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Make me a Supercheap Model

Seven reportedly wants a cheaper SuperModel series next year. But after 2008, why even bother?

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2009 doesn’t sound like it’s starting out so well for Jennifer Hawkins. Following news that The Great Outdoors is in TV limbo, now Make Me A Supermodel is yet to be renewed.

Officially Seven yesterday said the program had been pencilled in for the second half of the year – describing it as “part of our future planning.” But The Daily Telegraph says Seven executives are demanding a ‘cheaper version.’

Frankly after the poor production that we saw in 2008 it’s a wonder they are bothering at all.

Too often last year the show made headlines for it’s tacky stunts, which usually involved getting its young cast into repeated states of undress. It justified these shrift demands by simply saying “it’s part of the biz and they can say no anytime.” It’s one thing to set up challenges for reality contestants, but it’s another thing to do it without any class whatsoever. Especially when there are minors involved.

No doubt Hawkins felt the heat of the show’s critical attacks.

The jury is also out on whether the show’s winner, Rhys Uhlich, can attain “super” model status.

Seven is said to be hoping to find a vehicle for Hawkins, whose contract expires at the end of 2009.

“Yes there are programs in development here with Jen, it’s too early to discuss them at this stage,” a Seven spokesperson said.

Source: news.com.au

30 Responses

  1. My beef with these “make me a” “super” model type shows is it seems to be more like “what tacky stunts” can we make these kidsdo and how much press canwe get when we get them to pose provocatively ?
    I thought the aim was “make them a model” not use them as extras to get publiciity.

  3. Just an interesting point Rachael – they also strongly encouraged one girl (who finished 3rd) to put on weight saying she was “too thin”. She looked terrific a the end of the series.

    The whole issue with the size thing is that all the garments they have to wear seem to be a generic (one size must fit all) – it’s not realistic, but the designers only appear to supply one sample of each design. Not sure how long this has been the practice but no one appears to be serious about changing it.

  4. What really gets my guard up about this show is that the contestants are encouraged to shed kilos from their already tiny bodies. It is very inappropriate in a time when, particularly young girls are very body conscious and shows like this glorify that you should be losing weight when you don’t need to.

    Nonetheless, I still tuned in every now and then, and while it may not have the same quality as Next Top Model, it was still ok to watch. If they decided to make a 2nd season, there is definitely some room for improvements.

  5. Ha ha Brodie – that’s who it was – I laughed when I saw it too. Still, it’s work. I’m sure I have seen Tom somewhere as well. I think a few of them should be able to do quite well out of modelling – and you could see improvement as the series progressed – another good reason for not shortening it too much. They started to let their guards down in that last few weeks.

    It will be interesting to see if there is a turnaround on this story – esp since they have Jen Hawkins with so much spare time on her hands now.

  7. this show was a lot like big brother (esp. when off the runway was on) and ANTM seings that both of them won’t be on next year maybe that would have been a lifeline. also with audition type shows the talent pool is always wider in the 2nd season. it happened with australias got talent and australian idol.

  9. I just had another thought – maybe they are floating this story to try to bring in more advertising dollars – or even offers from designers/boutiques who would be willing to pay to be included in the show.

  10. Being a huge reality tv fan I gave this show a good go and have to say I really enjoyed it. While it had similarities to ANTM it was different enough (esp with the public vote component) to hold my interest and I think we got to know the models reasonably well given how much of the show was dedicated to their relationships with each other etc.

    I hope it does come back – esp since 10 has all but sent Tyra to the scrap heap (the midnight hour on Sat nights). the fact that it isn’t a direct copy (I don’t think) of a U.S. show and is quite good at promoting our local designers, boutiques etc. is another plus.

    Rhys Ulrich (hope I spelt it correctly) was the winner of last series and while he may not be a supermodel he did have a decent size photo spread in the Melb Herald-Sun newspaper in the past week. I have aslo seen modelling shots of a couple of the others and believe Shanina is heading overseas to follow interest in her. All in all, anything that helps to give aspiring models a break is ok with me – as long as it isn’t too tacky 🙂

    Re: the expense – any show that involves accomodating the contestants (BB, TBL, Supermodel) has to be reasonably expensive to make.

  11. Thought this show had extremely poor production values and also pushed the tacky element to many times.
    The first few eps of the audition process had no real momentum to keep anyone above the age of 15 interested

    But i guess a show that has 1 week to turn around an episode it would be tough. Channel seven should drop it leave it to the professionals like Australia’s Next Top Model

  12. Hopefully Seven will ditch it forever and Make Me A Decent Show.

    Watched TV Moguls on TV1 this week and only wished Australian television had a Grant Tinker.

