Tyra Banks will be back next summer. The CW has officially renewed its longest-running series, the reality competition America’s Next Top Model, for cycle 21.

The new season of the show will air next summer, as cycle 20 did, and it will once again feature both male and female contestants.

The competition has remained a reliable part of the CW’s schedule, though it sticks out like a sore thumb as the only reality project on the network best known for younger-skewing scripted dramas, many of which have a sci-fi/fantasy twist.

America’s Next Top Model cycle 20 premiered in the summer and will end Friday, November 15. The premiere scored 1.55 million viewers and the show has consistently scored above 1 million on Friday nights, an improvement over the previous season.

The renewal also ensures that the CW will have off-season programming as the network tries to build a summer line-up. This past summer, the return of Whose Lin Is It Anyway? scored nice numbers for the network while Hunger Games-esque competition Capture and the second season of ballet docudrama Breaking Pointe did not do so well.

America’s Next Top Model airs Fridays at 9pm on the CW. The final three episodes of cycle 20 will be paired with second season of The Carrie Diaries at 8pm.

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(Image courtesy of the CW)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.