#cycle5ranking

[antmrankingsfr]

06. Cassandra Whitehead

Cassandra is one of those rare ANTM girls to have a 100% incredible portfolio. And she’s even more special since her flawless portfolio is actually composed of 2 photos.

All of that leaves me with that big question : « Why Cassandra, WHY !? ». It’s insane that a girl so full of talent and potential, already knocking off the competition only 2 weeks after the start, went on to leave (or being disqualified ?) over hair issues. I’m not saying that it was petty from Cassandra to react the way that she did, I even kind of side with her as she got really screwed up by the makeovers. I perfectly got that it wasn’t Tyra’s original idea about what she wanted for her, but I don’t even think the Mia Farrow cut would have suited her. The look she had when she entered the competition was already a strong one, and she proved in the superhero photoshoot that with good styling she was able to overcome the beauty pageant cliché, so I don’t think an over the top edgy makeover would have been necessary for her. I’m tempted to say that it was a decision made for the sake of shock values and creating drama. So if Cassandra indeed chose to leave the competition on her own, I wouldn’t be surprise to learn that her reason for that was actually her realizing she was being manipulated and screwed up in order to increase the show’s rates. And it could explain as well why Tyra was so pissed off in the following judging panel.

However, I could understand Tyra being upset because of the huge ammount of wasted potential gone with Cassandra. Only two weeks in and she was already destroying the competition. The two photos she took both were excellent, with one reaching my top 10 list and the other being a serious contender. It’s funny to imagine that she could have been an ANTM contestant with 100% of her portfolio in my top 10 list. She ultimately equaled April with a call out order average of 2 from me, and becomes alongside her the girl with the highest average on this blog.

I think the biggest surprise about her photo abilities was the way she could adapt to various concept, rock any styling (another funny fact because the only photo she took with the atrocious makeover was a bang), and push the boundaries of the beauty pageant stigma while delivering fierce and editorial photographs. I can’t believe that she quit modelling because it didn’t match her interests, as she was a natural model in front of the camera. Even her appearance was strong ; for example, while she was one of the shortest girl, she never really looked the part during her time on the show. She had a correct walk, and I believe her beauty pageant experience would have helped her a lot in more commercial briefs.

I’m basically refering to Cassandra as a strong and overall competent model, but in the end I still ranked her 6th because of how early she was cut. The remaining girls stayed long enough to impress me at least a bit more during their run, and because of the fact Cassandra’s post show work isn’t that extensive and not as stellar as it was on ANTM, I’m left wondering if it wasn’t a 2 weeks fluke rather than huge potential. Still, her incredibly strong and faultless start to the competition was more than enough to at least carry her overseas (something that probably could have happen hadn’t she quit), and this is why she is the 6th model on my final ranking.

[antmrankingsfr]

01. Bre Scullark

Finding a winner for cycle 5 was a particularly hard task, none of the girls from this season really rose above the competition. As I was rewatching the cycle, I finally settled on Bre and the more I think about this decision, the more I feel comfortable about it. I realized upon rewatching cycle 5 that I clearly let myself influence by all those editing tricks the first time arround. I use to view Bre as the obvious underdog, the weaker member of the top 3 who clearly overstayed her welcome, and probably the girl with the biggest attitude problem out of this cast, and even until my rewatch I clearly wasn’t expecting to give her such a high ranking. Well boy was I wrong. It even took me half of the cycle to realize that Bre was my winner. Let’s now introduce all the reason for this decision :

