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The strongest cast in years.
The casting is the best the late CW era produced — a cycle that gets closer to what the show was at its strongest than anything since cycle 15.
Cast and episodes both pull back.
Cycle 22 benefits from something the intervening late-CW cycles struggled with: a contestant pool with real competitive range. The casting draws a diverse group of looks and approaches that give the panel sessions genuine tension. The 12-episode format keeps the competition tight. Produced in Los Angeles after a year's hiatus, the cycle lacks an international leg but compensates with the best casting of the late CW run.
The #19 slot.
Slot #19 of 24 in the America's Next Top Model Editor's Canon. Cycle 22 is the final CW season and, after several years of structural experiments and domestic-only productions, it returns to what the format was built on: a genuinely varied casting pool that gives the competition something to measure. The 12-episode run after a year's hiatus keeps the elimination sequence tight. The production stays in Los Angeles and foregoes the international leg, but the contestant range compensates in a way the intervening late-CW cycles rarely managed. The best casting the show put together between cycle 15 and the end of the CW run.