  13. i agree with reality raver, give it a season 2 and then judge it. although it would be an expensive experiment that would more than likely not deliver good results. and a better alternative might be made otherwise.

    @tommyk, with the addition of sunday night i guess a lot of the 6:30 sunday shows will either have to find a new home or not return. also in 2009 most of the american shows are 24-29 weeks long as opposed to the usual 22 weeks so some shows may have to give 2009 a miss. i’d say gladiators, OWR, and outdoor room are gone.

  14. The whole premise of this show is that it would make some poor desperate sod a Supermodel and I havent seen any evidence of that – I can’t even remember the name or the face of the guy who won and aren’t supermodels meant to be easily recognisable – its a bit like the Australian Idol franchise – they claim they will make instant superstars out of the winners and put them through rigourous and often humiliating audition rounds only to find the ultimate winner is dumped by the record label – think Natalie who, anthony who, Casey who – these shows are designed purely to make money for the producers and the often nasty judges – the third highest money earner in American showbiz at the moment is Simon Cowell – does that say something about why they keep churning this reality garbage out!

  15. What I find frustrating with all TV stations is that they don’t give time for the show to build a following. Now this maybe something to do with the small size of our market. But in the US shows can take until season 2 before they take off.

    Agree I thought Make Me A Supermodel was ok. It had a few early teething problems as the host and judges got used to their roles. I am not sure about Jennifer Hawkins, nice girl but whether she can host a TV show….

    But towards the end it definately got interesting.

  16. Although MMAS wasn’t exactly a big hit last year it consistently grabbed ratings of 900k and over. Plus it did get ok in the younger demos. Seven should consider keeping it in some form, since many of its other shows appeal to older people. Having said that, it was pretty trashy and I’m no fan.

  17. aww this is sad, i enjoyed it but will not miss it. it may have been tacky but i don’t think it would have been cheap as people give it credit for. jen and tyson would have been really expensive along with the beachside mansion with the double story pool. it would have been making 7 a lot of money. the demos were good and there was soo many advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

    so what is the furure for battle of the choirs, rich list, gladiators, it takes two, crash investigation unit, outback wildlife rescue, outdoor room and surf patol. i know some of these have had a lot of talk about not returning but i haven’t seen many official documents. some of them didn’t rate to bad but i just can’t see them returning.

  19. would 7 be guaranteed first stab at a local amazing race or would it be an open market thing….

    i think the amazing race could work well for ten (or any network) as a 5 night a week 7pm show…….

  20. i only got into the auditions for this show, then lost it. i can understand if they wanted a cheaper version i hear that the photoshoots was where most of the money went and they tuned out to be great quality but the ratings didn’t reflect it.

    is it possible that worlds strictest parents will be its reality replacement. if not i hope they get creative and give us a new type of reality competition.

  21. i really thought it had a chance, i enjoyed it, it was a good scorer in the demos, maybe they should give the rights to TEN. good to hear that they have plans for jen though. any ideas what the new format for her is. if their going to turn their resources to something new i hope its good.

    i hope 7 gets a good new reality show together. ‘worlds strictest parents’ is worth a look. i know jerry bruckheimer (spelling) &co just loosened the international release restrictions for local versions of the amazing race and israel has already announced their local version. maybe thats what their planning, TAR has always scored well and is worth a shot, either that or the mole, but only if grant bowler hosts it.

  22. oh i thought the ratings weren’t to bad especially for the demos. the quality wasn’t that great but it would have been really expensive to make. some of the photoshoots were over $200,000 and in the final episode there were 3. $200,000 is relatively cheap in the fashion world but expensive for a mediocre TV show. i guess that left little money for the rest of the show.

    instead of making a cheaper season they could have just made a shorter season. 15 weeks was to long. more like 10 weeks. that way if it doesn’t work not much is lost.

    i quite enjoyed this show, but if they make something better with the available cash and timeslot i will be happy. maybe if rhys or shanina make it to the big buisiness the show will be thrown a lifeline.

  24. I remember the ads from the radio and thinking ‘my god, can they get any more desperate’. They made the models do something along the lines of fear factor stunts, which is desperation in disguise. The contrived fights, ‘what will ‘x’ do when
    ‘y’ finds out that ‘x’ cheated’. Ugh.

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