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Live shock at Australia’s Next Top Model

Updated: Sarah Murdoch announces the wrong winner of Australia's Next Top Model live on air. Foxtel will award Kelsey $25,000 and a NY Trip.

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A bombshell upset at the Australia’s Next Top Model finale has resulted in host Sarah Murdoch announcing the wrong girl as the contest winner live on air.

Murdoch declared 19 year old Kelsey Martinovich as the winner tonight as the crowd erupted.

But no sooner had Kelsey made her thankyou speech did a gobsmacked Murdoch begin to backtrack before a stunned audience.

“Oh my God, I don’t know what to say right now,” she said.

“I’m feeling a bit sick about this. No. I’m so sorry about this. Oh my God. I don’t know what to say. This was a complete accident. It’s Amanda, I’m so sorry. It was fed to me wrong. Oh God. This is what happens when you have live TV folks. This is insane. Insane, insane, insane….”

18 year old Amanda Ware was suddenly elevated as the series winner.

The two girls, in a clearly embarrasing live television moment, consoled one another and Murdoch.

“It’s ok, it’s ok,” said Kelsey.

The disastrous moment is unprecedented in the show’s history.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKb0BR-giCA[/youtube]

The mix-up stemmed during the show’s first ever three-way finale, which saw 19 year old Sophie Van Den Akker from Melbourne placed third.

The finale of the FOX8 series aired live before an audience of 2000 at Luna Park, Sydney.

For the first time the winner was chosen by the viewing audience via SMS and interactive Red Button. The choice left the judges Alex Perry, Charlotte Dawson and Jez Smith urging for their favourites during the show.

During the show Perry openly campaigned for Amanda Ware from the top of the show whilst voting was still open. His fellow judges didn’t reveal their picks until an hour later when Smith agreed with his choice whilst Dawson favoured Sophie Van Den Akker.

The 2hr finale brought back all the former contestants from the series for group fashion parades, joined by male dancers, DJs, aerial performer and band. It also included video messages from models including Megan Gale and Elle MacPherson.

Amanda wins representation by modelling agency Priscilla’s, a $25,000 contract to appear in a Levi’s campaign, a trip to New York to meet ELITE agency, a Ford Fiesta Zetec, $20,000 cash and an eight-page spread for Harpers Bazaar Australia.

No doubt many fans will be campaigning for Kelsey to be awarded significant prizes as well.

UPDATE: “Tonight we saw the perils of live TV. At the time of the result announcement there was a miscommunication between the broadcast truck and the stage,” said Jamie Campbell, Foxtel Director of Publicity.

“Sarah handled what was a difficult situation with utmost professionalism and grace. Amanda and Kelsey were neck and neck in the voting all night.

“We apologise to Kelsey for the error, and Foxtel will be sending her to New York as well as awarding her $25,000 as a prize,” he said.

108 Responses

  2. Before everyone gets on thier high horse saying its rigged. It wasn’t. I have it on good authority that it was a genuine mistake. The voting was tight and with hindsight maybe a bit more time to triple check the results. With live tv there isn’t a ‘take 2’

  3. No way was this a setup. I played it back several times (cause it was so funny) and the shock on Sarah’s face was 100% genuine. How embarrassing for Foxtel and mostly the two innocent girls. Too right Kelsey should be compensated!!! You go Kelsey! Sarah don’t lose sleep over it. Sh*t happens.

  6. That was disgusting – it’s not that hard to get right – hope Slater and Gordon contact Kelsey tomorrow – if you’re announced the winner, you can’t take it back!

  8. That’s disgusting that they could make such a dreadful mistake – hope Slater and Gordon contact Kelsey tomorrow. You can’t declare someone the winner and then take it back.

  10. It did look rather rigged. Are the votes audited by anyone?

    The feeling all night was that Kelsey was in the lead and they were trying to talk up Amanda cause they had an issue with her representing the show because of her height.

    Sarah Murdoch’s expression just looks a little too contrived like she is acting – badly.

  13. What a prize set up. You cannot tell me that wasn’t rigged, and Kelsey has also been awarded a trip to New York and $25,000 in cash for Foxtel’s “error”. For the girls it’s a win win. For the punters who paid Telstra money to lodge a scam vote when the decision was probably already made, makes us look like fools. Goodbye ANTM.

  16. *cringe!*

    Poor girls and most of all poor Sarah. Someone else messed up and she ended up with the egg on Her face 🙁

    What is it with ANTM finales? Wasn’t there some controversy last year too??

    oh, and LOL @ Tango

  18. Darn I was going for Sophie, my foxtel wouldn’t let me vote :p what a hoot that was! We all know Kelsey is going to win more than Amanda now with a hefty lawsuit ;p

  20. My heart dropped for Kelsey! The fact that she was so gracious shows what an amazing person she is… I wish she won (nothing against Amanda of course) but it is the most awful thing to be led to believe you are the winner and then have it snatched from you on live TV! So horrible… Go Kelsey!!!

  21. Poor poor Kelsey who clearly deserved to win.

    The judges ran a rather obvious campaign to talk her down and talk Amanda up. They did it all night long. Obviously they knew she was likely to win and weren’t comfortable with it because of her height.

    She was clearly the best model by a long shot. Shame on the judges for not making it a fair competition.

  24. I don’t have Foxel so I never watched Top Model but it was like a moment when former Top Model host Jodhi Meares made some terrible and embarrasing mistakes during season four that she failed to turn up at the finale. Cue for applause people for Sarah, who still did a great hosting job even with this error!

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