First of all, Bre’s portfolio was nothing less than spectacular. It seems odd to say that given the fact that she received a total of 5 bottom 2 appearance from the judges, ultimately equally the record Ann set up 2 cycles ago (and setting the way for Jade next cycle as the two of them had similar progressions). I would say that I agree with her last 3. She needed a wake up call for her attitude during the painting impersonations week, was outshone by Nicole and Nik in the Bollywood week but because of spectacular performances (while she still delivered), and finally Nicole just completely stole the show in the covergirl campaign, forcing Bre to land in the bottom 2 despite her solid performance in the commercial. Out of all these weeks, I would say that her covergirl photo was her only lackluster one. But other than that, notice how those bottom 2 appearances weren’t really due to bad performances. In my opinion, Bre was one of the more consistent girls – if not the most – of her cycle. While her low points weren’t that low, her peaks were very high. 2 pictures stood out in particular to me, and it was her country couture and plastic surgery shot. Both of these photo displayed differents aspects of Bre’s modelling, but in both of them she looked nothing less than superb (and managed to look really tall and elegant despite her being on the shorter side of the cast). Her cover girl, secret deodorant and black and white beauty shot were averages, not terrible, and the rest of her photos were really good. That leave us, as I said before, with a very strong portfolio from Bre.

When I think about Bre, there’s one specific moment that always comes to mind (not the granola gate, mind you) : it is her secret deodorant commercial. I bursted into laughter when she stated in the most direct and blunt way that she loved men’s underwear. It was totally unexpected, and probably was the moment when she became my winner. It’s a rare case when a girl’s personnality influence my ranking, but Bre’s character was so much enjoyable that I couldn’t ignore it. It was a trait of her that would greatly help her constantly delivering in the commercials and interview challenges, so this is why I chose to take it into consideration. Her commercial photoshoots were subpars, but her takes on the filmed commercial would always back it up as her natural charisma translated extremely well on camera. Even if she stumbled on the lines during the cover girl commercial, she still shone in the final product, so I guess she was able to pull it together and produce a very strong commercial. Not to mention that she was as well a stunning individual, which would draw the viewer to her even more. I’m glad that she used her forte properly post show as she has done a bit of commercial modelling. That girl was made to book those specific jobs.

In terms on runway, Bre was a force to reckon. She may had her over the top signature walk, but I thought it kind of works as she always pulled off confidence on the runway and made a strong impression to the clients (which is only confirmed by her challenge win in the second runway challenge). When she went to the go sees, she was asked to tone down her signature walk, and it remained really strong and solid, making her completely bookable for any types of runway. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Miss Jay stated that Bre was one of the best walkers this show ever had. So she definitely had everything going on for her as a model.

I’m going to take a quick moment to discuss about what I think was an injustice of editing made towards Bre. Because Cassandra wasn’t there to fill that role anymore, it seems like the editors tried to make Bre the bitch of her cycle during the latter portion of the cycle, with the notable granola gates incident. As I already said on this cycle, it probably was an attempt of the producer to deliberatly start drama as the cycle remained pretty dull up until that point. Bre indeed crossed the lines with her actions and was 100% in the wrong the whole time. How she turned against Kim at panel was especially disapointing from her. No matter whether or not she acted under the pressure, she shouldn’t have acted that way. What I liked about that incident is the way she apologized for her actions and acknowledged how in the wrong she was. She reconciled with Nicole right after the conflict reached its climax, which ultimately lowered my disapointment. And now that we’ve get the elephant out of the room, Bre actually was for the rest of the cycle the most likable contestant out of all the girls. I was especially impressed with the way she helped Lisa with her alcohol struggle, and the fact that she was the one to call Kim out on her constant backstabbing, ultimately puttin an end to the whole situation. So as much as editors tried to make her a bitch, I can’t help but finding Bre to be a deeply pleasant and enjoyable character.

All the top 4 contestants basically were neck to neck in this final ranking, but Bre ultimately took the crown for the simple reason that she had it all : incredible photos, natural charisma and strength in commercial, a damn fierce walk, stunning look in both pictures and reality, as well as a really charming personnality. And all of those reason put together are making me gladly crown Bre as the winner of cycle 5.

[antmrankingsfr]

02. Nicole Linkletter

Our actual cycle 5 winner. Nicole in my opinion deserves a lot of credit for her win as she was without a doubt one of the stronger models to come from her cycle.

