Primary text: The
Face
Why do style
programmes exploit realism in order maintain audience interest in their
genre?
First Celebrity Show - The Clothes Show
The
Clothes Show is a British television show about fashion that can currently be
seen weeknights on Really. It was formerly broadcast on BBC One from 1986 to 2000.
The
Clothes Show was first broadcast on 13 October 1986, with Breakfast Time's Selina Scott and designer Jeff Banks as
its first hosts. The show combined reports from the catwalks, with items on how
to achieve the catwalk look, without breaking the bank. Selina and Jeff were later joined by
Caryn Franklin (a former Fashion Editor and co-Editor of International style
bible i-D magazine), and once Selina left, she took over as Jeff's main
co-host.
Such
was the success of the show, that in 1989 the annual Clothes Show Live event
was launched at Birmingham's NEC, and later a magazine to accompany the
programme. The programme continued on the BBC right up until the late 1990s,
with other presenters over the years including Margherita Taylor, Tim Vincent, Richard
Jobson and Brenda Emmanus. Series producers included
Collette Foster and Jane Lomas, who had been a presenter on the earliest shows.
James Strong, Mike Prince, Mark Westcott and Ann Wilson were amongst the
directors. The Clothes Show Live event continues to be held annually at the
beginning of each December.
On
7 August 2006, The Sun newspaper reported that The Clothes Show was to be
resurrected after six years and would be shown on UKTV Style, hosted by Louise Redknapp, Caryn Franklin and Brendan Courtney. The programme moved from UKTV
Style to a new channel called Really,
after UKTV
Style was rebranded Home on 30 April 2009.
First Competition Show - America's Next Top Model
America's
Next Top Model (abbreviated ANTM and Top Model) is an American reality
television series and interactive competition that premiered on May 20, 2003. The program
has aired nineteen cycles, and sees several women compete for the title of
"America's Next Top Model", providing them with an opportunity to
begin their career in the modelling
industry.
Its premise was originated with supermodel and television personality Tyra
Banks, who additionally serves as its executive producer and presenter.America's Next Top Model employs a panel of three judges, who critique contestants' progress throughout the competition. The original panel consisted of Tyra Banks, Janice Dickinson, Beau Quillian, and Kimora Lee Simmons. Since the nineteenth cycle, the panel consists of Tyra Banks, Kelly Cutrone, and Rob Evans. The series was among the highest-rated program on UPN, and was the highest-rated show on The CW from 2007 to 2010.Advertisers pay $61,315 per 30-second slot during the 2011–12 television season, the highest of any series on The CW.
What have people in the media said about this programme?
Naomi Campbell brings superdiva drama as she leads Karolina Kurkova and Coco Rocha in Oxygen's new "Voice"-like model competition
Oxygen's new supermodel competition series The Face mixes Top Model with The Voice, where twelve hopefuls compete individually and in teams coached by Naomi Campbell, Karolina Kurkova and Coco Rocha. Refreshingly, the series doesn't waste its inaugural episodes with auditions, which tend to drag. The Face immediately hopes into action by having the twelve featured girls ready to compete, and already placed with their model mentors.Photographer Nigel Barker serves as the host, but is removed from the real drama (at least as of the first episode), which takes place within the New York City loft the competitors share. The judges, too, bring their own spice to things -- which is not surprising at all given the inclusion of Naomi Campbell. Campbell's infamously strong personality and sensitivity to any slights against her team puts her in direct confrontation with the other judges, particularly the sweet and earnest Kurkova, who is probably the most balanced and the best mentor in the group. As for the third mentor, Rocha is, to start, on the fringe. While Kurkova nurtures the talents of her team and Campbell gives tough love, Rocha seems in her own world, wanting to shoehorn her team into following her own brazen style, so far with mixed results.
It's clear the supermodels populated their teams with girls who most mirrored themselves, which means that Campbell's is already primed for drama. The girls come from all over the world and represent a range of backgrounds and ambitions, but Campbell's team established themselves the quickest by having some of the most intense personalities in the competition, though she herself outshines them all. "I'm a little bit afraid of her," Alexandria from Belarus says during the group photo shoot. Her instincts are not wrong.
There are prizes awarded for every contest -- from a $5,000 shopping spree at Top Shop to a featured photo in W magazine in the first episode -- but on the flip side, at the end of each hour the mentor of the winning team from the group competition is able to eliminate one member from one of the remaining two teams (chosen by their own mentors). While the rest of the episode took place at whirlwind speed, things ground to a halt during the elimination round, which isn't surprising but did make me check the clock. The twist is the aftermath, wherein the mentor who made the elimination must face her other two supermodel mentors -- and potentially their wrath.
The Face borrows plenty of concepts from other modeling and competition shows, but it manages to throw enough fashion and dramatic interest at viewers to be engaging. Plus, many of the girls have the personalities or backstories that will make their journeys interesting to follow. Besides, if all else fails, the show has bought itself insurance: leave the camera on Naomi Campbell long enough, and something is bound to happen worth watching.
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