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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: April 13, 2005
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: America’s Next Top Model, “The Girl Who Sends Tyra Over the Edge” (Season Cycle 4, Episode 7). [Watch on Hulu.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it. It’s the greatest single moment in the history of Tyra Banks’ great big vanity project America’s Next Top Model: Tyra got so fed up at one of her girls that she flipped out during judging and delivered a meltdown/talking to that managed to leave Janice Dickinson speechless. Janice Dickinson!
It’s a spectacle that makes all the bad and boring TV worthwhile. But what fascinates me is what I’ve always perceived to be the reasons for Tyra’s outburst. She’d just eliminated two girls at once, one of them being Tiffany, who’d been the recipient of a major push in the editing. She had a great hard-luck story and was ready-made for a win. But Tiffany kept screwing up challenges; too many to justify keeping her in the competition. There were only so many times she could throw in the towel when faced with a task she didn’t think she could accomplish before Tyra had no choice but to bounce her. So if you watch Tyra’s freakout with the assumption that Tyra has Tiffany earmarked to win, and Tiffany screwed it all up by not wanting it hard enough, it takes on a different shade. LEARN from this, reader.
The clip is also incredibly revelatory about the expectations of being a reality star. Tyra laid into Tiffany, in part, because Tiffany was laughing and joking around with the other girls immediately after she got bounced. This is a violation of the unwritten contract that we have with our reality stars. They’re supposed to want it SO bad that they are DEVASTATED when they lose. Not only did Tiffany (possibly) ruin Tyra’s winner plan, but now she’s not even giving the viewers some tears on her way out? Clearly, Tyra had to step in.
[You can stream America’s Next Top Model‘s “The Girl Who Sends Tyra Over The Edge” on Hulu.]
