TVSquad

I feel as though I've done nothing the entire week except watch The CW. When I close my eyes, I just see images of highlights, dangerously low BMIs and huge, blinding teeth. Apparently, I'm not alone. When Gossip Girl's second season premiered on Monday night, it grabbed record ratings for the show that, up until then, has never been quite popular enough to live up to its buzz. On Wednesday night, even more people tuned into the premiere of 90210, which garnered huge ratings for The CW, with 4.9 million viewers. It seemed as though people were finally flocking to the fledgling network. However, Wednesday's premiere of America's Next Top Model didn't exactly keep the streak alive.

Top Model, which began its 11th cycle, but not, as Tyra said, it's "second decade," didn't have viewers glued to their TVs. The two-hour premiere only nabbed 3.5 million viewers, with 1.7 million of those in the coveted 18-49 demographic. This is down 11% from cycle 10, which premiered in February of this year, and down 32% from last September's cycle 9.
This marks the lowest premiere ever for what is usually the CW's highest-rated show. The poor ratings could be attributed to a couple of things: the fact that Gossip Girl and 90210 both received heavy advertising, or even the fact that the second hour of Top Model was up against a new episode of Project Runway. However, I think the answer is much simpler: nobody cares.

Since its debut in 2003, Top Model has run two cycles a year. I've watched nearly all of them, and I can barely tell these girls apart anymore. They all seem to have the same hair, issues and attitudes, all of which are just ... tired. Watching this show must be like watching The Bachelor; it's difficult to care when you already know how it's going to turn out. Even though someone gets a final rose and maybe even a ring, you know they're going to break up. With Top Model, you know that at best the winner is going to become America's Next Top Macy's Catalog Model. When the stakes are low, the interest wanes.

This year is critical for the CW. If they don't find the formula for ratings success, they may not have another year to search for it. Right now, they're banking on rich skinny girls. Luckily for them, it's working so far. Hopefully it continues to, because it doesn't seem as though their old warhorse is going to give them much help.