Cheryl Shops

Worst. Finale. Ever.
In spite of her fabulous photographs and endearingly odd general behavior, I knew Heather was not going to win America's Next Top Model, but even so, I completely lost interest once she was gone (and I have a feeling other viewers did too, because Heather, who was voted "Cover Girl of the week" in every episode except the first, was even the winner the week after she left). But even before she left, it was pretty obvious to me that Saleisha was going to win, all because of one comment Tyra made, which was that she wasn't going to go easy on Saleisha just because she went to Tyra's T-Zone camp. Which, of course, meant exactly the opposite. So the episodes leading up to the finale were just as slow, drawn-out, and unsurprising as the finale itself. Bianca was obviously too bitchy to win and Jenah was too sarcastic (god forbid ANTM's winner should not be Mary Sunshine!); and while Chantal put up a good fight, she as well as everyone else knew it was curtains for her when she took out that poor dude on stilts.

Speaking of which, I know most of the finale fashion shows in the past have been staged especially for the show, but this one was particularly cheese-tastic. "Tyra Banks has arrived!" Um, because the 1,000 Chinese extras couldn't tell? Also, did anyone notice that during the final call, there were like 8 models in the entire show? Including Jaslene? I cringed the entire time.

I will allow that Saleisha's walk was better than Chantal's, but that could actually be due to the fact that Saleisha was a professional model even before the show--she's appeared on a different season of ANTM, Tyra's talk show, and a Wendy's commercial. Because there's nothing more High Fashion than a Frosty and a Double with Cheese.

So here's my question--we all have known for a while that while the winner of the show becomes America's Next Top Model, she doesn't exactly become America's next top model. She basically needs to be congenial, accessible, and somewhat photogenic. So, knowing this, why hasn't a plus-size model won yet? I know what usually happens is that the one plus-size girl realizes she can't compete with a bunch of size 2's and then subsequently gives up, but don't you think that Tyra could go a little easier on them? On second thought, I think I might have just answered my own question.

ANTM will be back in February. Thankfully, we have Project Runway to entertain us in the meantime...