Germany's next top model

Germany's Next Top Model by Heidi Klum is a new show on Pro7 showing on Wednesdays at 8:15 PM. The first show was today.

The format follows the US show America's Next Top Model, which just finished it's 5th season (!). America's Next Top Model is hosted by Tyra Banks.

In the first episode 32 young women between the ages of 16 and 22 had to present themselves on the runway clothed and then in bikinis. The judges then went on to criticize them on their posture and weight. It turned out that most of the girls faked their measurements, which came out as one of the judges measured all the girls again.

12 girls were dropped at this point, and then the remaining 20 were bussed over to a coal mine where they had to walk the runway in front of what looked like a few hundred miners, dressed in very *ahem* interesting costumes designed using "real" miner's clothing. After this the next 8 girls were kicked out and the remaining 12 made it to the next round. Next they're going to New York.

This is obviously Unterschichtenfernsehen, but in my opinion very high-quality Unterschichtenfernsehen. The "models" are for the most part not at all good looking or even "model types", IMHO.

So, if you like the "be a star" format, here's a show for you!

God, another fucking car accident on the radar blip of intelligent television.

Nicely put.

Actually, I beg to differ. I'm not much for reality TV. I don't read women's magazines. All in all, I'm not exactly a girlie type of girlie. But for some unknown reason, I have found myself completely addicted to America's Next Top Model. Now, I don't look up when it's on and follow every show or anything, but if I flip through the channels and it's on, I can't help but watch. It's got some kind of power over me.

Fully agree. Perfect way to put it. What a load of bollocks!

Could someone please give me an example of "intelligent television"? Television is by definition dumb. If you want intellectual, go read a book!

ex: this one

Damn! I was so looking forward to this and missed it last night. I hate it when life gets in the way of TV.

I'll have to watch it next week.

Or you can just watch the rerun, on Saturday at 6 PM.

Just call me the Unterschichtenfernsehen Fairy Godmother.

Thanks for the summary - I was going to watch it too but ended up going to bed before it started! I wanted to see the first episode to check out the show's concept and see how they treat the women.

I think that was the really fascinating part, UA. They treated the women really poorly, in my opinion. They tried to sell it off as "well, that's just how it is in this business", but they did pretty clearly say that some of them were too fat.

Simon Schama's A History of Britain
Bronowski's The Ascent of Man
lots of stuff by David Attenborough
most things on Arte
loads of stuff on 3sat
etc etc etc

i would add, jamie olivers school dinners, most stuff on SBS in oz(except for pizza obviously!) and LOADS of stuff, just coz the crap is most popular dont mean there's nothing else...

eh? Guido Knopp's documentaries on ZDF would be a start

I think watching anything with Heidi Klum in would be a struggle

I just think that you're missing the point of TV. Arte bores me...not ashamed to admit it. Radio/books/articles etc. are much better mediums for anything "intelligent". TV is meant to bring you quickly and securely into that state of, well, stupor. It's meant to open your mind to advertising messages and meant to help you accept the capitalist world view. Just sit back, pop open that beer, and open your mind to Big Brother. Thinking is not allowed.

...*aaaaaah*

There isn''t a whole lot of advertising on Arte though, except for Arte itself and if you are already watching then they got you anyway ?

Unfortunately if you've been clever all day, sometimes a bit of stupor goes down very well.
If you've been stupid all day, it might be worth trying to do something intelligent occassionally.

Yeah but it ain't as bollocks as a reality show that would've been complete and utter bollocks...except that it was a spoof!

Sell you birth for dosh - BBC

Er havent seen the show, but looked at the pics on the link, and I think its safe to say I would do most of them.

bints, the lot of them, and i should know...

Hmm...I guess it's debatable if I've been terribly clever or not. But the stupor definitely goes down well. American TV goes too far for me though. I try to watch it when I'm in the US, because I get all worked up about the "great" shows I'm missing (American Idol! etc etc), but I can't actually watch the shows when I get there. They are a notch stupider, if humanly possible. And there are way, way too many commercials...approximately every 5 minutes. German TV gets it right, for the most part. Except for all of those "Landhaus"/Hospital/Krimi shows.

I just really hope that we'll all be able to watch and measure young men wobbling their bits on the cat-walk next year. Germany's super male model. I agree the whole show is completely devoid of anything worthwhile. And it keeps telling girls to look great and lose weight. And it tells boys that's what the girls want.

A 19-yr-old (1.76m, 52Kg) has just been voted out and told that she is "too fat".
Even that bastion of social responsibility Bild is asking „Bulimie-Risiko – wie gefährlich ist die Show für junge Mädchen?“ (Bulimia-risk - how dangerous is this show for young women?).

more worrying stats here:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,panm2/panorama...ikel/683/68615/

and this is the lass who got booted out for being too fat - incredible:

I'd chuck her out for bad posture and an unnatural smile, but certainly not for being too fat! wtf?

