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Next top feeding frenzy

Reality producers may not control the way media write up stories on their contestants, but they do have duty of care over who they cast.

camflashAustralia’s Next Top Model hasn’t even started yet and already one 16 year old contestant is being discussed in media as (apparently):

– being recommended for anger management counselling
– being branded a bogan
– being criticised by the mayor of her regional hometown for calling it a ghetto
– having parts of her personal life described as being “shacked up” with a 25yo fiance

Where do we begin with this sort of stuff?

Perhaps a good start would be to again ask why it is so necessary to include contestants under the age of 18 in reality TV?

There seems to be little discussion over the screening of applicants by reality television producers.

ANTM says it has counsellors, nuritionists and includes a psychology test before girls are selected.

The show is also filmed well in advance of episodes hitting our screens. Is this is set up for an eventual ‘bad girl turns good’ story, or has a 16yo simply become a better lead story by journalists?

This week one newspaper wrote that she was branded as the show’s bogan by fellow contestants and style director Jonathan Pease… another follows up by getting comment from her mother who says her family are ‘proud bogans’…. yet another subsequently says she was ‘outed’ by her own mother as a bogan…what the?

Producers and FOX8 can’t control the way the media writes up stories but they do have duty of care over who they bring into the show and the way they are treated, filmed, edited and publicised.

If you hadn’t noticed there’s a new show starting. Isn’t that (apparently) the main point?

Photo: stock image

5 Responses

  1. L. Woolley, Sunbury is a nice town. I’ve been here for many years and bought here because I don’t want to live in Melbourne itself. I can name many Melbourne suburbs that look like a ghetto and Sunbury isn’t one of them.

  2. America’s Next Top Model does not cast anyone under 18. They still bitch fight but nothing to the extent of what goes on in the Australian house. I believe the American version is popular due to the model process, judges and contestants. The bitchiness doesn’t play a massive role. Australian producers should realise that a show can be popular without inflaming drama

  3. Seems a bit fishy these stories about her are getting published just a few days before the premiere. But these things never usually happen to Foxtel shows. But she was right in saying that Sunbury is a ghetto. It’s the town where Melburnians go and live in when they can’t afford to live in Melbourne itself.

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