As for her look, I wouldn’t say that Nicole was the more outstanding girl of that cast, but her doll like features and great height still made her a noticable contestant with an edge, which made her more than a typically pretty girl. In fact, the first time I saw her was on her covergirl photo, so before watching the cycle, I mainloy thought of her as standard commercial girl. When I watched the first episode, I was looking forwards to see more of the supposed winner of the season, but couldn’t find her anywhere. When they showed one of her confessionals interview with her name below her, I realized she looked much different in person than she did on her cover girl photo. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that the cycle 5 winner had a little bit more exciting look than I thought. And she would showcase that look well in her portfolio after that point.

Speaking of her portfolio, it was a very solid one. Maybe not the strongest of her cycle, but still one of the best. She may had a weaker start than the other photo models of the cast, but she went on to make a huge ammount of progress continuously until the end. She ended up having the most first call out from me out of all the girls. In fact, she earnt 5 from me, but 1 of them was because all the girls did poorly in that week and she was the most passable. She still got some credit since the 4 other ones were well deserved. And all those photos put next to each other would reveal another great quality Nicole’s portfolio had : versatility. All of her 4 peaks through the competition showed different looks from her. She downplayed a mysterious confident yet relatable vibe for the secret deodorant ad campaign, nailed the wide eye innocent look perfectly suited for high fashion in her black and white beauty shot, pull out a fierce intensity for the bollywood shoot and was had a believable and warming smile for her cover girl campaign. So while her portfolio had major weak moments, it was a really exciting one, and showed a progression through the cycle as all of her strong pictures were taken during the second half of the cycle.

Nicole also excelled on the runway, she was a ferocious walker and completely outshone everyone else in the finale runway. Similar to Naima last cycle, it probably was my favourite moment of her out of all the cycle (even though she still doesn’t reach Naima’s awesomeness). And even during that particular challenge, she said in the confessional that she wanted to show off differents walk for each outfit she displayed, so versatility and variation are definitely a whole part of Nicole’s modelling, which I greatly appreciated. And she was quite competent in commercial, I found all of her performances to be satisfactory. As I said before, she may stumbled on her line during the final cover girl commercial, but in the final product she was in the spotlight with Bre, so I believe she had a natural friendly energy that could carry her through these challenges.

I would say that Nicole’s downfall was her appearance, not in terms of look, but in terms of the way she would carry herself in front of client. She had a tendency to serve attitude whenever she would receive a critique, which could be a major problem in the actual industry of modelling. It’s probably the reason why the judges put her in the bottom for her cover girl campaign, even though she had by far the best overall performance out of all the girl, sofor that I can see myself agreeing with it (though I’m not sure I would have awarded neither Bre nor Nik or first call out instead of her). Fortunately for her, it seems like she got that issue fixed, as she was the model to truly take off after her cycle. She had a great ammount of post show work, and plenty of her photos are absolutely gorgeous (I’m especially loving the shoot from which comes the photo right above this ranking).

I honestly could see why some people were frustrated with her win. To me, Nicole was one of those winner that were selected by the judges long before the finale, she just hapenned unlike other to actually be a deserving one (Hi Saleisha). What made me think of that in particular was the way Twiggy could see no wrong in her. She would always go on about how beautiful she was and ignore her flaws. And being a new judge on this cycle, I believe that her wishes were definitely taken into consideration. The funny thing is that aside of being a judge favourite, Nicole didn’t have that much of a winner edit. For example, the finale would let you think that Nik would be the one to take the crown as she seemed to be more featured than Nicole and had a more emotionnal interview with Tyra before the fashion show, which would be a great winner end of storyline. They may tried to blur out an otherwise too foreshadowing win from Nicole I guess.

In the end, Nicole’s strenght was her versatility, and she was able to work it out in her photos, runway, and commercial performances. I’m not exactly sure what made her second to Bre in my ranking, I probably found her look and presence a little less captivating, as well as her portfolio less consistent, but I still think she is a very deserving winner, as well as a very complete model who was able to showcase her talent both in and out of the show.

[antmrankingsfr]

03. Nik Pace

Having Nik 3rd in this ranking (and especially below Nicole) probably is the most unpopular opinion about cycle 5 I've had so far, because of all the love I’ve seen for this contestant out there. But as I said in Lisa’s ranking, any girl out of the top 4 deserved to win their cycle, so it just came down to little details and preferences.

