From The Straits Times    |

Tyra Banks: Top Model judging is realTyra Banks says the new voting process on America’s Next Top Model is how the real world of modelling works.

The TV host and executive producer of the hit reality show revealed that a new interactive element has been introduced to the judging process.

In previous years four judges including Tyra critiqued the wannabe mannequins on their performance in challenges and photo shoots.

But at the premiere of America’s Next Top Model: College Edition, Cycle 19, it was revealed that in the upcoming series the audience will get to cast their vote on the contestants, too.

“It’s actually what the audience would see in real life with models. Sometimes you might find out that that model in real life that you love is not such a nice person, but you didn’t necessarily know when you were looking at her pictures,” she said.

“Top Model voting is similar to real modelling in the real world.”

Tyra says the new system is proving hard to handle with some of the contestants.

“We’re taking video messages from the fans, and the ones that stand out and are interesting, we actually play in the judging room,” Tyra told ET Online.

“It’s really bringing that audience into that judging room… Sometimes, the girls actually cry not because what one of the judges said but because what one of the audience members said. The audience is voting on her pictures and her professional side of modelling.”

Banks was also in Singapore earlier this month to promote Asia’s Next Top Model. Read about her Singapore appearance here.