#cycle7ranking

[antmrankingskd]

2. Melrose

My call-out average: 3.18

Panel call-out average: 3.36

Whether or not you liked her, you have to admit that Melrose was a pretty terrific model. She had a super interesting look and she pulled off the blonde makeover quite well too. While I think she was more suited for editorial modeling, she also did well with commercial modeling throughout the competition as well. Melrose was one of the best walkers of the cycle. It was cool to see her have a signature while still being able to adapt her walk to different concepts (just compare her walks in the first challenge, the dinner table show, go sees, and the final runway). When it came to photos, Melrose was one of the most consistent girls of Cycle 7. She sucked in the first shoot, but otherwise performed well in every single week until the finale. In fact, she rarely landed outside of my top 3. While she was a strong competitor, I can’t say that I found many of her photos to be super memorable. The only ones that come to mind are her nymph picture and her hair wars picture, the latter still being overshadowed by a few other shots. One issue I had is that I thought her style of modeling was over-the-top and too posey at times, but since her pictures were almost always strong I can’t complain too much.

Melrose was definitely a love her or hate her type of contestant. It was unfortunate that she got a villain edit because I never thought she did anything that bad, plus the other girls seemed to gang up on her (props to Melrose for handling that session with Tyra where she was singled out; she just chose to focus on herself). Honestly, I read Melrose’s attitude on her “diva of the day” reward during the first shoot as her being sarcastic/joking with Jay, but she stopped when he brought it up. After her first bottom 2 appearance she was nothing but professional on set and in panel. However, while Melrose wasn’t a bad person I still thought she was super annoying. She was not a gracious loser when it came to a lot of the challenges and her little tantrums got old really fast. I wouldn’t have been mad if Melrose had won, but I felt like she wasn’t as natural of a model as CariDee. Still, I appreciated her intelligence, competitiveness, and knowledge of the fashion industry. 

[antmrankingskd]

7. Eugena

My call-out average: 5

Panel call-out average: 5.09

Weird thing is even though I have Eugena ranked this low I wasn’t mad about her making the finale under the circumstances that it happened. She improved at the right time and sort of lucked out with Jaeda lasting so long to act as a buffer from elimination (especially since the judges never seemed to like Eugena all that much, which makes her finale spot even more surprising).  I didn’t find her portfolio to be as awful as a lot of people make it out to be, plus she had a strong walk and was probably the most modelesque girl of the cycle. However, I can’t deny that, minus her black & white shot, her pre-Barcelona pictures just ranged from underwhelming to average. Even though her matador and CoverGirl shots were among the best of the cycle and both of her commercials were strong, her overall body of work isn’t enough to place her any higher than this. Eugena’s major weakness in when it came to modeling was her eye connection; she never put enough life or emotion behind her eyes in a lot of her pictures.

I’m pretty surprised she made it as far as she did based purely on how the judges viewed her and how the editors portrayed her. Her passion for modeling was constantly questioned all the way until her elimination, plus Nigel and Tyra felt the need to point out several times that she was unlikeable. I just thought that she was a mostly reserved person and irks me every cycle that the judges are so against girls being more introverted. She didn’t get a lot of screen time other than when she was complaining about other girls, although there had to be a lot more to her personality since she was friends with CariDee and Monique (still confused how that last one happened since Monique fake peed on Eugena’s bed). By the later parts of the competition I found myself rooting for Eugena, but there’s no way she could’ve cracked into a strong final two.

[antmrankingskd]

4. Michelle

My call-out average: 3.56

Panel call-out average: 4.56

I want to start by saying that I admired Michelle for being brave about opening up about her sexuality. It’s definitely not an easy thing to do, especially on a tv show in the mid 2000s. We got a better sense of Michelle’s personality since she received a decent amount screen time and was more extroverted when compared to her sister. Overall, I have to say that I liked her. She seemed pleasant and I loved the supportive relationship she had with her sister. It’s a shame that Michelle wasn’t as passionate as Amanda because she was a pretty strong model. She was very versatile, quite consistent, and didn’t really have any truly weak moments. I loved a majority of her photos and thought that she had one of the stronger portfolios of the cycle. I agreed with the judges’ assessment that Michelle was stronger than Amanda, at least when it came down to their portfolios. She always fully committed to the given brief and often took risks that paid off, resulting in several of her photos being super memorable. Michelle was also a natural in front of the camera. Her poses and facial expressions just seemed to come to her instinctively. The areas she struggled with were runway (her walk was god awful) and commercials. While she was great in photoshoots, she wasn’t able to bring that naturalness on the catwalk or in front of a motion camera. I almost put Michelle in my Top 3, but she falls short due to those weaknesses.

[antmrankingskd]

Cycle 7

My call-out orders for the seventh cycle, including individual call-out averages for each model.

