Come with me, and let us wind back our minds to a chaotic place in the history of Australian television. No, not Big Brother. I’m talking about Australia’s Next Top Model here. Although it was far less batshit than its American counterpart, ten years ago, it was host to one of the most iconic moments on Aussie TV.
The year is 2010. It’s the grand finale of Australia’s Next Top Model, and the competition is tight between the two finalists Kelsey Martinovich and Amanda Ware. Pretty much anyone with taste is tuning in to the live finale hosted by Sarah Murdoch to see who takes the big prize home.
Just before 9.30, the winner is finally announced, and everyone celebrates the victory of Martinovich, who is announced to have won the vote, and will be taking home a whole smorgasbord of massive goodies.
But then… iconic shit goes down. Murdoch stops the celebrations and Martinovich’s victory speech to announce that she suddenly doesn’t feel well, and has some pretty big news to spit out.
“I’m feeling sick about this. I’m so sorry, this was a complete accident. It’s Amanda I’m so sorry,” says Murdoch.
“This is what happens when you have live TV folks, this is insane, insane, insane.”
Boom, just like that the entire finale shifts, and everything is made to feel extremely awkward. Suddenly, the grand prize, which was an eight-page spread in Harper’s Bazaar, a modelling contract with Priscilla’s modelling agency, $20,000 dollarydoos, a whole ass car, a trip to New York City and a $25,000 Levi’s campaign, was no longer going to Martinovich.
Instead, the new winner was Amanda Ware, who was 18-years-old at the time. Truly fucked, truly iconic, please enjoy the footage for yourself.
Gentle reminder that it’s been a whole decade since Australia’s Next Top Model crowned the wrong winner in the live finale…two minutes of iconic television history: pic.twitter.com/QaoCnLbg1O
— Josh (@joshgetsit) December 26, 2020
Naturally, Foxtel just had to give Martinovich a consolation prize after embarrassing TF out of her on national television, and so shortly after the episode aired they announced that she will be taking home $25,000 and a free trip to the US. I mean, that’s a pretty good prize for first-place-turned-runner-up.
If that short little clip of the golden moment wasn’t enough, you can catch the full thing in all its glory right here.
Happy watching friends.