Nik stood out amongst the other girl because of her unique exotic kind of beauty. Needless to say, she was one of the most stunning woman from her cycle. Funnily enough, when she appeared in the bottom 2 alongside Coryn for the secret deodorant commercial, I could not help but think about how astonishingly beautiful that duo was. But little did we know that this beauty would more than translate on film. In fact I wonder if that’s down to Nik being an awesome model, or just the fact that she could not photograph wrong because of how stunning she was, though as evident by her placing, I still think that she was an amazing model in either case.

She proved herself to be a competitor to watch after raising the bar pretty high with her superhero shot. She made a great use of her body and her face was nothing less than stunning. Even if I believe she was outshone by many other contestants in the following weeks, she still delivered solid performances in the photoshoots and challenge. She peaked again (despite not being my first call out) in the plastic surgery photoshoot. And then there was the secret deodorant commercial. Her picture wasn’t as bad as the judges made it out to be, but they raised a point when they questionned Nik’s versatility. They would later fault her reccurent use of profile in her photos, but I don’t think it was the main problem as she worked face on in the superhero and bollywood photoshoots. I think the real issue was about Nik working different kind of concept and expressions. She faltered in a more commercial brief, not delivering the same level of intensity we were use to see from her, and I believe that it was the real problem about her portfolio at that point, not a matter of angles.

Well, this theory remained plausible until the very next week. She absolutely nailed the pin up shot which had a more girly and sexy vibe than her previous success, it was one of my favourite shot from this cycle. So my doubts about Nik’s versatility immediatly faded away. The second half of her portfolio was a little less exciting ; aside from her bollywood photo which was her highest point during the competition, her photos would be rather average and uninspiring to me. But overall, Nik remained one the best photo models of her cycle, if not the best, as many of her pictures were gorgeous and amongst the best photo of her cycle, and none of them were truly awful (well, aside from her Wild Boyz shot, but we all know why we’re going to forgive her for that performance). And she had at least one successful variation to her signature look, which earned her some bonus point (even if only working one signature look isn’t necessarily a bad things, as long as you rock this look, like Jeana from cycle 24 for example).

However I believe that Nik did falter in other area of modelling. She had a good walk but couldn’t equal those of Nicole, Bre and Lisa. And I wasn’t convinced with neither of her commercials. Her nerves got the best of her during the secret deodorant performance, and I actually think she was the weakest girl for the cover girl commercial. She may have had the better delivery of the lines in first place, but when her take was reunited with Nicole and Bre’s most successful takes in the actual final product, she completely faded away next to her competitors. So while delivering the lines is a feat, it remains useless if you don’t have enough presence to sell them. Another unpopular opinion I have is that Nik lost points with me with her overall attitude on the show. I remember taking a dislike on her during my first watch of cycle 5, so I didn’t understand why when I discovered the lovely lady that she was at the beginning of that season. But I eventually recalled the reasons behinf that during the second half of the cycle. I found Nik’s reactions towards various issues to border on snobbish and selfish. Whenever some drama was going on, Nik was always avoiding conflicts like she was above it all. I didn’t like how she just sat in a corner talking into Jayla’s back during the Secret deodorant commercial incident, instead of confronting her in order to fix the situation, and I can understand Jayla being upset because of that. I also disliked the way she acted like she couldn’t bother about Kim’s attempts to improve her behavior while she was the one to complain about it. That kind of events led me to think that she tended to be a bit self centered and wouldn’t ever be willing to fix issues because of not wanting to risk her place in the competition. That can be understanble of course, but I prefered for example attitudes like Kim’s when she tried to pacify a situation she wasn’t involved in during granola gate.

Nik probably is the least complete contestant out of my top 4. What carried her this high are her exceptionnal photo abilities as well as totally unique and strong look in person. But if she made a very convincing finalist, I still would have cut her 3rd in the previous panel as her walk and commercial abilities weren’t as good as the two other girls I ranked above her. Even if that didn’t played a part in my final decision, her personnality wasn’t always my cup of tea either, but she still seemed to be a pretty nice girl out of her questionnable moments, so I’m still glad that she made it that far.

