#cycle3ranking

06. Toccara Jones

Posting magazine spreads as picture for these types of post isn’t something I usually like to do, but I made an exception of Toccara, because I think it means a lot in this particular case.

Toccara entered the show to become the very first black supermodel in the fashion industry. I’m not sure whether or not ANTM has ever discovered litteral supermodel (sorry Jade), but Toccara made history by becoming the first black plus size model to appear on a spread from Vogue Italia. It probably is one of the most inspirationnal and touching success story related to ANTM, and that’s why I felt the need to post it alongside my ranking of Toccara.

I’ve rarely seen a character as kind as Toccara on ANTM. She never took part in any of the drama, never acted in a rude or disrepectful manner, always filled the model house with positivity and good energy, and was always there to comfort her fellow contestants. I honestly think it is basically impossible to dislike this woman, she had a pure soul. If I had based this ranking on personnality, I would have given her the top spot without a second of hesitation.

As a model, Toccara proved herself to be a strong contender, and despite not being the best, definitely managed to stood out at some point. Her portfolio was a very consistent one, with some of her photos being excellent ones. She eventually made an appearance on my top 10 photos of the cycle with her Lee Jeans advert, which was a gorgeously brilliant photograph, and where her curvy body, completed by a seductive eye contact, was the star of the picture. But she shone as well in her jamaican swimsuit photograph, Niveau beauty shot and left side of the alter egos photoshoot.

In her last couple of weeks, it seemed like her confidence suddenly nosedived. I think it happened because of her realising how difficult and cruel the fashion industry would be towards a model like her (there was for example the incident of styling during the alter egos photoshoot which might be related to this confidence loss). She started to loose her fire in her picture, and was ultimately eliminated in the last photoshoot before Japan. Even if Tyra said she was outvoted, implying that itw as a judges decision, I feel like it could possibly be because of the Japan fashion market not being receptive at all to Toccara’s type of body, completely taking away from her any chances of winning. I wish the industry wasn’t as narrow minded as that, as I would have saved her over Norelle despite having the worst picture of the week.

07. Kelle Jacobs

If we consider all the last minutes changes I did in this final ranking, Kelle probably made the most significant jump in my list. And for very specific reasons.

Kelle probably is one of the most poorly treated contestant in the history of the show. All the judges basically bullied her from the beginning to her elimination with a rare intensity. They always adressed her unnecessary rude comments, that wouldn’t be helpful at all for her to make any progress. They wanted her to be the running joke of this cycle (along with Ann) and depicted her as the weak, emotionnaly fragile and uncompetent model. But we all know that they purposely picked her worst photos at panel in order to give us this impression (oh well, it reminds me a bit of a girl named Jeana from the current cycle).

I initially wanted to place her 10th or 11th of this list, because even if her abilities weren’t represented well on the show, her worst photos still were quite bad, and we couldn’t have an idea of how good she would be without all the sabotage. Well, I finaly decided to take a look to all those moments where they showed her film on screen, just to have an idea of her true skills. And the fact is, about 90% of what we could see on their computer during the photoshoots showed lots of promise from Kelle. For the first four photoshoots, much better photos could have been picked in panel, some even being great, and that should have make her avoid the bottom 2 pretty much each time (her Nivea beauty shot performance especially was promising). It led me to think that Kelle might be one of the stronger models out there, but we never got a chance to see her talent because of the massive sabotage she suffered of.

01. Eva Pigford

Cycle 3 will be the first and one of the only cycles where I wholeheartedly agree with the winner : miss Eva the Diva. Only a couple of months ago I wouldn’t believe that she was about to top my rankings, as I would have place her much lower. But upon closer inspection and after my rewatch of this cycle, Eva definitely earned her victory.

