On last night’s episode, the girls were judged on how they modeled in the souvenir photo on a Knott’s Berry Farm roller coaster. Too bad this exact challenge was already featured two years ago on Paris Hilton’s My New BFF.
There are a few things that are odd about this copycat challenge. ANTM is usually hyper-vigilant about repeating itself as far as the challenges and photo shoots go, always attempting to make its own Top. Model. History. To the point of ludicrousness. (A runway show that’s four stories up in the air so that no one can see the clothes, for example.) So it’s bizarre that producers would rip off a challenge—right down to the last detail—that had already been used (ingeniously, I might add) on a reality show before.
The other issue is that Paris Hilton’s My New BFF was a sort of metaphysical parody of reality television. I mean, just the notion of creating a reality show in which people are there for the sole purpose to make friends challenges nearly everything about the genre. And the show’s challenges were meant to mock the ridiculousness of those featured on other shows, by hypothesizing what those challenges could be and then carrying them out. The fact that ANTM actually went ahead and earnestly recreated the same challenge only makes BFF seem more relevant than ever, two years later. This point was driven home, particularly, by Nigel’s bitchy criticisms.