MSN TV Blog - Reality TV

'America's Next Top Model' Massacre

Report: Tyra Banks fires Nigel Barker, J. Alexander and Jay Manuel

By Corey Levitan Apr 20, 2012 8:11AM
usmagazine.com

According to the New York Post, "America's Next Top Model" judges Nigel Barker and J. Alexander are out next season, as is mentor Jay Manuel.

The three were told their contracts would not be renewed for Season 19, and according to the Post, it was none other than host and executive producer Tyra Banks who "swung the ax."

 

Photos: See pics from this season of 'Top Model' | Bing: More about 'Top Model'

 

Barker and Manuel have been with the show since its first season in 2003, Alexander

since the second. Manual has also been Banks' longtime make-up artist.

Banks confirmed all three departures, tweeting that the show "turned us in2 a family" and that she's "excited for what the future holds" for her friends.

On his blog, Barker wrote Thursday night: “Many of you have come to know me over the past eight years on the show, during which we have shared numerous amazing adventures. It has been an exciting chapter in my life.”

Low ratings are most likely culprit, with the most recent episode drawing only 1.3 million viewers.

"America's Next Top Model" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the CW.

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69Comments
Nav622
Apr 21, 2012 1:38PM
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This is a show you'd watch when nothing else was on.  Nigel was the only one of the three that I could stomach. The other two tried to be weird to focus attention on themselves.  Adios.
Bonnie Pitsinger
Apr 20, 2012 2:04PM
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I used to watch the show faithfully, but finding myself not missing it in the US vs UK - can't even find one girl I hope to win since they got rid of the androgynous girl- she was the one I liked best so now I don't care - probably won't watch it again without J, J and Nigel. 
Vixen
Apr 20, 2012 1:22PM
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As if this year's format change wasn't bad enough!  I was a fan of the show until this jacked up season.  I loved the guys...  I believe this dismissal may signal that this year is the last for the show.

Maybe they need to consider taking the show in a new direction, like maybe real, older women or plus sized women trying to break into modeling.  TV Land had a similar show called "She's Got the Look" which employed casting calls around the US for REAL women and I believe it was pretty successful.   

Becca Schaffer (Trybec)
Apr 20, 2012 1:53PM
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As if the Photo Shoots couldnt get any worse... Just the premise of all of them this season make no sense. I have no seen one shoot that is geared toward Vogue Italia ...

 

She needs to do a America's Next Top MALE Model ...  that will bring the viewers in...

 

But with more runway shows, casting calls and photoshoots that can acutally be used in their portfolio.

DIANA CRIM
Apr 21, 2012 8:31AM
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thats too bad...seems like she will be losing more viewers..me for one...buy tyra

 

ShakingMyHeadToo
Apr 20, 2012 3:30PM
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I must admit last season and this season suck. This season most of all: Ameicans vs Brits! I hate it. The contestants on both side are so weak....not modeling material. The quality of contestants has been going down. They use to do amazing things, now they are just bland.
dncrbyn
Apr 25, 2012 1:12AM
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You know why I stopped watching?  Tyra!  So full of herself!  Wish it were more about the shoots and less about Tyra promoting herself and re-living past glory.
Minna
Apr 20, 2012 6:52PM
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Great.  Good thing this isn't 'America's Next Top Actress' or 'America's Next Smart Person', or Tyra wouldn't have made it past the first cut in season 1. 

 

Tyra is the only thing about this show that bores me.  Ms. J is fabulous and Mr J and Nigel are the most attractive things about it.

Tammy hypes (TammyHypes)
Apr 21, 2012 6:32PM
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Sorry tyra but there goes the show!  You are making a terible mistake!
FearlessFergus
Apr 20, 2012 12:08PM
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Maybe the ratings are low because people are sick of Tyra´s ego. It also doesn´t help that none of the so-called models ever really make it.

