'America's Next Top Model' cuts both Isis King and Hannah White

After serving as the focus of most of the show's early season drama and discussion, America's Next Top Model's two most controversial contestants were both eliminated during Wednesday's broadcast of the eleventh season's fourth episode.


Isis King, a 22-year-old transgendered program assistant from Prince George's County, MD, was eliminated by Top Model's judges after they deliberated at the competition's fourth judging panel. 

According to the judges, Isis had lost her identity after delivering consecutive weeks of unimpressive photos.

"You were supposed to go so far, [but] the girl we saw in those photos last season is not here," Top Model host and lead judge Tyra Banks told Isis after revealing that she had been eliminated from the competition.  "She's disappearing in her pictures and she disappeared in personality. But if you want to be a model, you can.  You're already an inspiration for the gay, lesbian, transgendered, bisexual community... so you have to know that, but you need to work on those eyes."

"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come here and shine," Isis said following her elimination. "I expected that I was going to go further in this competition, but I promise you, after this every photo shoot I'm gonna go on I'm gonna make sure I take the note that were given to me. I'm gonna smile with my eyes, I'm gonna show my personality through it."


"I feel like I've developed a strong back bone and a strong sense of character. I want to go out there and make my dreams come true and that’s all I wanna do," she added.

However, while Isis was the fourth contestant eliminated by the panel, she was actually the fifth contestant eliminated. Earlier in the episode, Hannah White, a 19-year-old student from Fairbanks, AK, was eliminated in a surprise runway challenge twist.

"I'm really sad right now," a surprised Hannah said after Top Model photo shoot director Jay Manuel and judge J. "Miss J" Alexander eliminated her after deciding she had shown the worst runway walk during the challenge.

"I felt like I might have disappointed my family, but I know that they're already so proud of me," said Hannah.  "Just the idea that I'm here, I mean that’s huge. I'm from Alaska, I never thought I would be here! I've learned so much about myself and the other people. This has been bigger than anything that I've ever done. I made it through casting and three eliminations, I tried my hardest and that's all you can do."

America's Next Top Model's fourth eleventh-season episode had begun with the 11 remaining wannabe models returning home after the previous episode's judging panel that had ended with Britney Rubalcuba, a 19-year-old Brittany customer service representative from Henderson, NV, being eliminated.


Although she had managed to make it to the next round, the fact she'd found herself in the bottom two with Britney had left Analeigh, a 19-year-old student from Sacramento, CA, visibly shaken.

"To be in the bottom two is absolutely terrifying. There is this absolute rush of emotion, I tried to hold my tears in but I just let them go," Analeigh told Marjorie, a 19-year-old student from Marseilles, France. "I do not wanna be there again."

However after Marjorie began coddling Analeigh and reassuring her, Hannah broke her silence by criticizing both girls for having a "pity party," which both Analeigh and Marjorie took offense to.

"Analeigh and Marjorie just get so wrapped up in the negatives they can't remember the positives. I just can't see the point in beating yourself up, I don't understand pity parties," Hannah explained after the incident. "You pick up your beans and you keep on rolling."

The next morning, the girls went to a bowling alley where they met with Miss J.  After handing out bowling alley high-heel shoes to each model, Miss. J. told them that they would be learning the basics of runway walking.


"Ladies you're not here to bowl, you're here to walk!" he exclaimed.

During the practice sesion, Miss J. criticized Hannah for keeping her hands at her hips during her walk and keeping her legs too straight.   

After returning home and practicing their walks throughout the house, the girls received a second "Tyra Mail" informing them of their challenge.

"You think you have this competition in the bank? You may be walking right out of it," it said.

Prior to the challenge, a discussion between Clark, a 19-year-old student from Pawley's Island, SC, and Lauren Brie, a 20-year-old student from Charlottesville, VA, eventually turned to the subject of Isis.


"In the real world of modeling, I just don't see Isis being booked," Clark whispered. "Just the way her body is now, it's still very manly, like [in] the hands and the feet and the waist."

"I think its time for Isis to go home, modeling just isn't for her," she told the camera afterwards.

