As of today, there are still six weeks left until the ninth season – excuse me –
Cycle premiere of
America’s Next Top Model. Until then, fans will have to subsist on reruns or possibly even resort to checking out upstart model-based series
A Model Life with Petra Nemcova on TLC.
There’s been a recent change, however, in the plans for the premiere. CW has taken a look at their schedule and decided that the Cycle Nine premiere needs to slim down - drastically.
The show will still premiere on the same day and time, but it will now only be a normal one-hour episode as opposed to the two hours originally planned.
Now, don’t worry: it’s not that CW actually wants less America’s Next Top Model. As we recently reported, they have actually renewed the series through 2010.
Instead, the CW is making a strategic move by moving up the premiere of another show, Gossip Girl, one week, and slotting it in behind the America’s Next Top Model premiere, which is sure to be a ratings winner for the network. By having Gossip Girl “draft” behind a show that is already a big hit for the network in the same demographic, they hope to maximize the exposure of the new program by building off a current strong performer.
How this will affect the first show of America’s Next Top Model is unclear. Based on previous cycles, one could guess that the first episode will focus on taking the hopefuls through the audition process and down to the selected thirteen girls, with the first elimination within that group then happening the next week. If that will be, in fact, the structure they use, fans will still have to make it through the next six weeks before they will know for sure.
- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Movieweb
(Image courtesy of CW)