The first thing I remembered about Eva was that she had a rocky start to the competition along with a nasty attitude, and that was what made me thought about giving her a lower spot. But the fact is, aside from the questionnable comments she made during the audition phase and her provocative victory dance after the heatherette fashion show challenge, she never did anything wrong. She just was being completely honest about her feelings towards anyone in the house and always managed to let it be known when she had a problem with someone. She may have had an abrasive behavior at times but she never was the investigator of the drama. Oh okay, you might be thinking : « what about the Norelle incident back to Campbell Soup commercial ? » I mostly think Eva has let the stress of the competition get to her head as she wasn’t doing so well on set, and to me that was more of a way to confess that she didn’t feel safe about her stay in the competition than an actual attack to Norelle. So Ann’s reaction was totally out of proportions to me (Even Norelle didn’t seem as bothered as Ann, while she was the one concerned). So in the end I don’t think that Eva had a behavior THAT nasty, and I learned to appreciate her honesty and her personnality during my rewatch a lot more than I initially thought.

As for a modelling abilities, I honestly believe that Eva had a lot of skills. Apart from a couple of mediocre shot at the beginning, Eva’s portfolio was nearly flawless. She took a bunch of amazing photos which are some of the best from cycle 3 (even though it was particularly overseas that she started totally dominating the competition and by a mile). You can tell that girl knew how to model just by looking at the way she systematically understood the creative and fitted the brief. She always managed to sell the clothes she was wearing, and never looked short in a photo, which is a thing since she was the shorter girl in the competition. On top of that, she had one of the stronger walks of the cycle, so she definitely had the whole package.

02. Amanda Swafford

When I started my rewatch of cycle 3, I assumed that Amanda would earned the top spot of my rankings, as I remember her taking amazing pictures and clearly being my favourite from that cast. But eventually she was beaten out by another contestant.

The fact is, Amanda’s portfolio on the show was nothing but stellar. She had an impressive amount of extraordinary pictures. Surprisingly, she only earned one first call out from me, but she always remained in the top spots and offered serious competition to the contestants above her. Some may think that her success was down to her look and her legendary icy blue eyes, but even with that stunning asset from her she knew how to rock a photograph. She was a great poser, showed off a nice variety of facial expression and had a good understanding of the concepts she had to work with. I even think she was THE photo model of the cycle (above Eva), because of her already strong start to the competition. While Eva showed an impressive progress, Amanda was amazing at taking photos from the start.

In regards to her attitude, we all know Amanda had a few questionnable moments. I won’t spend time talking about it, but I just want to point out that 95% of the drama she created during her run on the show took place within the couple of weeks following her makeover. We all know the makeover they chose to give her had a positive impact on her confidence, but maybe a bit too much important. She started to behave like a diva at times and acted a little bitchy on some occasions. But I think she realized quickly that her confidence boost had an impact on her personnality and she went back to the nicer and motherly Amanda we all knew. And the fact that she always apologized for her actions is a proof that she ain’t a evil human being from the inside. After that, she kinda fell under the radar from the editing.

Now let’s talk about the reasons that make me placing her second. The fact is, for once I kinda agree with the judges on their comments about Amanda’s look in person. Don’t get me wrong, she was a gorgeous girl with a nice personnality. But I do think that something was missing in the way she presented herself, she didn’t always look like a model in person. Maybe she could have afford to pull out a bit more confidence (just a bit, not as much as when she received her makeover). It would have make her stand out even more and give her that superstar thing that Eva had and not her. Then you can just add the fact that she was an OK runway walker, but just not as good as Eva was.

03. Ann Markley

Ahh, poor Ann. She has been -just like Kelle- treated so wrong on the show. I honestly believe the recurrent theme of cycle 3 was judges and especially Mister Jay being complete assholes to the girls.

They wanted us to believe that Ann was the clear and obvious underdog of the bunch (at least the overseas bunch, and that despite the fact they still brought her to the final 4, weirdly enough). But the fact is, Ann actually was a very talented model (and we all know there’s somme truth in that as she has ther most extensive post show portfolio out of the cycle 3 girls). So let’s take a look at our proclaimed « bad photo model » of C3.