[antmrankingsfr]

04. Lisa D’Amato

Ranking the top 4 of this cycle was a pretty damn hard task if you ask me. I’ve been switching these four contestants over and over again, and to this day I’m still not 100% sure about their final placement, as I feel like all of them could have been easily in any position, including the top spot. So let’s start introducing that solid group of girls with Lisa, the crazy party girl of cycle 5.

Lisa’s mainly remembered for her crazy antics during her time on the show. In pretty much every situation she would find a way to make herself the center of attention, and not necessarily in a good way. The other girls quickly became irritated by her behavior, as they would find her to be quite attention seeking. Even if it was wrong for them to talk behind Lisa’s back whenever they had a chance to do it, I can’t help but seeing some truth to that. The main incident I had in mind was during the Wild Boyz photoshoot, were Lisa decided that it would be a brilliant idea to take a pee in a diaper on national television, because the Wild Boyz were paying attention to Nicole rather than her. Believe it or not, but I think it could have been the reason for her being eliminating the next week. As entertaining as Lisa could be, I could understand some producers thinking she crossed the line with this particular event. I don’t think they wanted their America’s Next Top Model to be someone that has been caught purposely peeing in a diaper in front of the camera. Though I’m not sure I would have eliminate her for that, I get that behaving so unprofessionaly on set could penalize her. And then, they probably waited until next week to cut her because they already had the non elimination twist planned, as well as the flight for London and the hotel room booked. She consequently became another premature eliminee of her cycle.

I said another premature eliminee because Lisa deserved to go much further based on her modelling abilities. Even if she’s only to spot higher than her actual placement on the show, I totally would be fine with her at the top spot. She first of all was an incredible photo model. She brought a great variety to her photos, to the point each one of her photos would be different from each other. And I was always surprised to see how she could work her angles so well that she could produced the most refined beauty shots of the cycle despite her sometimes harsh looking features. Her country couture photo and plastic surgery are the best examples of that : I wasn’t that impressed with her look in general, but she looked truly stunning in both these photographs. And most of the time she worked her body just as brilliantly as she used her face, resulting in a extremely strong portfolio. However, I just had one issue with her photos. Now matter how excellent her photos were, most of the time another girl would steel the spotlight. She was very consistent, but never had her reigning moment above the competition, and surprisingly never got a first call out for me (though I would have gave her the one in the secret deodorant commercial week had I consider the commercial and the interview). When I made my top 10 list, I actually picked Lisa’s country couture shot as number 9, which is a spot where it could have been easily replaced by another picture such as Kim’s Wild Boyz photoshoot or Nicole’s secret deodorant ad. And this is one of the factors that made me consider placing her below the top 3 girls.

In addition to her strong portfolio, Lisa was an excellent runway walker, one of the better of her cycle with Bre and Nicole, as she had a really dynamic and well paced walk which made me really enjoy her runway moments from this cycle. Her commercial abilities were really convincing as well. Her performance for secret deodorant was one of the best, and her final line really impressed me. In the end, that was just another of her strenghts in modelling. And if this was all about portfolio, runway walk and commercial skills, Lisa would have easily been my pick for top 1 as she would be the perfectly complete package. But I think the tiny detail dragging her down to 4th is the way she presented herself. Her outfits and make up skills weren’t the most flattering for her, and she wouldn’t scream model in person on multiple occasions. And with the top 4 girls being so neck and neck in my book, this is the kind of detail, alongside the way she would behave on some occasions in front of the clients, that made me place Lisa at 4th.

[antmrankingsfr]

05. Coryn Woitel

Coryn sure was the surprise of my rewatch. I didn’t expect to like her as much as I did this second time arround, neither to place her that high in my final ranking. But for that I have good reason.

Cycle 5 definitely was a very strong cycle in terms of look, it has a great group of stunning women with unique looks, and Coryn was without a doubt one of them. Her features could pass for harsh at first glance, but somehow on many occasions they could look extremely soft as well. There was this sort of versatiliy in Coryn’s face that could help her working a variety of different looks. And her makeover only made things better, she was even more stunning with the golden hair and toned down eyebrows. And I was more than happy to realize that Coryn lived up to the potential of her unique look more than once during the competition.

