Austria's Next Topmodel

Austria's Next Topmodel
Genre	Reality television
Created by	Tyra Banks
Presented by	Melanie Scheriau (5-)[1] Former Lena Gercke (1-4)
Judges	Melanie Scheriau (5-) Papis Loveday (6-) Michael Urban (6-) Former Rolf Scheider (5) [2] Carmen Kreuzer (5)[3] Lena Gercke (1-4) Atil Kutoglu (3-4) Elvyra Geyer (3-4) Andrea Weidler (1-2) Andreas Ortner(2) Sabine Landl (2) Alamande Belfor (1)
Opening theme	Vera Böhnisch - "Take Me Higher" (1) Cobra Starship - "Good Girls Go Bad" (2) Victoria S - "One In A Million" (3) Jason Derulo - "Breathing" (4) Zedd - "Spectrum" (5) Leona Lewis - "Fire under my feet" (7)
Country of origin	Austria
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	80
Production
Running time	120 mins
Release
Original network	Puls 4
Original release	8 January 2009 – present
External links
Website

Austria's Next Topmodel is an Austrian reality television series based on Tyra Banks' America's Next Top Model, which sees a number of aspiring models compete against each other in a variety of competitions to determine who will win the title of Austria's Next Topmodel, among other prizes in hopes of a successful career in the modelling industry.

History

For the first four cycles, the show was hosted by Lena Gercke, the winner of the first cycle of Germany's Next Topmodel. Gercke is the first Top Model winner to become the host of a Top Model series. The judging panel for the show's first cycle consisted of the head of Vienna-based modelling agency Wiener Models, Andrea Weidler, and runway coach Alamande Belfor. Cycle one aired from January to February 2009 and was won by Larissa Marolt. As part of her prize package for winning the contest, Marolt won a place on the fourth cycle of Germany's Next Topmodel, where she placed eighth.

In mid-2009, Puls4 aired a spin-off of the show, Die Model WG, which featured six of cycle one's contestants. The show was won by Kordula Stöckl.

Cycle two aired from November 2009 to February 2010. Its tagline was "More girls, more jet set, more glamour". Former model and photographer Andreas Ortner joined the judging panel, replacing Alamande Belfor. Beauty expert Sabine Landl, who was the models' stylist in cycle 1, also joined the jury. The winner of the cycle was Aylin Kösetürk.

The third cycle premiered in January 2011 and introduced new judges; designer Atil Kutoglu and runway coach Elvyra Geyer with Gercke remaining as the host.^[4] A significant change was that one girl per federal state plus five wildcards made the cast. Additionally, there was an international destination in every episode, however only the contestants who won the casting were allowed to travel to that destination.

Gercke did not return to host the fifth Cycle in order to concentrate on her own modelling career.^[5] Austrian model Melanie Scheriau is currently hosting the new cycle that began to air in January 2013.^[1] The sixth cycle will also feature male contestants for the first time and is set to air in late 2014.^[6]

Males were introduced to the competition in the sixth cycle of the show. In addition to that, the social media scoring system used in the American version of the show was also implemented. In contrast to the American adaptation, each voter is required to cast their votes via Facebook. Furthermore, there is no grading scale. Each Facebook account is allotted three votes, which can be spent on any combination of contestants. The contestant with the highest number of votes each round is granted immunity, while the contestant with the lowest amount is automatically nominated for elimination along with three other contestants chosen by the judges.

Judges

¹ Served as guest judge that cycle.

Controversies

Show title

Before the show began, it caused controversy because of another modeling contest named Österreichs (German for "Austria's") Next Topmodel, which was established in 2007. Dominik Wachta, founder of what can be described as a mix between a model casting and a beauty pageant, accused the TV channel Puls 4 for stealing his idea. Further steps to change the name of the show have been unsuccessful as it was already licensed by CBS as the role-model version created by Tyra Banks.^[7]

Racism controversy

In the third cycle, contestant Magalie Berghahn was eliminated from the show due to the racist comments she made during a phone conversation with her boyfriend. She referred to fellow competitor Lydia Nnenna Obute as "neger oide" (negative afflicted Austrian slang for "black woman") and to Vanessa Lotz as "Deitsche" (slang for German woman). Both Obute and Lotz won a go-see that episode. The conversation was fully taped and aired during the show. She was confronted by host Lena Gercke with the video material in front of the other two girls. Gercke then told her that she was expelled from the show because the competition had no room for racist ideas and thoughts. Puls 4 was later accused of using the controversy for promotional purposes as Berghahns comments had already shown in the preview for the episode and had not censored when the episode aired.^[8] Berghahn was not invited to the final runway show during the cycles finale. She later stated that the scandal had ruined her life.^[9]