[antmrankingskd]

1. CariDee

My call-out average: 3

Panel call-out average: 3.36

I wasn’t sure what to expect with CariDee after the casting episode where she came in with a garter on her leg and wore ridiculous black extensions for the nude shoot. I was honestly assuming that she would be a relatively early elimination. Then once the real competition started she completely surprised me by being strong right from the get-go. CariDee definitely had the best overall portfolio and she had some of the best and most memorable shots of the cycle for me (if I made a Top 10 Cycle 7 photos list, she would take at least 4 spots). I thought that she had so much natural talent as a model and consistently performed well on set. I think that her over-the-top energy helped her as she was able to harness it and commit to any character or concept she was given. She received 4 FCOs from me and her only moments of weakness were her Secret commercial and the wobbly runway shoots, both times where a majority of the contestants struggled anyway. She was extremely versatile and was able to perform well in both high fashion and commercial shoots. She struggled with runway all cycle long, but it was never really acknowledged until the finale. That being said, her walk wasn’t super awful but it was clear she needed a lot of work.

CariDee was my favorite personality of the cycle. She was so hilarious, friendly, and full of energy, and she never got involved in any major drama. I was rooting for her almost from the very beginning, but once we learned of her hardships I rooted for her even more. The news of her past suicide attempt was heartbreaking. It was inspiring to hear about her struggle with psoriasis and how she was finally able to pursue her dreams on ANTM. Sometimes CariDee had trouble reeling in her personality in certain situations. Her joke to Nigel illustrated this, but I think that Tyra was the one who seemed most offended. Other than that moment CariDee seemed pretty professional to me. I think that CariDee definitely had the x-factor, that special something that made her stand out. Her strong performance throughout the competition and amazing personality/presence made her a worthy winner and I was so happy when she claimed the title.

[antmrankingskd]

3. A.J.

My call-out average: 4

Panel call-out average: 4.2

A.J. essentially robbed herself by basically giving up, but it was still a major bummer that she was eliminated so early. I get that A.J. lacked confidence and wasn’t super passionate about the competition, but multiple other girls shared one or both of these traits so I don’t understand why she was eliminated for one lackluster photo. No other model had a better track record (in terms of call-out average) within the first 4 weeks in both my ranking and the judges’ ranking. Her elimination was utter bullshit; she should’ve landed in the bottom but not been sent home, especially over Jaeda of all people. But we all know how Tyra feels about models who don’t commit, and A.J. totally threw her last shoot away. A.J. delivered some of my favorite photos of the cycle and easily had one of the best walks. I loved her height and unique face as well. Had she been allowed to continue I think that she could’ve made it overseas at the very least, if not to the finale (I’m still pissed that we didn’t get to see her in the scary black&white shoot; she would’ve destroyed that). It definitely says something that she landed this high in my ranking just based on five weeks in the competition. I was pretty neutral on A.J.’s personality. Her attitude at makeovers was unprofessional and it rubbed me the wrong way. She did have some sweet moments though, like when she comforted Anchal when she overheard the others talking behind her back. Plus she was friends with Megg and CariDee, two of the sillier and fun-loving girls in the house. I’m still bummed that we didn’t see more of AJ.

[antmrankingskd]

5. Anchal

My call-out average: 4.86

Panel call-out average: 4.86

I think it’s a pretty large consensus in the ANTM fandom that Anchal is one of the most beautiful girls to ever compete on the show. She was absolutely breathtaking both in person and in photos, and she had amazing symmetrical bone structure. I think her elimination was so stupid; her photo and overall portfolio weren’t the worst, and the judging test was deemed to be more important than the photos that week which made no sense. Anchal delivered a couple of truly amazing shots (Hair Wars, Romance Novel), but outside of those pictures I found her portfolio to be consistently just decent, and her walk wasn’t great. However, I think that she at least deserved a place overseas and she had the potential to make it super far (imagine her in the water nymphs and/or bullfighting shoots!) . It was so sad to see Anchal be so insecure throughout the competition. It was also frustrating that the judges and her fellow competitors seemed to think she could suddenly gain confidence overnight. When someone has long term self-esteem issues it takes a lot to overcome them. Her insecurities definitely affected her on set and she never seemed fully comfortable in front of the camera outside of the two shoots where she stood out. I think that if Anchal had more confidence she would’ve been a genuine finale threat, but sadly that didn’t happen.

[antmrankingskd]

6. Amanda

My call-out average: 4.3

Panel call-out average: 4.5

We didn’t get a full sense of who Amanda was outside of her identity as one of the twins, but I still thought she seemed like a super sweet person. I loved how supportive she was of her sister coming out of the closet. I also really like the dynamic that she had with Michelle and you could tell that they wanted the best for each other. Amanda also had such a funny moment when she stood up to Monique and ran through the house screaming “There’s food here!” That really made me like her even more after the recap episode. When it came to modeling, I actually agree with the judges that Amanda wasn’t as strong (at least in photos) as her sister. She was super strong in the first 3 weeks, bombed the circus shoot and just coasted in the middle from there. Her last two photos were strong, but by that point she was still being outperformed. I don’t find many of her photos to be that memorable either. She was super high fashion, but I didn’t think she had much commercial potential, which is probably a major reason why she was eliminated before the finale (since CoverGirl and Seventeen skew more towards commercial). Amanda also wasn’t as natural on set as I would’ve liked; she second-guessed herself a lot and it showed several times. She had a decent walk and a fashionable, editorial look so I understand how she made it to the final 4.