Her portfolio actually isn’t exactly flawless. Her superhero photo was rather bad and her plastic surgery left a lot to be desired. But it also contained true gems, pictures amongst the strongest of the cycles. Her secret deodorant advert was simply stunning, while her country couture and makeover are instant stand outs. What I liked about those two picture is that she was able to convey a crazy strong intensity in both of them without going over the top, and I don’t think many models are capable of doing that by just standing there like Coryn. Her country couture photo is my favourite one from cycle 5 (which surprised me because I didn’t remember the brilliance of this photograph at first), and had I considered the makeover photos in order to build up my list, her shot would have been a top 5 without hesitation. Speaking of the makeover shoot, I just feel the need to mention how gorgeous the photography was, most of the model took absolutely beautiful pictures (but with Coryn’s still being in its own league ahead of the others).

Even if Coryn’s portfolio also contained a couple of mediocre photographs, I wouldn’t call her an inconsistent model. She was eliminated too early to be considered that way, and as evident by this ranking, way earlier than she deserved in my opinion. I get that she struggled during the interview and in the commercial, but the final result for the commercial was actually good, and with the photo being excellent, it should have been enough for her to stay over other contestants. Taking the 3 areas into accounts, I would have at worst place her in the bottom 3 above Jayla and Kyle. And if commercial wasn’t her forte, her previous showing of strong photo abilities, alongside her satisfactory runway walk, should have been more than enough to keep her.

Coryn also earned some points with me with her personnality. As I already said in previous girl’s ranking, this is not the kind of detail that would bring her any higher, but I still feel the need to mention that I appreciated watching her in the house. The judges  depicted her as another « no personnality girl » as she was quite reserved most of the time, but being quiet doesn’t mean you don’t have one. I really enjoyed the fact that she wouldn’t put on an act in order to be more noticable. Even in her interactions with the other girls, she was always honest about her feelings. Even if she crossed the line with her comments towards Lisa, she later apologized in a letter, and at least she was the only girl to express her feelings towards her and not talking behind her back. So I command Coryn for being as direct as she was on the show.

I would have love to see Coryn received more credit for her work during the show, and continue further on, cause she deserved it. I can imagine her black and white beauty shots, phone booth and bolliwood shots being other absolutely stunning photographs in her portfolio. Unfortunately, we didn’t got the chance to see it, and the remaining girls in my rankings stayed longer and consequently impressed me more than Coryn, so 5 is seems to be the fitting spot for her.

[antmrankingsfr]

07. Kim Stolz

One of the most polarizing contestant from cycle 5, if not the most. It took me some time to consider where I should place Kim in my final ranking, as I have conflicted views about her stay in ANTM.

It’s absolutely undeniable that Kim started off cycle 5 as one of the weakest performers out there. Her first and fourth photos were complete disasters, with the other ones until week 7 being mediocre at best. It’s no wonder that her personnality and role in the house helped her greatly as many of the pictures she took during that time were elimination worthy. Most of the time, the problem was the lack of energy and commitment in Kim’s posing and facial expression. The final results would always look completely bland, lazy and uninspiring, if not completely awkward. To me, it wasn’t really a matter of Kim not trying hard enough, because she seemed really passionate about modelling and determined to progress further. I just think that she had no clue about what to do exactly on set, which led her to be extremely uncomfortable most of the time. And while she encountered a lot of struggle taking good pictures, she didn’t have the best body proportions for modelling and wasn’t a good walker at all. However, she still had good assets going on for her as her eyes could be truly stunning when she would deliver a strong and efficient eye contact, and she was extremely strong in commercials and as a spokesmodel. It’s no wonder to see that her carreer post show took off as a correspondant.