Death of Sabrina Rauch

In January 2012, 21-year-old Sabrina Angelika Rauch (a cycle 4 contestant) died in a car crash after spinning out of control on her way home from a party. Her vehicle collided with a concrete mast with Rauch being killed at the scene of the accident instantly.^[10] Her co-driver, a 26-year-old male friend, survived the accident.^[11] Only three days before the episode featuring Rauch's elimination was aired, a nude photo shoot she did prior to her participation on the show was exposed. She was confronted by the judges for having taken the photos, and they stated that it was 'too low for a top model' while the other contestants witnessed the scene. A friend of Rauch criticized the program for the editing of that certain scene.^[12] At the beginning of the next episode of the show, the broadcast station expressed their condolences to Rauch's relatives and friends on a silent screen.

Cycles

Cycle	Premiere date	Winner	Runner-up	Other contestants in order of elimination	Number of contestants	International Destination(s)
1	000000002009-01-08-00008 January 2009	Larissa Marolt	Victoria Hooper	Piroschka Khyo, Birgit Königstorfer, Kordula Stöckl & Christiane Pliem, Julia Mähder, Kim Sade-Tiroch, Constanzia Delort-Laval, Tamara Puljarevic	10	Milan
2	000000002009-11-25-000025 November 2009	Aylin Kösetürk	Sarah Unterberger	Julia Huber, Lisa Schottak (quit), Angelika Czapka, Manuela Frey & Vanessa Hooper, Iris Shala, Anna Steinwendner, Jennifer Kogler, Lina Köberl, Johanna Gruber, Nina Kollmann	13	Istanbul Athens London Paris Cape Town
3	000000002011-01-06-00006 January 2011	Lydia Obute	Katharina Theuermann	Lisa Berghold (quit), Victoria Vogeler, Sarah Preiml, Magalie Berghahn (disqualified), Nadine Oberteiler, Linda Linorter, Vanessa Lotz & Valerie Heidenreich, Nicole Gerzabek, Julia Trummer, Darija Gavric, Romana Gruber	14	New York City
4	000000002012-01-12-000012 January 2012	Antonia Hausmair	Gina Adamu	Isabelle Raisa & Alina Chlebecek, Sabrina Rauch & Katharina Mihalovic, Nataša Maric, Michaela Schopf (quit), Christine Riener, Madalina Andreica, Yemisi Rieger, Izabela Pop Kostic, Nadine Trinker & Bianca Ebelsberger, Lana Baltic, Melisa Popanicic	16	Tel Aviv Berlin New York City
5	000000002013-01-03-00003 January 2013	Greta Uszkai	Katrin Krinner	Charlotte Rothpletz, Nadja Sejranic, Tatjana Catic (quit), Sabrina Kastner, Iris Mann, Sina Lisa Petru, Sabrina-Nathalie Reitz, Luca Stemer, Vanessa Rolke, Isabelle Postl & Charlotte Aichhorn, Stefanie Wedam, Aleksandra Stankovic	15	Hurghada
6	000000002014-09-11-000011 September 2014	Oliver Stummvoll	Sanela Velagic	Stella Challiot, Anna-Maria Jurisic, Sylvia Mankowska, Michi Molterer, Mario Novak, Michelle Hübner & René Neßler, Miro Slavov & Carina Kriechhammer, Sonja Plöchl (quit), Kajetan Gerharter, Chris Tauber Romieri, Damir Jovanovic & Lydia Zoglmeier, Manuel Stummvoll, Manuela Kral	18	Paphos Milan Zürich Berlin Hong Kong
7	000000002015-09-15-000015 September 2015	Fabian Herzgsell	Angelina Stolz	Johannes Spilka, Felix Schiller, Lukas Krammer (quit), Jelena Vujcic, Alexandra Kröpfl, Benedikt Cekolj, Adrian Oshioke, Bianca Konarzewski, Junel Anderson, Nicole Fried, Katja Peterka, Patrick Treffer, Maximiliano Mantovani (quit), Bernhard Stich, Melisa Sretkovic, Tassilo Herberstein, Gloria Burtscher, Mia Sabathy	20	Marrakesh Milan Berlin Madrid Hong Kong Monte Carlo

References