America's Next Top Model: Season 16
America's Next Top Model Image
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4.4 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 5 Ratings

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  • Summary: The 16th cycle of the Tyra Banks show sees the show cut back on casting week as the 14 contestants compete for a $100,000 Cover Girl contract.
  • Genre(s): Health & Lifestyle, Game Show

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Tim Stack
    Feb 22, 2011
    83
    Best moment: a runway walk with the contestants strutting inside inflatable balls. Please do make up your own joke about that.
  2. People Weekly
    Reviewed by: Tom Gliatto
    Feb 18, 2011
    75
    The show, now in cycle 16, moves with a brisker confidence, and that's better. [28 Feb 2011, p.43]
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  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 2 out of 2
  1. Cynthisa33
    1
    This season started out downright cruel. First, Tyra's mean-spirited "spoof" of the various "types" of girls they see. Wasn't funny. Tyra was just using those girls as an excuse to show off her "acting" skills at their expense. Then the "lesson" designed to "teach" the girls to handle all the rejection they'll face in the modeling world. (Hmmm.... Guess those girls they didn't show REALLY learned a "good lesson" that day too! Why not show them?!?) I wonder what "valuable lessons" are next? Teaching them how to vomit in a public toilet? Smoke cigarettes? Fend off touchie-feelie photographers? Enough. After watching loyally for 15 cycles, this one episode has finally worn the glitter off. I found this episode, tawdry and sad, and a bit desperate. I can't watch the mean-spirited exploitation of this desperate girls and feel "entertained." That Tyra Banks has sunk to this level shows the "real" person behind the make-up as well. And it ain't at all pretty.… Expand
  2. JennetP
    0
    For me, ANTM is Exhibit A in the case against reality TV. For starters, the premise is absurd. Take a group of women 5 to 10 years too old to begin modeling careers, much less reach the "top," put them through what claims to be a crash course in modeling but is really just extended hazing, pick them off one by one, preserving suspense by stressing the contestants' flaws, and finally crown a battered winner, who then sinks like a stone in the modeling business. It's bad enough that few of the women look like models to begin with, but the most infamous phase of hazing is the makeover, or "fakeover," in which any natural beauty is dyed, fried, extended, and/or mutilated away. "Do the opposite!" seems to be the prevailing aesthetic, and the producers are sure to identify the long-haired contestant who most loves her locks and give HER the buzz-cut. This season, a lovely long-haired blonde has her real hair tacked to her scalp and a giant yellow yak carcass stitched on top of it. Forget hair, the yak couldn't even pass for a hat. For several weeks, Tyra promises to "do something about it," but, the next week, the yak is still there, looking ready to leap off the poor girl's head any minute and attack someone--with any luck, one of the "fashion icons" doing the hazing. The problem, as in all competitive reality shows, is the conflict between a fair contest and "good television," as defined by America's favorite viewers, those 18 to 49 (IQ, not age). "Good television" requires contestants to fall down, fluff lines, and sob when they fail at tasks such as memorizing lines in Japanese, walking tiny, moving, slippery runways, and wearing venomous accessories. A fair contest might very well pose similar challenges--if, in fact, the modeling business is as demanding as Tyra would have us believe--but it would not force contestants to do everything unprepared. This season, an early challenge involves crossing a shallow cement pool inside a giant beach ball on a runway about the width of a strand of uncooked spaghetti. While the 18-to-49s snort and guffaw, sensible people wonder "what designer wants his clothing seen on prone, flailing models, how many fashionistas admire--and would buy--"Jackass" couture, and which insurance company longs to cover shows that result in huge damage claims for unrehearsed models? And the sad truth is that ANTM doesn't have to engage in such cruel manipulation, as many contestants are capable of screwing up easy challenges, which we know because, season after season, they arrive having failed to master skills they know they will need, such as map-reading and speaking out loud. Of course, Tyra has a few problems in that latter department herself, having coined the most ungrammatical catch phrase in all of television history, telling successful contestants, over and over, "You are still in the running towards becoming America's Next Top Model." "To become" is simple and right; ""towards becoming" is high-fallutin' nonsense--sort of like ANTM itself, which adds difficulty and awkwardness under the pretense of expertise and so loses all semblance of authenticity.… Expand

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