Fashion Czar: Dear Tyra...

Fashion Czar is a weekly comment from the Editor, Phillip Crook.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, and for the fashion reality show addicts among us that means we'll be tuning in to the CW at 8pm for America's Next Top Model.

But, before we do, consider this important point about our dear ANTM: it's gotten so bad!

At the helm of the America's Next Top Model shipwreck: Tyra Banks.  

Now in its thirteenth cycle and with 170 contestants under its belt, the pioneering show is a gaudy impersonation of its former self. We miss the old ANTM. So, it’s time for an intervention.

Since premiering in 2003, ANTM has grown into a global phenomenon with spin-offs in forty countries, popping out Bolivian, Finnish and Korean top models each season.

But what's made the show so successful isn’t really about modeling. The early cycles launched the show into fame because, ultimately, the episodes were about the models’ personal struggles.

Certainly, we all loved the crazy gargoyle, roller-disco and samurai-themed photo shoots. But away from set, we saw Banks acting as older sister, therapist and coach to the contestants as they dealt with failed relationships, eating disorders and low self-esteem. Banks simply spent time with the models and invested in their challenges.

And so, we did too. It was a dynamic combination of glitter and grit.

Cycle 13 contestant Nicole Fox's final photo from last week's shoot in Hawaii. 

But in recent cycles, the reality got less real as Banks became less herself and more of a campy character on camera. 

In one episode of the current cycle, Banks played “Super Smize,” the supermodel superhero whose power is to smile with her eyes.

Um, really?

Millions of viewers have tuned in every Wednesday night not to see ridiculous scenes of artificial interest, but to see what’s truly interesting: beautiful people who hurt just as we do.

Amidst the makeup challenges and petty infighting, this is what rooted the show in meaningful realism.

Sure, Banks taught models and viewers alike how to find the light and optimize their bone structure in a photo. But she was also aware that her show reaches a target audience of teenage girls, a demographic in critical need of reminding that it matters how we treat others and ourselves.

Is “Super Smize” going to teach anyone that?

It’s understandable that Banks wants to rethink and re-energize the ANTM canon after so many seasons, but she has to do it without sacrificing what audiences love about the show. 

We want the glamour and the pain.

[For a more in-depth analysis of ANTM gone wrong, see www.thenewshouse.com/blog/send-antm-rehab-tyra-drunk-craziness]