexual contestants, but this is the first time a transgendered audition made the final cut. Reality TV World, a news source for dozens of reality shows, recaps the news on its site. The show’s executive producer, Ken Mok, told the press that Isis, 22, will help “redefine what beauty is” on the show, just as Whitney did in Cycle 10. Isis was “born physically male,” she explains, but “mentally, everything else, I was going female.”
Tuning into “Top Model”
“America’s Next Top Model” Cycle 11 premiers on the CW at 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday, September 3. Video highlights and streaming episodes can be found on the CW’s Video Web site, and the full season and episodes can be purchased on iTunes.

SOURCE: FindingDulcinea.com

Posted: September 2, 2008 by Dale
Filed Under: America's Next Top Model
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