‘America’s Next Top Model’: One of the few non-favorites goes down

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

This is a fun cycle of ‘America’s Next Top Model’ because there is more than one girl who I’d be happy to see win. Like the first cycle of the show, 40 years ago, I would have been satisfied with either Elyse Sewell or Shannon Stewart winning (nobody ever saw Adrianne Curry coming). I adore Joslyn Pennywell’s personality -- in fact, she is the first girl on this show who I’ve thought needs some sort of cute light E! hosting job or something. She’s very cute and natural with the camera.

How could you not like Sheena Sakai, meanwhile? As one of the stronger Asian American models on the show to date, she’s probably a favorite to bet on if Tyra is feeling like she wants to break ‘Top Model’ ground again (speaking of which, I thought it was kind of weird that Whitney Thompson’s Cover Girl commercial features the plus-sized model eating cupcakes with her friends).

McKey Sullivan sometimes looks like the Joker to me, but other times she has the most unbelievable face. And Marjorie Conrad is a great model, perhaps to me one of the more modely-er models on the show. She’s completely awkward and obviously totally crazy (er, European), but she demands to have her photo taken. She’s almost like a fictional character. I even like her arch-nemesis, Samantha Potter, just for being adorable and having an adorable haircut.

So I was happy to see Clark go on tonight’s episode and see my favorites remain. I never found her to be exceptionally beautiful and she had a quasi-bratty personality. To be fair, however, I don’t know how I would pretend to be a blackout -- Tyra should have held her ‘disasters’ challenge for later in the season when she shouldn’t have had to pretend that things like electrical blackouts and traffic jams are natural disasters. That’s like doing ‘The Three Wise Men’ with the top four girls.

-- Claire Zulkey