ANTM Cycle 13: The Midget Cycle

Many of the contestants who recently strutted down the runway at the Golden East Crossing mall to try and become “America’s Next Top Model” may have been too tall to qualify for the upcoming cycle of the show even if they had won the local event, according to new rules announced after the local contest.

A Greenville CW television network affiliate initiated an open-casting call for the show at the mall on Feb. 7 before the national CW network released eligibility requirements for the upcoming 13th cycle of the show.

The new rules, which were released Feb. 13, could have disqualified many of the contestants more than 5 feet, 7 inches tall who participated in the open casting call at the mall. Eighty-two contestants competed to move on to the next phase of the modeling competition.

The rules for the upcoming show cycle stated that contestants must now be 5 feet 7 inches or shorter in height. This is a change from the previous 12 cycles of the show when contestants were supposed to be taller than this height.

The Greenville television affiliates promoted the show using the eligibility rules for the show’s last 12th cycle, which required that the contestants be 5 feet 7 inches or taller.

“According to the rules for this current cycle, they (contestants) must be 5’7” and under. Anyone over 5’7” would not be considered to be a contestant on this cycle,” said Jeff Tobler, the publicist for the national CW network in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.

But the new eligibility requirements also say that “producers reserve the right to make case-by-case exceptions.”

Vickie Jones, vice president and general manager for WNCT-TV, which broadcasts the CW network, said in a telephone message that the 12th cycle’s eligibility requirements were used for the Rocky Mount event. She said this was done with the “CW network’s cooperation and approval.”

“It’s called a pre-casting call, and we did understand and know the rules may change, which actually is on the form,” she said in the message.

She added that the station is in the process of contacting the 82 contestants from the Golden East Crossing event so they can update their application information to the show’s cycle 13 form.

“Because of the change in height (requirement), we are giving them the opportunity to come to a Greenville casting call,” she said. “We were aware the rules could change because they weren’t announced yet. But we do have a plan for contacting each contestant and getting them to put in an application on the cycle 13 form.”

She was not able to be reached for a live comment despite numerous calls to her office on Thursday and Friday, so it is unclear when and where the Greenville contest is being held. It is also unclear whether the pictures and biographies of women in the mall competition will be forwarded to the show’s producers.

The Greenville station’s Web page promoted the Golden East Crossing casting call this way: “The CW tells WNCT that you can use Cycle 12 applications as they’re still waiting on (supermodel) Tyra (Banks) to provide new ones! Hope to see YOU at the casting call!”

It’s unclear how many of the women that participated in the casting call at the mall were above or below 5 feet, 7 inches tall. Contestants were given the rules, but their height was not measured. Several who strutted out onto the runway were clearly shorter than 5 feet, 7 inches. The eventual winner was 5-foot, 4-inch Yessenia Anita Rodriguez. The 22-year-old bested nine other finalists chosen from the 82 participants.

The votes were tallied on the Rocky Mount Telegram Web page. Rodriguez, whose height falls within the new contest guidelines, will now be able to move on to a regional competition in Florida for a more in-depth meeting with casting officials. She received more than 37,000 votes on the Telegram’s Web page.

Tobler said the winners of affiliate-sponsored casting calls are guaranteed to meet with casting officials from the show. But beyond that, they are given no advantage over other contestants, he said.

Neal Davis, general manager of the CW 22 affiliate in Raleigh, said it is unclear to him why the Greenville CW affiliate went ahead with the open casting call before the cycle 13 rules were released. He also said the affiliate intruded upon that affiliate’s territory by holding the event in Rocky Mount.

“Someone referred me to your paper’s Web site and said, ‘Look what they are doing in Rocky Mount,’” he said. “It confused me.”

The Greenville CW affiliate was not the only one in the country to hold recent casting calls before the new rules came out.

For example, KGNS-TV/CW studios in Laredo, Texas, held a casting call for the show on Jan. 29 that also called for contestants who were 5’7” or taller.
source