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Aired spring 2011 · The CW · Marrakech international leg

The Morocco Cycle

Cycle 16 runs the standard CW competition format with Marrakech as the international destination — the show's first North African location. The medina's architecture and markets give the photoshoot creative a visual register distinct from the European trips that bookended it.

Filmed
Los Angeles, California; Marrakech, Morocco
Premiered
Mar 2, 2011
Episodes
13
Format
Modeling competition · standard CW format
first North African international leg
Cast size
14 players
Fourteen contestants, the standard CW casting model
Host
Tyra Banks
sixteenth 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

Marrakech carries the cycle.

A competent, unremarkable cycle that gets the most out of Morocco and not much more.
02The shape of the season

Home base returns after a season abroad.

Cycle 16 is a reliable CW-era entry that earns its place without distinguishing itself. Marrakech gives the international leg a genuinely different visual context — the medina architecture, textiles, and desert-edge landscape produce photoshoots with real editorial texture. The competition back in Los Angeles runs competently without generating the tension the better cycles sustain. A solid middle-of-the-road season that shows the format working at cruise altitude.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #18 slot.

Slot #18 of 24 in the America's Next Top Model Editor's Canon. Cycle 16 ranks here on location advantage alone — Marrakech is the show's first North African stop, and the photoshoot creative uses the medina's architecture, textiles, and desert-edge light with more editorial ambition than the cycle's competition layer generates. The elimination sequence back in Los Angeles runs competently and without distinction. A reliable mid-table CW entry that earns its placement above the later domestic and gimmick-heavy cycles by delivering an international leg with real visual returns. Marrakech alone makes it worth the slot.

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

Cross-references.