Duh, her thighs aren't concave ENOUGH. They're a little concave, but to really make it in this industry they have to be Victoria Beckham or Sienna Miller style sticks.

I understood that they said she needed to tone up, not get thinner...

i think they used the word lfoppy somewhere...

Isn't that a bit of a stupid assessment of American television? Sure, we've got a lot more stupid stuff than elsewhere, but that's only because we've got quite a lot more programming than elsewhere. Go sit and watch the history channel for a day, and tell me how much "stupid" programming you see. Actually, a significant amount (though by no means the majority) of the programming on SBS, that Pirulero mentioned, is American (SBS is great, by the way - a good source of Bollywood flicks).

Ok, well if the assessment is that I'm dumb, fine. I find the history channel to be horrendously boring, to be honest. What else is there? PBS? IMO, the majority of American shows appeal to the lowest common denominator.

My point was - obviously not shared by others - that TV is generally better for zoning out and not as well suited for intellectual topics. I find radio and print better for anything that is truely intellectually stimulating.

Well, it was your assessment, not yourself, that I called stupid. I don't know you enough to say either way.

Edit - not important in the grand scheme of things...

Telly's got its place tho.
Some ppl just learn or 'digest' information easier, if it's presented through audio-visual media.
(Argh, what a boring comment to post...)

It doesn't make it any less true if it's boring

Ta.

neither boring nor wrong, Saz
in my opinion, anyway
my distance learning degree course puts a lot of important parts of the course onto audio-visuals to complement the text books, so I guess they agree with you, too

Maybe, as a sort of consolation prize for the poor girls, we could put all the losers' pictures on Toytown, and rip on them even more than they've already been ripped on.

There's no such thing as bad publicity!

Heidi Dumb is a waste of good skin and bone promoting stuff like this. Sadly society encourages women to go on diets and look perfect whilst forgetting what is inside the person is more important like morals and values. Heidi Dumb always wheres that fake pathetic smile and thinks she is something. Cant imagine her cleaning, ironing etc. Read somewwhere that she has 2 Babysitters-one German one American where she lives-think New York. Sooner her and her like disappear the better.One of the reasons I dont watch much TV is because its mostly about People and the Egos. I would rather read and learn things via the internet and get various different accounts before just accepting what some presenter wants me too hear or see. There are some good stuff on TV but its in a small minority compared to what is on show!

?? Didn't understand much of that...either my synapses have already atrophied completely or you're not being very clear. How does having 2 babysitters make Heidi Klum dumb? Also, I find it hard to believe that she's dumb - she hasn't made a fortune without having to use her brain at all, in fact she's a clever marketer - of herself. I would definitely call her misguided, since she obviously doesn't care about the effects of her statements on young girls, but then again this might just be a clever ploy to get "scandal" coverage of her show. Who knows.

Only one judge told her, in comparison to the "top models", who measure in at 90-60-90, her waistline was too fat. I don't agree with him at all, and I'm pretty sure she was kicked out because she was B-O-R-I-N-G.

Yeah, she was pretty boring. They tried to spin it the other way on Taff - saying again and again that she didn't get kicked out because she was too fat, but rather because she can't walk on the runway or something.

these two were the worst walkers:

Still in:


Gone:


She could walk really well, but her nose is weird:

Still in:


I should be a judge

Firstly, I'll admit I should have been born a gay male but I love this show! The pictures on the website don't do the girls justice, they are all fantastically beautiful. Seeing such incredible beauty almost made me want to cry.

I only saw the one show that aired Saturday, have I missed anything yet?

I am such a dork.

Oh no, I should be a judge... And you all thought I was corrupt judging karaoke on new years...

I actually thought the judges were very nice to the girls in comparison to other such related shows (DSDS). In the American version they were a lot harsher with them. Further, Heidi stated herself that the girls will receive much harder critique when they enter the modelling world.

Although now that I think about it, in the American one that I watched they included a plus size model who made it into the top 4 and could well have won had she not had a horrible attitude. Maybe they should have done the same with this show but the market for plus size models is much smaller in Europe.

So what you're saying is that the "too fat" girl was really "not fat enough" to be a plus size model? They should have told her that...would really have confused her

look at her waist! it squishes up. no wonder she got booted out.

Oooh. She looks like Karen Keating when she was alive and younger

I was really looking forward to this show. I never really watch German TV save viva and MTV (if you can call that German) and thought the model show would be a good way to get into local TV. It was not. I thought it was really dry, slow and it was hard to pay attention. And what's with the music? It sounds like decetive music more than fashiony-fun model music.

finally a reason to get DVB-T for my PC.

Some of the girls were only 16! Do they realize what they are doing? Why do they do it? What do they want to get out of it? Any ideas?

They do it, as they want to make money, have a Vogue covershot, and retire at 25.
I have modelled in the past, and there is nothing worse then going to a shot at 30, and all the 'girls' are under 16, being primed for the Asian Market. One was 13, skinny- hadn't hit puberty yet to have any curves, and was being signed to a year in Tokyo.