Well, Cycle 13 is over now, and cute, weird little Allison lost to wind-in-the-face Teyona. I liked them both, but I will admit to liking Allison a scoche more. Her dark side made her interesting and she often reacted to drama in the house in such a familiar way, it was like watching myself. For instance, describing one of the other girls' impassioned speeches about what she'd been through as "a little bit too Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul" or when she got totally nonplussed by someone getting up in her face and yelling. Rather than yell back and descend into catfight, she was more like "um, why are you shouting at me and repeating yourself when I'm not even arguing with you?"

Plus, she was definitely one of the most amazing transformations I've yet seen on ANTM.
She started off so mousy and strange, with a walk like a skinny Clydesdale and one single expression: shocked surprise. By the end, she was versatile and able to speak in front of a camera (something Teyona totally failed at) and confident enough to play and have fun on the runway. There was a moment during judging when I really thought she might win, when they were discussing how impressed they were with her leaps and bounds of improvement. And that's a compelling story. But even more compelling, for these judges, was the moment when Ms. Jay brought up the fact that out of the two of them, he thought Teyona wanted it more.

That was when I knew Allison was going to lose. Because whether it was true or not, "Teyona wants it more" is a better story than "Allison improved so much." It certainly convinced the ANTM judges, which I can understand, because of course they want to bestow their honor on the competitor who is the most passionate and invested in it. But the reason I felt let down by the decision was that as a viewer, I was more caught up in Allison's ugly duckling story, because I could relate to her more. Also? Teyona couldn't speak! She could barely make it through the commercial. I know the judges tend to care more about editorial fashion potential than they do about personality and verve for the Cover Girl position (otherwise, McKey would never have beat out bubbly Sam last cycle) but seriously. They better make sure Teyona never has to open her mouth.

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 9:13 AM  

Labels: ANTM