“You wanna be on top?” are the opening lyrics to what sounds like an adult film. However, they belong to the theme of CW/WB/UPN’s old war horse, America’s Next Top Model. For the past eight years, Tyra Banks has been churning out cycle after cycle of young ladies hoping to be the next top model. After seventeen cycles and over 170 contestants, the show has had many struggles trying to find its way back into America’s heart and minds.

The concept is fairly interesting. Get about 12 underfed (sometimes they have a token plus-size model) young women in one New York/LA house, give them makeovers, and then watch the fur fly as they take on each other and bizarre challenges that very few models ever have to deal with in the real world. They are guided through the treacherous modeling terrain by a few judges:

• Beautiful British Photographer, Nigel Barker
• Runway Coach and Androgynous Diva, Miss J Alexander
• Platinum Blonde Airbrushed Photo Shoot Director, Mr. Jay
• Random Fashion Figurehead, Janice Dickinson/Twiggy/Paulina Porizkova/Andre Leon Talley

The most important part of the show is and always will be Tyra Banks though. Empress Tyra is the only thing keeping the show on air with her “quirky” behavior and blatant egotism that delights thousands of viewers each week. Despite her growing self-love, the shows ratings have fallen with each cycle.

I love how the show is referred to as a cycle, as it tends to be somewhat re-cycled from one season to the next. Challenges featuring beyond obvious product placement and sponsorships from CoverGirl show that the creators have limited faith in the viewer’s mind capacity.

In fact, former judge and Tyra-hater, Janice Dickinson, recently came out and said that the show is completely rigged by CoverGirl, so that they can get the best “fresh-faced” new model on their limited-run ads.

ANTM needs to do something exciting and innovative if it wants to keep viewers invested. The most recent cycle came under a lot of controversy for disqualifying contestant Angelea Preston for allegedly blabbing about her win prior to the show airing. They had to do re-shoots and resident hot mess, Lisa D’Amato, won over Allison Harvard. After the finale aired, fans were in an uproar that Harvard lost out considering she got rave reviews each week and was beloved by the public. As of now, ANTM reps haven’t commented, which doesn’t bode well.

My suggestion? Do something completely unexpected next cycle. Mix up the contestants by adding some male models and more plus size and ethnically diverse models. Everyone is getting tired of the same type of girls: the bitch, the weirdo, the pageant queen, and the nice girl are all frequently used. Also, use social media as more of a community tool. So much broadcasting and not enough involvement with fans will not work in the show’s favor. The CW may not call out Tyra’s photo next panel.