Yay!

It probably means very little for the future, save a series of commercials in which she explains in no kind of detail how awesome it is to film a...commercial, but for now I am extremely happy for CariDee.

More on this on Monday. Don't worry, I'm not going to pull the shit that I did with the Project Runway finale.

In the meantime, a word of advice for CariDee: try to refrain from following your leader.

"Leader."

Comments

[Wendy]

WHOOO!! TEAM CARIDEEEEE!!!!

[Lola]

YAYAYAYAYYA CARIDEE, I totally yelled "IN YO FACE MELROSE" when she won. Did anyone else notice how "comfortable" melrose looked. She was sure she was going to win.

[jtalia]

HOLLLLLLLLLLLA!

i had heard stankrose won, but it was CARIDEEEEEEEE!!

YAAAAAAYY

[jtalia]

and thankyou for not pulling the shit you pulled on project runway!

i love you rich

[siren823]

Yay for crazy Caridee. Let's see how far this takes her. Will she be a Yohanna or an Adrianne, stripping in Playboy, starring in reality television shows and marrying a Brady? I am going with more of an Adrianne. I can't wait to see Caridee in Playboy! Oh, and what are the other girls doing now?

[Nick]

You know, I think we all knew it was going to be CariDee. I mean, granted we didn't have a writing staff for the last few episodes, but there had already been a clearly edited projection that Melrose was doomed to fail. ANTM isn't swift enough to pull a PR Jeffrey on us. Still, CariDee makes a fine winner, all in all. She's a gorgeous girl that's fun to boot.

But I still don't like how it turned out. Get past the fact that Melrose was largely unlikable. (Personally, I never thought she was particularly mean, just unconcerned with the other girls. At least she didn't call one of the others a "f*cking bitch" during callout. Just saying.) So, we have CariDee and Melrose in the final two, right? Okay, let's start there.

Once the final two have been selected, all that's left is the final runway show. Yeah, there's the magazine spread, but cycle after cycle, it fails to enter as a plot device. The judges hardly even acknowledge it. So, for the final judging, we're left to the runway show as the only measure left to compare the two girls.

The thing is, Melrose blew CariDee away in the runway show. Not "did better than"... she blew CariDee away. Going over the runway show, the judges noted that Melrose looked like a professional model and gave them shot after shot of potential photo captures, while CariDee's walk was stilted and her theatrics over-the-top.

And yet, CariDee won.

Yes, the girls' portfolios and past performance were part of the equation, but they were already fixed values. The only remaining variable was the runway show, and despite what is possibly the greatest plausible tip to the balance in Melrose's favor, she still lost. Then why even have the runway show? I mean, really, if nothing could have convinced the judges to give Melrose the win, then why even bother going through the motions?

It just seemed so... blatantly predetermined.

Oh, well. CariDee's still a good winner, although after seeing the labotomized version of Danielle... er, I mean, Dani... I fear for Cari's future as not a robot.

[Ms.D]

Once Eugena got the boot, I could sit back and relax. I'm glad CariDee won, but Melrose worked hard and deserved it too...perhaps more.

I'm just excited to see the round of stunts they create for the next cycle. Is it me, or is ANTM slowly bleeding into Fear Factor? I give it two more cycles until the gals are eatin' blended worms.

[Scott Free]

Wow...I don't even know how to follow that comment.

But! "I can't believe I got called a bitch through the whole thing >sob

[Casey]

*I* can't believe the judges never brought up CariDee's accidental(!?) shredding of Melrose's dress during the final runway. (Mr. J in panel! Yay! And in, like, HOT PINK!)

[dav242]

i was secretly hoping eugena would win, just because that would've been the bigger surprise/upset than a melrose win. plus, i thought eugena's covergirl shot was pretty terrific.

but, overall, i personally thought this season (like season 5) was filled with blah, "i went to high school with bitches like her" girls. brooke and melrose just epitomized how generic this cast was, especially compared to last cycle (jade, danielle, nnenna - all unique/one-of-a-kind bitches). so i was never as fully invested in this cycle's girls as i was in other cycles.

that said, i was glad to see caridee picked over mole-rose. caridee is 100X more interesting than melrose - i think melrose definitely kicked caridee's ass on the runway, but, to me, there wasn't anything particularly distinctive about melrose's actual runway walk. it was solid, yes, but - as tyra would say, with bugged out eyes - it wasn't AMAZING.

melrose's last pass, her more "theatrical" walk (that last walk, by the way, was the most ridiculous thing i've seen on television, and had me laughing out loud) was definitely great, but it just proves that molerose is better suited in theater or as an actress. she's a bitch, she's fake, and she kisses ass like a pro. she's made for hollywood.

by the way, does anyone else dislike twiggy? twiggy always seems to root for the uninteresting blah white girl (nicole, joanie, and last night melrose). but maybe that's because she was an uninteresting blah white girl when she modeled. seriously, twiggy's main claim to fame was being skinny, sticklike, and awkward. she can be thanked for popularizing the anorexic look.

whatever. i think tyra came to her senses after cycle 5 and decided not to defer to twiggy's simpleton tastes. i personally think one of the big reasons nicole won in c5 was because twiggy loved nicole and tyra felt compelled, especially since it was twiggy's first season, to go with twiggy's opinion.

i think last cycle's win and tonight's win just affirm that tyra is showing twiggy who's boss...

also, was anyone else reminded of cycle 4 when tyra brought up the whole "final exam/runway show" analogy? - i was like, "bitch you've used that before."

by the way - rich, your antm recaps are the bomb.

