America's Next Top Model

America's Next Top Model (abbreviated ANTM and Top Model) is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to begin their career in the modeling industry. Created by Tyra Banks, who also serves as an executive producer, and developed by Ken Mok and Kenya Barris, the series premiered in May 2003, and aired semiannually until 2012, then annually from 2013. The first six seasons (referred to as "cycles") aired on UPN, before UPN merged with The WB to create The CW in 2006. The following sixteen cycles aired on The CW until the series was first cancelled in October 2015. The series was revived in 2016 and has been airing on VH1 ever since. The series was among the highest-rated programs on UPN and was the highest-rated show on The CW from 2007 to 2010. Advertisers paid $61,315 per 30-second slot during the 2011–12 television season, the highest of any series on The CW. The first 22 cycles of the series and cycle 24 were presented by Banks, while cycle 23 was presented by Rita Ora. The series also employs a panel of two or three additional judges, a creative director and a runway coach.

Cycles 1–16, 19 and 23–24 each consisted of a cast of 10–15 female contestants with no previous participation on the series. Cycle 17's cast consisted entirely of previous participants, while cycle 18's had seven new contestants and seven former Britain's Next Top Model participants. Cycles 20–22 featured male contestants in the contest, including two male winners. As of April 2018^[update], 24 people have won the competition. Winners typically receive a feature in a magazine and a contract with a modeling agency, among other prizes. The series is the originator of the international Top Model franchise. Over fifty versions of the series have been produced internationally.

It was announced on January 24, 2006, that Top Model would be part of the new The CW network, a merge between UPN and The WB, when the seventh cycle started in September airing on Wednesdays. The series became the first series among regular programming to air on the network. Prior to the announcement of merging with The WB, UPN had committed to renewing the series through its ninth cycle on January 20, 2006, for which casting was conducted throughout mid-2006. America's Next Top Model was the only show left on the network that was originally from UPN.

On July 21, 2006, the writers of America's Next Top Model went on strike while working on cycle 7, set to premiere on the new CW Network in September 2006. The writers sought representation through the Writers Guild of America, West, which would allow them regulated wages, access to portable health insurance, and pension benefits. These benefits would be similar to those given to writers on scripted shows. The strike was the focus of a large rally of Hollywood writers coinciding with the premiere of the new network on September 20, 2006. The dispute was chronicled in a July 24 interview on the website Television Without Pity with Daniel J. Blau, a former recapper on the site who covered the series, and at the time was an America's Next Top Model show producer. In November 2006, the writers on strike were taken off payroll.

To celebrate its tenth cycle, America's Next Top Model aired a special installment called America's Next Top Model: Exposed in two parts on the CW on Wednesday, February 6 & 13, 2008. It reviewed the best catfights, mishaps and most memorable photo shoots, personalities, defining moments and contained other segments about the show since cycles 1 to 9, and featured a special opening fusing all three openings together. Camille McDonald (cycles 2 and 17), Toccara Jones (cycle 3), Eva Pigford (cycle 3 winner), Bre Scullark (cycles 5 and 17), Cassandra Whitehead (cycle 5), Joanie Dodds (cycle 6), Jael Strauss (cycle 8), Dionne Walters (cycle 8), Heather Kuzmich (cycle 9), and Bianca Golden (cycles 9 and 17) all returned to comment on events that happened in their or other cycles.

After announcing that the seventeenth season would be an All-Stars version, Banks said on The CW upfronts in May 2011, that there would not be a "normal" season of the show anymore. With the start of the eighteenth British Invasion cycle, the program converted to high definition, becoming the second-to-last primetime show on the five major English-language broadcast networks in the United States to make the switch, and the last to air in the regular season to do so.

The show is syndicated to NBCUniversal's cable division, with Oxygen as well as Style Network carrying the series, usually in marathon form throughout the daytime period on either network, and running through most of or an entire cycle. Bravo, MTV, and VH1 have also aired the series in the past. E! also currently airs reruns of ANTM.

Each cycle of America's Next Top Model has 9–16 episodes and starts with 10–16 contestants. Contestants are judged weekly on their overall appearance, participation in challenges, and best shot from that week's photo shoot; each episode, one contestant is eliminated, though in rare cases a double elimination or no elimination was given by consensus of the judging panel. Makeovers are administered to contestants early in the season (usually after the first or second elimination in the finals) and a trip to an international destination is scheduled about two-thirds of the way through the cycle.