 

Why doesn´t Tyra just buy a mirror and sit in front of it for an hour? It´ll be the same show.

beinghappy
Apr 23, 2012 10:57AM
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OH NO SHE DIDN'T!!!...........​....... THAT'S A BITCH MOVE!.... IS THEY WERE REALLY MY "FAMILY" I WOULD WAIT UNTIL THEY QUIT NO FIRED THEM.... WELL THAT SHOW IS TOO CRAZY  AND I DON'T WATCH IT .... THEY WERE THE BEST SERIOUSLY.
Sornaya
Apr 21, 2012 12:05PM
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Who knows whay this decision was taken. i have to say though that it will be a terrible loss to the show. the bast part to me was watching Jay Manuel prepare and walk those girls through their shoots - and then seeing the end result at the judging. Watching Nigel Barker was an added treat. Certainly the best seasons were when Janice Dickenson was a judge. Can't promise i'll be watching next season...i can barely make it through this season as it is.
irishmeemaw
Apr 20, 2012 12:05PM
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Over the top boring show.  
Superstarsdreams
Apr 21, 2012 9:54AM
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The only reason I see America's Next Top Model as a failure this year is because this is called America's Next Top Model. Not Britain's Next Top Model. That is the only reason why this year has failed. Yet I have taped every single show for this season.  I won't be watching the show next year because I truly believe that without Nigel, and Miss Jay and Jay make this show what it is along with Tyra and I love Tyra. Yet with all honesty, if you want to hold onto the gay viewers which I am sure are very many, getting rid of these three men are not the way to do it. Without Jay, Miss Jay and Nigel, I won't be watching this show again. Sorry for I truly loved this show. Yet I watched it for the commentaries from those three men the most. Maybe if you would have stayed with your aesthetics of America's Next Top Model. Then this year would have been as famous as all the others. Brandon in Maine.
mtrr
Apr 22, 2012 9:38AM
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Ok...bye bye ANTM!  My daughter and I were barely hanging on as viewers this season anyway.  We used to be sure we never missed an episode, but the channel it comes on for us was out one week and we didn't even care that we missed an episode.  The problem is NOT these three, the problem is Tyra herself.  She was acting as a good mentor at the start of this show, now she just seems to be all about herself and her dumb ideas!  TEACH them to model!  SHOW them how to take good pictures and walk a runway and how to present themselves at "go-sees"...NOT booty tooching, "pot ledom" (which was the dumbest thing she's ever done!), superpower branding, and other dumb gimmicks.  And this season?  Don't we have enough girl on girl fighting?  If you truly are a "mentor" of young ladies, and them feeling empowered by their own inner beauty, then you would not pit them against each other this way.  From the first show where they walked the runway and said something mean about each other, I knew I wasn't going to like this season.  Even my daughter, at 16, sees how dumb this show has become.  We record the show and usually fast forward when it's Tyra talking to the girls about anything, or "acting" (good Lord...Tyra please stop these little skits you think you are good at...sorry honey...you can't act!).  We never fast forward when Nigel, J, or Ms. Jay are on with the girls.  It's not these guys bringing down ratings, it's Tyra and her dumb concepts.  Get back to a show about MODELING and learning how to do it, and stop all this other stuff.  Singing?  I don't want to see how well you can autotune these girls.  I'll watch a singing competition for singers...we watched this to see people learn how to MODEL!!!  So...getting rid of these three guys?...BAD move Tyra.  BAD move!  DVR...cancel series.
dhales
Apr 21, 2012 12:58PM
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Guess i wont be watching ANTM anymore. While I enjoy watching the program one the main reasons is because of these three men, ( Ms J, Mr J & Nigel Barker). Having gotten so accustomed to them, the show will never be the same without them. Wrong move Miss Tyra.... 
woooofie
Apr 20, 2012 12:19PM
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The only reason to watch  "Top Model" is Nigel Barker,J. Alexander, and  Jay Manuel!!!!!  I"M DONE!!  No more watching the EGOMANIAC Tyra Banks.  

 

ANTMviewer
Apr 20, 2012 2:06PM
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I don't appreciate Tyra's new obsession with "branding."  I think the whole idea of considering people as brands is rather creepy and dehumanizing.  I also think her strange attempts to name and "brand" modeling techniques, like "smizing" and "booty tooching" comes off as embarrassingly cheesy.  They had a good foundation with the first several cycles, and now it's just getting stupid and harder to watch.  If something's not broken, don't try to "fix" it!
jody peterson
Apr 20, 2012 2:28PM
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I love these 'guys'. They make the show. No more Miss Jay? No more classy J.A. or N.B. I vote 'no more Tyra'. I always have preferred these guys to Tyra by a long shot!

Want to make the show better, have these guys run it.

Looks like most people agree.

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