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Australia’s Next Top Model Season 9, Episode 1

It has begun.

The first episode of Australia’s Next Top Model aired tonight so we decided to put up a little debrief of how things went down.

Guys, it’s been nine seasons. Usually these things get stale by this point but it was actually a pretty good watch.

It opened with the crazy-fabulous-smizing entity that is Tyra Banks and a sombre reminder that Charlotte Dawson is no longer with us.

This season has a stellar cast of guest judges including Alessandra Ambrosio, Elyse Taylor, Alyssa Sutherland, Jean Paul Gaultier, Megan Gale, Linda Evangelista, Kelly Osbourne and Tyra Banks.

Um what? How did they manage that?

They’ve also introduced a new scoring system for the show. Each model will receive a challenge score and a photoshoot score. The combined score will determine where each model ranks among each other and who will be eliminated at the end of the week.

So Episode 1. Bunch of 12 long-legged babes screaming excitedly on a bus. Wait til they see Alex Perry and Jennifer Hawkins though. They’ll be jumping up and down and OMG-ing to no end.

Quality quotes from Sudanese contestant, Ayieda.

“From my auditions, I was the best. I’m not trying to be cocky but I was the best.”

Woah woah woah—what are you doing? Setting the bar high already? Pressure is on.

Because throwing newbies into the deep end always makes for good television, the first challenge was a runway. The contestants had to walk for 400 of Australia’s VIPs (whatever that means) under the mentorship of Didier Cohen and Cheyenne Tozzi.

Alex and Lucy killed the runway. By the way, Alex is the blonde short one. You will probably never need reminding because they’ll mention it in every episode. Ayieda struggled to walk in stilettos and tractor-riding tomboy, Brittany, had a pretty intense panic attack. Yikes.

The model house was unreal. Duh. Huge house with heaps of free shiz and a gorgeous view of the ocean.

Next came the photoshoot challenge. Simple black-and-white portrait shots by photographer, Gary Heery. He’s a beautiful man. Srsly.

And then the girls went nuts when the guest judge was announced. Pretty sure Alex said OMG to the camera about four times. A garage door rolled up to reveal Alessandra Ambrosio. Basically everyone was crying and completely starstruck. She demonstrated how to take the perfect shot with Gary and of course she was FLAWLESS.

Alex was so nervous that she cried on set. Izi basically nailed her first shot. Cassie from the Gold Coast was wayyyy too chill that it seemed like she didn’t want to be there and Kaitlyn was super shy.

ELIMINATIONS ELIMINATIONS. This scoring system is throwing me off but I’m loving it. Will be interesting to see how this will affect the later episodes.

Alex and Brittany topped the score list. The judges kept banging on about how Alex needs to work harder than everyone else because she’s so short but her photo was stunning so shush errybody. Brittany the tomboy gained some much-needed confidence. She said that she doesn’t often give people the chance to pay her compliments because she wears trackies and ugg boots. WE FEEL YA. That’s ok because everyone was blown away by her artsy hair-over-the-face shot.

Cassie and Kaitlyn were at the bottom for their lacklustre photoshoots but ultimately Kaitlyn was eliminated. All the best Kaitlyn. You have some pretty enviable facial features. Dem eyes. Dem eyebrows. The judges were pretty confident that she’ll be landing editorial work very soon.

Next episode looks hectic. There’s some sort of social media/fashion blogger/selfie challenge that the gals have to do for Kim Kardashian. Yes people. Kim talks to the models via video conferencing. Kelly Osbourne is the guest judge and she tells Alex Perry to shut up. Gooood television.

We’ll be debriefing after the show each week so please tune in for some good lols.

fox8.tv/shows/australias-next-top-model

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