As evident by her placement, things took a different turn for the better for her. About halfway through the competition, Kim actually started to make significant progress. While I wouldn’t award her of first call out like the judges did in the pin-up/ black and white shoots week, I still think that Kim delivered a strong performance and steped up her game quite significantly. If Kyle has been stronger and more consistent than her, I felt more invested in seeing Kim continue to grow in the competition. And she sure did. The week after she produced her best photo so far during the Wild Boyz photoshoot. Despite the trashy concept, she managed to produce a photo I really liked, and that almost reached my top 10 list. And her phone booth performance in the following week was a great one as well, making her earn her second first call out, from both me and the judges. So it was pretty thrilling to see her actually using the many chances she was given by the judges and making huge progress in her modelling skills.

The funny thing is that her behavior throughout the show kinf of had the same evolution as her modelling skills. She started off as a backstabber who would made fun of pretty much every one behind their back yet act in a friendly way in front of them. But once Bre called her out on her actions, she quickly fixed that issue, and I like the fact that she was able to question herself in order to be a better person. And as unpopular as this opinion can be, I liked the fact she tried to pacify the granola gate issue by asking Bre to pay for the drinks before telling Nicole anything. There is something quite mature and altruistic in the way she handled that conflict to me. So in the end, I can say that Kim became a contestant that I really appreciated. Speaking of the granola gate, it seems like it is the reason for her being eliminated. I can’t believe that after making a constant improvement during the past 3 weeks, she would suddenly return to her bad habits of modelling. It was either sabotage or her being completely unfocused because worried about the granola gate. I was kind of sad to see her regress so suddenly and being eliminated instantly.

If we take Kim’s whole performance into consideration, it is a rather mediocre one, as she performed either terribly bad or extremely well. But the fact that her overall progression was a noticable improvement, leading her to impress me more than one time, warrants her this placement in my final ranking. And the fact she was truly talented in the commercial department is more than enough to justify her spot.

[antmrankingsfr]

08. Kyle Kavanaugh

For some reason, Kyle was my instant favourite girl from the cycle 5 cast when I watched the cycle for the very first time. I remember being absolutely horrified when she was eliminated at the top 7 judging panel, but in an ironic twist she doesn’t even place 7 in my final ranking.

To be honest, even if I was perfectly fine with Kyle being eliminated in 7th position, I have to admit that it was a surprising decision made by the judges. She had good statistics up until that point, had eventually received a first call out, praise for her improved walk and 2 challenges win in the previous weeks. Her performance wasn’t exactly the worst from that week and I from what I remember, her elimination episode wasn’t really foreshadowing of her departure. So while I probably get the reasonning of the judges for cutting her, I still have to admit that I wasn’t expecting things to happen that way. I guess they probably saved weaker models like Jayla over her for the sake of TV reality drama, while she was a nice girl who never really got invested in any fights.

All of that lead us to why I agreed with the judges choice of eliminating her at the time they did. The thing is : Kyle’s run through the competition was an extremely consistent one. I don’t think she ever had a dramatic performance in any of the task. The closest she was from that point would be her secret deodorant commercial, and even then it wasn’t an absolute disaster. This is something funny because when looking at her, anybody would deem Kyle as the commercial girl, yet I think that it’s the specific area where she performed the least, it certainly wasn’t her forte. The rest of her portfolio would vary from correct to good, but never reaching levels of amazingness. In my opinion her best photo to date is her black and white beauty shot, but even that photo was at the exact middle of my call out order from that shoot, not breaking into the top 3. Kyle consequently reached the top 7 without having any stand outs moment in my book. She has been a strong competitor until then, but it wasn’t enough to be considered as a contender for the overseas group.

I have to admit that I quite enjoyed her walk on some occasions. The improvement was noticable and by the end of her journey it was quite good to me. So at least she earns points in terms of completeness as a model, and maybe edged out Diane because of this specific area because I considered the two of them to be really neck and neck in terms of photo modelling (I just seemed a little bit more enthusiastic with Diane because she was eliminated early – leading me to think she had potential left - while Kyle was clearly plateauing by the time she was sent home). Kyle just feel a little more well rounded in my eyes, and this is the tiny detail that made me place her 8 and not lower on this list. I still think of her as a strong and competent model, but I needed this wow moment that the girls above all had during their time on the show.