DC ExtraTime: Tyara and Kim - America's Next Top Models?

BY DC CUEVA                     

> @DC408Dxtr / @DC408DxNow

Welcome on back to DCBLOG and to our second post of this Saturday doubleheader for Episode 10 of Real World Bad Blood. Earlier, we brought you the 'Pulse of that episode as a couple became official and a pregnancy scare took a roommate by surprise. So for those loyal fans, we got a treat for you with this bonus installment of ExtraTime, which taps into one of the professions discussed in our ExtraTime bit on Real World London alum and leading actress Jacinda Barrett.

For those who follow the entire reality TV spectrum, then you definitely know about one of this genre's best-known shows: America's Next Top Model. It premiered in 2003 on the UPN network and was one of the shows retained in the network's merger with The WB when those two erstwhile networks became The CW three years later. The show has been on the air just as long as many other well-known reality shows as it spent 22 "cycles" on The CW - becoming its highest-rated show and a cornerstone of the younger-skewing broadcast network co-owned by CBS and Time Warner.
   The premise of ANTM is simple: as many as 16 aspiring models come to each cycle with dreams of becoming a professional model, a chance to compete for the title of being the next one, and for the opportunity to begin their career in the always fascinating and always cutthroat world of the modeling industry. Like every other reality competition show, each contestant takes part in weekly challenges and are judged every week on their overall appearance. Then, the judges look at the weekly photo shoots and eliminate models one by one until one model is left, and to the winner goes the spoils.

   Along with the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, ANTM is TV's most successful fashion program, and while its winners have gone on to bigger and better things in this highly competitive profession, no doubt the show's most successful alum is actually the first winner: Adrianne Curry won that first season in 2003 and has modeled for nearly 20 magazines from US Weekly to Playboy; has walked the runway for Jamie Pressly and Pamela Anderson, and starred in her own VH1 show. And at San Diego Comic Con in 2014, dressed as Catwoman Adrianne came to the rescue of a friend who was sexually assaulted and counter-attacked the assailant.
   After taking a hiatus after cycle 22 last year, last Monday ANTM made its triumphant return to our TV's, now across the Viacom way at VH1. It marks a homecoming of sorts as MTV's slightly-older sibling aired second runs of episodes when they and UPN were siblings under the combined Viacom/CBS corporate umbrella. Being busy with her vast media empire, original host Tyra Banks has handed over her longtime hosting reigns to music superstar Rita Ora, and 2016 SI Swimsuit Issue model Ashley Graham headlines the judging panel, who hold the fate of a new crop of 14 female models in their hands. The one who wins gets $100,000, a magazine feature, fashion spread, a VH1 deal, a modeling contract and all the fame & fortune.

On Episode 10 this past Wednesday, we saw Tyara and Kim become the latest pair of original roommate and bad blood to try and settle their differences, and after lunch out, they squashed the beef. In light of what happened there, we'd thought we'd take you back in time to when both were in high school and did a parody of this show.
   While the two were classmates in the same class, Tya and Kim joined with fellow students to do a parody of ANTM called Alpharetta's Next Top Model at the same high school they went to in a suburb of Atlanta. Kim acted as host in Tyra Banks' spot, while Tya was one of the four contestants who moved into a nice house... or make that, a classroom turned into a house. Then, in a harbinger of what happened later when they were in that Real World house, a contestant leaves the show just before they compete in their challenge: walking up and down the runway... located in the middle of a high school cafeteria. And then, Kim welcomes the group as they all learn their fate.

Check out the following videos below.

The passion Kim and Tya have for fashion in making that video has now translated into doing YouTube videos: Kim's YT channel with over 100,000 subscribers features her doing makeup tutorials, hair and eyelash tips, and other assorted goodies not related to fashion. As for Tya, the same thing at her channel, too.

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Coming up on DC WRAP: we'll have our original recap of Episode 10 as well as Episodes 8 and 9 excluding the exits of Mike and Theo, as well as the first appearance this season of The Winners' List. And we'll join some of The Challenge's biggest names as they take over New York City... we'll show you the visual proof of their time in the Big Apple.
   Meanwhile, there's still time to send in your questions for DCBLOG's Reality Debrief 2016 year-end recap and discussion with yours truly and Andrew Kirk. If you got questions on this past week's finales of Survivor and The Voice, Big Brother OTT or anything reality TV related -- or of course the Trifecta, tweet them to me @DC408Dxtr with the hashtag #AskDCBLOG, and me & Andrew may use your question right here. The deadline to send non-MTV related questions in is this coming Wednesday, for which then Andrew and I will then do the first of our two Q&A's covering shows south of the Trifecta, which will arrive on Christmas weekend. Our MTV wrap, a preview of Are You The One? Season 5 and year-end awards is slated for the New Years weekend.

   Thank you for joining us here on this Saturday, and make sure to rejoin us here later when our coverage of the MTV Trifecta continues. Until then, enjoy your weekend and stay warm.

- I AM DC