Ann did took bad photos. In fact, I would say that she took one truly horrible picture, and a couple of mediocre and uninspiring ones. Let’s take them out : we have the atrocious YJ stinger shot, the jamaican swimsuit shot and the T-mobile shot. Other than that, there is only good to excellent photos. And yes, I unpopularly think that Ann has been robbed to the high heavens of first call out for the verragio diamond with a tarantula shot. Let’s be honest, her portfolio was nowhere near as good as Amanda’s, Eva’s and Nicole’s one, but she was still a great contender in that area.

But I think there is one specific area where Ann was leagues ahead of everyone else this cycle ; it was the look. Ann is one of the most beautiful contestant to ever appeared on this show. She has been blessed with incredible facial features, and had a killer body. Her makeover was a shame since the long dark hair suited her so much more, I’m glad she went back to that style post show. We can also add that Ann was arguably the best walker of the cycle, so she probably was the most model-ready girl out of the cycle 3 cast.

In regards of her attitude on the show, I clearly wasn’t on her side during the whole Eva versus Ann argument. They became close friends in the very beginning of the competition (a friendship bordering on co-dependance), but I think that Ann felt a little bit overshadowed by Eva’s emanescent confidence (and superiority in most of the challenges, let’s face it). At a certain point, she felt like she had to step out of her mate’s shadow by turning against her agressively. But to me it was clear that Ann just had a complex of inferiority next to Eva and that she put herself in that position without the help of anyone, and surely not Eva’s. However I’m glad to see that they seem to have made up since the show ended, as I think it was a truly pointless argument. Appart from that specific issue, I happen to like Ann’s sense of humour. Her various jokes might seem a bit silly and childish, but to me there was nothing openly mean about it.

04. Yaya Dacosta

Whenever you’re bothered by some people being rude to you, you should send them a Yaya wearing her « Respeito » T-Shirt, cause I think it probably is the best way to end up every conflicts (A gif of Ebony rolling her eyes at them being the second option).

When I rewatch the cycle, I immediatly thought that Yaya would be a top 2 contestant of my ranking without a doubt, if not the top 1. She started off the competition with a divine photograph. If I didn’t reminded it after my first watch, it definitely wowed me the second time arround. But one photo isn’t enough to consider placing someone so high. Week after week, Yaya destroyed the competition, and always remained at the top of my photoshoots rankings. She was solid as well in her walk, and her charisma and eloquence led me to think that she was good at commercial (she may have failed during the commercial week in Japan, but she succeed at the acting challenge and unsurprisingly is a successful actress nowadays). But as you can see, she finally didn’t even break into my top 3. And for good reasons.

About halfway through the competition, Yaya started to slowly lose the fire she had in her early photos. To me it all started when the judges said that her dancer background was overpowering her posing in photos. But in my opinion, it was precisely what made her photos stand out, so it’s a shame she sidelined completely that aspect of her modelling. But the photos remained good until Japan. Even if it’s not my favourite from that week, I totally understand people loving her tarentula photograph. But it would be the last good one until the covergirl campaign. Yaya probably has one of the weakest overseas portfolio in the history of ANTM. Her kimono and harajuku bikers shot were quite bad, and despite her covergirl shot being a solid one, it wasn’t on the same level as the other two finalists. I honestly don’t understand how she was saved over Amanda for the finale, it was totally unwarranted to me.

Despite proclaiming herself as an educated and intelligent individual, Yaya sure lacked maturity on a few occasions. The way she brought out the brownie gate by wearing a respeito T-shirt wasn’t a smart way to handle the problem, and her reaction during the umoboshi challenge wasn’t the most pleasant and lady-like to watch. I will still give her some credit for her overall behavior, because she still knew how to present herself well out of those few incident, and was a clear strenght from her as evident by the fact she would have won the go see challenge had she not arrived late.

