Natalie Robomed

They were all living together in these apartments, or at least in season one, as you reported, this sort of shitty hotel room that they converted into apartments.

Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, part of what was so appealing to me, at least as a young viewer, was what you describe as this kind of Cinderella story, where it's these girls who seem regular, yes, pretty, maybe tall, but that they might become...

supermodels is so exciting because it's this wish fulfillment for you where you're like, oh, wow, maybe that could be me too, you know?

And the makeover is really crucial too.

They always have this sort of ugly duckling makeover where suddenly these girls just have their full potential unleashed and they come out looking gorgeous, kind of.

So when did Top Model come back into your consciousness?

I mean, did you keep watching it?

Probably not.

And a little bit of what the title of your podcast refers to is that America's Next Top Model promised to find America's Next Top Model, but none of the winners or really any of the participants went on to really make it as models.

And in fact, as you report, being on the show was considered a mark against them in the fashion industry.

We're back with more from Bridget.

She's going to talk about the America's Next Top Model contracts that she has seen and reported on in her own podcast, though we have not independently seen these, and has a lot more to share.

A lot of these other kind of talent search shows like American Idol and The Voice, you know, they've had a mixed record, but at least they've had one Kelly Clarkson or whatever else.

But I think the issue with Top Model is that a lot of these girls put themselves...

through very extreme conditions and extreme changes to their face, their teeth, under the premise that it would help them get jobs after and then that didn't happen.

Can we talk about the most extreme makeovers that the teeth and some of the other stuff that happened?

And I mean, part of this is, part of the issue is that...

Tyra really seemed, at least this is how it appeared on the show, seemed to be the arbiter of fashion and beauty.

I saw this headline from The Onion.