Mother and daughter as competitors – and a candidate who is missing in protest against the show: The 17th season of “Germany’s Next Top Model” ends this Thursday in Cologne – the most successful in 13 years.
Top model final number 17: This Thursday the current season of the ProSieben long-running hit “Germany’s Next Top Model” comes to an end.
For the first time in the history of the show, there is a very special constellation in the finals: 19-year-old Lou-Anne from Austria and 50-year-old Martina are mother and daughter fighting each other and three other candidates for the title. It is made possible by a concept that Heidi Klum’s model show is now doing quite well with: diversity.
Wow, the girls are called models now
“Diversity – there it is!” It said at the beginning of the season. Because Klum is once again focusing on a pleasing trend theme in her model show and also allows candidates who would not previously have been given a place on the catwalk – and now also allows women over 45 kilos and the age mark of 25 to “walk” on catwalks and have photos taken of you. Klum’s vocabulary sometimes reached its limits: She wanted to call the candidates models, no longer “girls” (phonetically “Meeeeedcheen”).
Because that would have sounded a bit strange with gray-haired women like Martina or Barbara, the 68-year-old oldest candidate in the history of the talent show and with Lieselotte, Klum’s favorite, who, despite the performance perceived by the audience as rather mediocre, only made it to the semifinals was eliminated and put the patience of the spectators to the test.
That didn’t detract from the success of this season. ProSieben reports that she has become the most successful in 13 years – even more successful than last year, in which transgender model Alex Mariah Peter prevailed against curvy Dasha in the final.
Cat wars are out
“I think the special thing about this season was really that we are all so different,” says 21-year-old Anita from Neuburg an der Donau shortly before the finale in an interview with the German Press Agency. “And that it was about our personalities and not about catfights – you’ve really seen that often enough,” adds Martina, who sees herself primarily as a finalist – and not as the mother of a finalist. “I don’t feel like a mother at the moment,” she says – and laughing at her daughter: “Sorry, darling.”
But Lou-Anne seems to have a similar view: “This mother-daughter thing is something that’s just an issue for us because everyone keeps mentioning it, but we don’t always hang out together, and I’m one grown woman.”
In addition to Lou-Anne, Martina and Anita, 20-year-old Luca from Munich and Berlin’s Noëlla (25) are fighting for the title of “Germany’s Next Top Model” on Thursday. “I don’t have a plan B and I definitely want to stay in the modeling business. I don’t even want to think about other options,” says Luca. “Now we’re professionals. I’m proud of that,” says Noëlla.
Candidate Jasmine, on the other hand, will be missing, who Klum had already thrown out a few episodes after she had her own expensive real hair wig shortened after the famous makeover.
She had announced that she wanted to stay away from the traditional Top 20 walk after former top model contestant Lijana Kaggwa made a YouTube video alleging manipulation against the show’s producers. According to a spokeswoman, ProSieben is now considering legal action against Kaggwa.
“Of course we noticed that and we can’t judge their experiences either, but we perceived it differently and don’t feel misrepresented in what was broadcast,” says Anita. “Of course, here and there the connection or the long history is missing, but that’s no different if you don’t want to show 24 hours.”