[chriso]

HUZZAH FOR CARIDEE!!!!

[Claudea]

I too though the finale pick (caridee) to be obviously staged. I don't think she earned it in the finale per se and at the end of watching the finale, I thought Melrose would win.
Sure, Melrose's a dramatic and an annoying bitch but I actually found that pretty awsome. :) My point is 1) she ruled the runway and 2) I think her progression during the show was much more interesting and she really went after it and did a very good job.
I wasn't really impressed at Caridee except for her natural beauty (I didn't see any progression from her part, she just relied on her looks).
On another subject, ANTM is in a serious need of re-hiring the writing staff because the story was soo poorly constructed. Every single frame bluntly intended to lead us somewhere and you could see it 50ft coming.
But to end on a positive note, the ghost bride theme rocked! :)

[Claudea]

BOOO for Caridee (lol)

[Claudea]

By the way, some trivia:
I was watching the finale with my sister (it was her first time the poor thing *at ANTM that is!*) and she commented on how Melrose has a lot of slavic features.
So obviously my curiosity was picked and after discussing, we finaly decided that she looks like a blond libaneese girl.
What do you guys think?

[Lizzie]

YAAAAAAY!! Not only the winner, but yay for Melrose coming in second! I totally expected the fugly Eugena to at least come in second. At least they have some credibility with Melrose, who on occasion took awesome photos.

A deserving and gorgeous top two.

HURRAH FOR THE FIRST BLONDE WINNER!

[kels]

I cannot even enunciate how much i L-O-V-E-D CariDee's reactions after Melrose got picked over Eugena. And when she went in to join the Eugena/CariDee hug? Oh lawd!

Anyway, hooray for CariDee! I used to think psoriasis was funny, but now I know it's HOT.

[Messalina 6-5000]

I didn't get to see the finale. I don't know where CariDee's fifteen minutes will take her, but based on your screencaps, I hope she becomes a horror movie slut. In the first picture, the killer is stalking her and she's freaking out. In the second one, I can practically see a pointy, gore smeared farm implement sticking out of her chest, and I love it. In the third, she's come back from the dead and she and Tyra are going to feed on the flesh of the living.

[Eddie]

Yay for Caridee, but I might have lost the last thread of patience with ANTM tonight.

That "fashion show"? Um, where was the audience? I'd wonder how such a moronic idea (ghost brides? seriously?) became reality but then again Tyra's in charge and she's a fucking idiot. It's depressing when the show even acknoweldges that it's completely pointless. It could at least take the time to delude itself.

Yeah Melrose may have done better in the runway challenge, but if we went by whats fair Melrose also would have been hit by a bus half way through the season.

[Mara]

woo-hoo!! my girl caridee took it home!!! saw it coming miles away tho...

although it now means that she'll be turned into a femme-bot by covergirl, it was really good to see smug-ass melrose bite the dust.

but seriously, why did they even bother have danielle/dani back?? they didn't even let her shine in her last few moments of being antm, sheeit...very sad to see her now.

and although the show now sucks without its writers and tasks get stupider every season, i loved, i mean LURVED miss jay doin' the runway at the end; i couldn't stop smiling at her ass :P

and tyra actually said something funny last nite--in response to mr. jay saying they were all unpredictable, she said that she wasn't; she always slaps on a weave, a ton of makeup and a dress cinched at the waist--and i sorta liked her for like a second...but only that second :P

i'm sure it'll be a tyraism and i can relive it on monday...gotta love the fourfour!

[Alice]

Please, in the name of all that is holy, post the screen cap of Melrose trying to horn in on that group hug btwn Caridee and Eugena and failing miserably. That may be one of the most uncomfortable moments in ANTM history, if not television history as a whole. I might make it my wallpaper. Priceless.
And you rule!

[matt]

Oh poo! Well you're two for what...7 now? Better than me, I'm 0 for 7. Why must I always like the losers? I'm totally going to go drown myself in the pool now a la AJ.

Fuck that, I'll just go buy a hat full of boy balls instead.

[Ed]

CariDee=good winner. Melrose=even better loser - at least she didn't call anyone a "hoe" in her last interview. And at least you won't look like a stepford wife in a vague-ass commercial, Mel.
I'm sure all of Melrose fans feel the same way.

[Julia_Claudine_Deveraux]

Although I stopped watching ANTM after Anchal was eliminated, I'm glad for CariDee. She seemed like an amicable former bar slut. Molerose's face damn near hit the ground when she found out she had lost! Too funny!

[Blair]

I am straight up sad that Melrose did not win.

And thank you for not pulling that shit you did with ProjRun.

I love FourFour!

[nidra]

"Dani" breaks my heart. I miss Danielle so much. They should call this show "Stepford Models."

Re: the finale -- Okay, I was happy about CariDee's win, because I personally am of the opinion that models should be pretty. I know, how very dated of me. CariDee is a natural beauty, and Melrose is not a natural anything. However. The fact remains that Melrose won every challenge (well, it seemed that way) and everyone agreed that she ruled the runway show. And girl worked her butt off. So her upset really made very little sense. Wait? Did I use the word "sense" to describe *anything* on ANTM? Shoot me dead, I've lost my mind.

But I do feel a bit sorry for poor Melissa Rose.