When Nigel Barker was dismissed from “America’s Next Top Model,” the swiftest revenge appears to be hosting his own counter show.
Thus “The Face” (Oxygen, 9 p.m.), a new reality show modeling cometition that drops the American emphasis and adds a whole new international feel in the judge/mentors and in the 12 contestants who are already chosen and placed into teams as the action begins.
Of the three name brand mentors, judges and team leaders, Naomi Campbell is British, Karolina Kurkova is Czech and rail-thin Coco Rocha is Canadian. By the time the show starts each already has a team of four hopeful models, some of whom are Americans but others are from Australia, China, Russia and Canada.
“It’s a very international business,” says executive producer Eden Gaha.
For Barker, it’s a more fulfilling role than the one he had before.
“Judging, constantly judging, is a difficult task to do,” he told reporters at the TV critics winter press tour in California last month. “Obviously we all do it. We walk into a room, as a photographer and you’re doing a casting, and you can’t help but judge to some extent who you are going to want to book, who you’re not going to want to book, first impressions, all the rest of it.”
But, he added, “For me, the 20 years of experience I’ve had in this business, to be able to impart that as a sort of negotiator on the show, as the host, as sometimes a referee between the contestants, that was refreshing for me.”
“The Face” is more realistic than previous modeling shows, Barker says. “This is real clients with real jobs and each week, you know, you’re going to get a client that judges the girls. It’s the client that books the models and picks who wins. Not the host not the coaches, not myself. So it’s completely authentic and it’s completely believable, and the contestants have to be right for the client. And of course the model coaches have to make sure that they coach and get it right too.”
It’s quite clear that like many reality competitions these days, such as “The Taste” (ABC, 8 p.m.), it’s based on the success of “The Voice,” such that celebrity judges mentor and cheer on their teams such that their criticism overall becomes suspect.
But there is all of the usual drama between the high-strung models, competitions based on their taste than just their posing styles (which vary widely), and some contests stolen from magazine tropes, such as “Who Wore It Best?”
The winner gets to be the face of Ultra Beauty, which, according to Campbell, is a big deal. “They instantly become a household name.”
We’ll see about that.
As for tonight, if you find you don’t like “The Face,” you can turn the “Face Off” (Syfy, 9 p.m.).