Skip to main content
Aired fall 2012 · The CW · college-student casting restriction, Greece finale

The College Edition

Cycle 19 restricts the casting pool to current college students, trading the open talent search for an education-oriented angle. The season moves through England and Greece for the international portion, closing the production on the island of Crete.

Filmed
Los Angeles, California; Oxford, England; Crete, Greece
Premiered
Sep 19, 2012
Episodes
12
Format
Modeling competition · college-only casting
current students only; Oxford and Crete locations
Cast size
14 players
Fourteen contestants, less industry conditioning
Host
Tyra Banks
nineteenth season at the helm
On this page5 sections
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 04Adjacent in the canon
  5. 05Also appears in
01The take

Campus casting narrows the pool.

Greece saves it — the college-only casting restricts the pool more than it enriches the competition.
02The shape of the season

Cast drops from eighteen back to fourteen.

Cycle 19's casting restriction — college students only — cuts in both directions. The contestants arrive with less industry conditioning, which occasionally produces candid competitive dynamics, but the restriction narrows the casting range the show consistently relied on. Oxford and Crete give the international legs real editorial texture. A competent middle placement in the late CW era — not the experiment C18 was, not as forgettable as what followed.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #20 slot.

Slot #20 of 24 in the America's Next Top Model Editor's Canon. Cycle 19 occupies the middle of the late CW pack because its defining structural choice cuts in two directions. The college-only casting brings contestants with less industry conditioning — occasionally producing more candid competitive moments — while also restricting the range of looks and experience the panel has to work with. Oxford and Crete give the international legs real editorial texture, and the Greek coastal settings produce some of the stronger late-CW location photography. The format is neither the cycle's strength nor a serious liability; the casting restriction is.

No spoilers. Every page is reviewed before it goes live.
05Also appears in

Cross-references.