Despite a clearly weaker portfolio than Nicole and a degradation of her work in Japan, Yaya’s performance as a whole still was a very solid one. She had her great moments in photoshoots, a very strong walk by the end and knew how to make a good impression of herself. That makes her a more complete all arround contestant than Nicole, and the rightful 4th contestant of my final ranking.

05. Nicole Borud

It really saddens me to have Nicole at the 5th spot. I thought she was the photo model of cycle, alongside Amanda and Eva, so I initially planned to have her in my top 3, but a closer inspection of her overall performance just made me change my mind.

As a photo model, Nicole shone from the beginning until the end. With the exception of her alter ego performance (which was rather bland and disapointing from her than bad), she had a basically flawless performance. All of her photos were great, and along with Amanda and Eva, she’s the only model who had several entries on my top 10 list (not to mention that her tarentula photo was a close contender as well). But she didn’t rest on being pretty, or serving one single look throughout her portfolio : she was a versatile model. She nailed the edgy concept, as well as the more commercial ones, and gave a great variety of posing, energy and facial expression during her run on the show. Her YJ Stinger is my favourite photo from her, as well as one of my favourites in the history of the show. Her presence is just striking and penetrates the lens, this photo definitely had something unique.

With the ammount of praise I’m delivering right now, it might seems weird that she didn’t break into my top 4. But after thinking about it in depth, the photoshoots pretty much were the only area where she truly slayed. On the runway, she falterred in comparison to her felow contestants (despite not being as bad as Norelle). And if she earned the first call out for the Campbell Soup commercial, it was more because the shoot was completely busted (with its japanese script), and because her performance just was the less bad out of all the girls. But it doesn’t makes her a good commercial model. Not to say that she was bad, but I feel like I haven’t seen enough of her to be impress.

I honestly thought the judges were just trying to hard to attribute her the forgettable edit when they casually forgot her in panel, and that eliminating her for not being memorable enough was a bit rude and unfair. Even if I wouldn’t have taken her much further, I didn’t think of her as a person that forgettable. She stood out in a few moments, but the fact they were shown in the recap episode (after she was eliminated) proves that itw as just an attempt of the producers to make her the « who » contestant by editing out the interesting moments from her.

 08. Cassie Grisham

Another « blonde filler » from cycle 3. Cassie was one of those contestants that I almost completely forgot since my first watch, despite having a strong storyline on the show.

I think I found Cassie to resemble Kristi a lot, and I pretty much blended up the two of them into one single blonde entity. I knew there was to girls with similar name and similar look that were eliminated at one moment or another before overseas, and that was about it. It doesn’t help either that Cassie’s look felt even more classic and common that Kristi’s, and never in a photo I found myself amazed by her beauty. But after rewatching the cycle, I finally remembered Cassie’s main storyline on the show ; she was depicted as the girl who had to deal with bulimia.

She indeed admitted herself that she was obsessed with her weight and determined to do everything she could to loose weight and be a model, despite denying having an eating disorder. According to her, the fact she wasn’t making herself throw up after every meal didn’t make her bulimic, and proved she didn’t have any eating disorder. Well, just to make that point very clear, starving yourself in order get skinnier might not make you bulimic, but it is an eating disorder as well as an health issue. All of that just makes me think that this environment wasn’t healthy for someone like Cassie, and that she needed to get rid of that obsession before moving any further in the modelling industry.

As she wasn’t enjoying her time in this competition either, I think eliminating her was the best decision to make for her. And I totally agreed with it despite her producing her best photo so far : I absolutely loved her alter ego photograph, and if it doesn’t figure on my top 10 list of the cycle, I probably would have if I had found a better quality version of it. It consequentely was the first and only time she wowed me. Before that, everything shed id in the competition was ok, but never amazing. Her photos were okay, her walk was okay, but nothing made me think : « wow, she’s a real contender in this competition », especially in a strong cast like cycle 3’s.