Meanwhile, sitting in the bathroom with Isis as she combed her hair, McKey, a 19-year-old student from Lake Forest, IL, sang a much different tune and threw her support behind the transgendered model wannabe.

"I don't try and think about whether it right or wrong cause it's not my choice to make," she told Isis. "Isis is always gonna have people talking about her and you just have to keep strong."

"Whatever," Isis said after interrupting Mckey in agreement. "Think what you want, but when I'm on that runway what are you gonna say? You can't tell me nothing. I'm here for the long run," she said as she continued to comb her hair.


The following day the models traveled to a bank.  Once there, Miss J. and designer Jeremy Scott informed them they would be portraying cat burglars in a fashion show Jeremy would be holding at the bank that evening.

In addition, the also met with Seventeen magazine editor-in-chief Ann Shoket, who informed them the best runway walker would get to star in a Seventeen advertorial shoot for 15-year-old Moscow fashion designer Kira Plastinina.

However the girls were also told that the challenge had a twist.

After Miss J first revealed that the girls would be blindfolded for their walks, photo shoot director Jay Manuel dropped an even bigger bomb.

"Tonight you guys have to walk as if its your last runway show because for one of you girls tonight it will be your last challenge. No photo shoot, no panel. You are going home. Tonight."

While most of the models seemed to do fine, Joslyn was revealed to be the challenge's winner while Hannah was sent home after looking scared and nervous during her walk.


"If you don't have a good runway walk you'll never make it as a top model," Jay told Hannah before her exit.

The next day, Analeigh told Marjorie that she was even more nervous than she had been prior to earlier shoots.

"Before all the photo shoots I've been excited, but now I'm nervous because I'm like the only one who's not doing well," she told Marjorie worriedly.

Instead of being transported to their shoot the following morning, the girls were instead surprised by Jay, who woke them up with a lifeguard whistle at 8:40AM and told them that they would be posing in the house's pool for this week's shoot.

"How many times does Tyra say to you on panel 'smile with your eyes?' Well today's photo shoot is exactly that," he told the girls before revealing that the pictures would be taken by America's Next Top Model judge Nigel Barker and require the girls to keep the lower half of their face underwater.

Similar to the previous episode's shoot. Isis expressed discomfort in being photographed in a bikini.


"I have on three pairs of undergarments just in case the tape does peel off," she said prior to her shoot, which both Nigel and Jay felt she looked nervous throughout.

The following day, the ten remaining girls went before judges Paulina Porizkova, Tyra, Miss J., Nigel, and Jeremy to see how their shots turned out.

Paulina criticized Isis' picture, saying that her arm had ended up being more prominent than her eyes.

"That's not a good picture," she said.

Nigel added that Isis had seemed so distracted by the swimsuit that she had ended up simply "bobbing in water."

Paulina lauded Clark's picture as amazing, while Tyra called her eyes "intense" in the shot.


After being worried about how her shot would turn out, Analeigh heard mostly favorable reviews from the judges.

"I love it," said Nigel of her shot.

While all the judges felt Samantha's shot had been one of the shoot's best, Tyra made sure that the girls were aware that modeling was a "business first" and Samantha had angered Jeremy by ignoring his instructions and flipping her dress during her runway walk.

Following the judges' deliberations, Tyra revealed that Clark had taken the week's best photo and made it to the competition's the next round.

She then proceeded to call out additional photos for Analeigh, Lauren Brie, Sheena, McKey, Marjorie, Joslyn, and Elina -- which left Samantha and Isis as the bottom two girls.

"Last season on [America's Next Top Model] you stood out in the background of photo. But from week to week to week you continue to look sleepier and sleepier and sleepier in your film. One of our judges said you're just coasting into nothingness because you're afraid to stand out," Tyra told Isis before turning her attention to Samantha.


"You've been taking gorgeous pictures from week to week, but the designer Jeremy Scot was so insulted by what did on the runway. He was disgusted, and being a model is all about being hired by a fashion designer and not insulting them," she warned.

After her elimination, the judges' panel ended with the girls giving Isis a group hug before she went home.

America's Next Top Model's next episode will air Wednesday, October 1 at 8PM ET/PT on the CW.






About The Author: John Bracchitta