America's Next Top Model, Cycle 9

America's Next Top Model (cycle 9)
Cycle 9 cast
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	13
Release
Original network	The CW
Original release	September 19 (2007-09-19) – December 12, 2007 (2007-12-12)
Judges	Tyra Banks Nigel Barker J. Alexander Twiggy
No. of contestants	13
Winner	Saleisha Stowers
All-stars	Bianca Golden
Cycle chronology
← Previous Cycle 8 Next → Cycle 10
Season summary

September 19 (2007-09-19) – December 12, 2007 (2007-12-12)

The ninth cycle of America's Next Top Model was the third season of the series to be aired on The CW network. This cycle's promotional tagline was "The Future Of Fashion." The promotional song was "Shut Up and Drive" by Rihanna.

The prizes for this cycle were:

The international destinations for this cycle were St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda (for the semi-finals) and Shanghai and Beijing, China.

Among the thirteen finalists was 21-year-old Heather Kuzmich, who has Asperger's syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. The season averaged 5.12 million viewers, making the cycle one of the most successful in the show's history. This was also the last cycle to date in which Twiggy was featured as a judge. For cycle 10, she was replaced by Paulina Porizkova.

The winner was 21-year-old Saleisha Stowers from Los Angeles, California. Controversy surrounded Stowers' win regarding her eligibility to participate on the show, given that she had already worked as a model before competing on ANTM.

(ages stated are at start of contest)

First aired September 19, 2007

First aired September 26, 2007

First aired October 3, 2007

First aired October 10, 2007

First aired October 17, 2007

First aired October 24, 2007

First aired October 31, 2007

First aired November 7, 2007

First aired November 14, 2007

First aired November 21, 2007

First aired November 28, 2007

First aired December 5, 2007

First aired December 12, 2007

Following the finale and the announcement of Saleisha Stowers as the winner, many fans and critics began to raise questions regarding the legitimacy of her win, and whether or not she had even been eligible to have been entered in the competition in the first place. Evidence started to come to light that she had been featured in an advertisement for Wendy's in 2006, which seemingly went against the rules set in place that no competitor was to have any modeling experience in a national campaign prior to entering the competition. Though representatives from ANTM released a statement saying that Stowers disclosed her experience prior to entering and her commercial had been deemed "not modeling experience", more controversy arose when it was revealed that Stowers had also appeared as a model on The Tyra Banks Show and on an episode of Cycle 6 of Top Model. It had been publicly acknowledged on the show that she and Tyra Banks had a previous relationship due to Saleisha's participation in Tyra's T-Zone camp as a teenager, so speculation has since come about that Stowers' win was based on her and Banks' previous relationship, and not on the validity of her as a model.

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