Austria's Next Topmodel

Lore & Background

The third cycle premiered in January 2011 with new judges Atıl Kutoğlu and Elvyra Geyer, and featured one contestant per federal state plus five wildcards, with winners traveling to international destinations each episode. Gercke left after cycle 4 to focus on her modeling career, and Melanie Scheriau took over as host from cycle 5 onward. Males were introduced in cycle 6, along with a social media scoring system requiring Facebook votes, where each account had three votes and the highest-voted contestant received immunity. The show aired on Puls 4 for cycle 8 in 2017, then moved to ATV Austria for cycle 9 in 2019.

Reader's Guide

Austria's Next Topmodel is significant as a localized adaptation of the global Top Model franchise, notable for being hosted by a former winner of Germany's Next Topmodel. The series faced controversies, including a racism incident in cycle 3 where contestant Magalie Berghahn was expelled for racist comments aired during the show, and the death of cycle 4 contestant Sabrina Rauch in a car crash in January 2012, which led to criticism of the show's editing. The series also introduced innovations like male contestants and a Facebook-based voting system. Its legacy includes launching modeling careers and sparking debates on reality TV ethics, though its impact is largely confined to Austrian television history.

Did You Know?

• Lena Gercke, the host of the first four cycles, was the first Top Model winner to become a host of a Top Model series.
• In cycle 3, contestant Magalie Berghahn was expelled for racist comments made during a phone conversation that were aired on the show.
• Cycle 1 winner Larissa Marolt won a place on the fourth cycle of Germany's Next Topmodel, where she placed eighth.
• The show's sixth cycle introduced male contestants and a Facebook-based voting system where each account had three votes.

Origins & Format Evolution

Austria's Next Topmodel launched in early 2009 as the Austrian adaptation of Tyra Banks's globally recognized competition format. A particularly notable choice for the chair was Lena Gercke, who had herself triumphed in the first season of Germany's Next Topmodel, making her the first former Top Model champion to take on the host role in a sister series. The inaugural judging bench paired Andrea Weidler, who headed the Vienna-based agency Wiener Models, with runway coach Alamanda Belfor. As the series progressed, the panel shifted considerably: cycle two brought in photographer Andreas Ortner and stylist Sabine Landl, while cycle three welcomed designer Atıl Kutoğlu and coach Elvyra Geyer. Format innovations kept pace with the personnel changes. Cycle three restructured the contestant pool to include one representative from each Austrian federal state alongside five wildcard picks, and sent winners of casting rounds to international destinations. By cycle six, the show made two landmark shifts: men were admitted to the competition for the first time, and a Facebook-based social media voting system replaced parts of the traditional judging process, granting immunity to the most-voted contestant and automatically nominating the least-voted one for elimination.

Controversies & Scandals

Before a single episode hit the air, Austria's Next Topmodel drew fire from Dominik Wachta, who had operated a modeling-and-beauty-pageant hybrid called Österreichs Next Top model since 2007. Wachta publicly accused Puls 4 of appropriating his concept, but the channel's CBS license for the Tyra Banks format made a retitle legally impractical. The show's most harrowing controversy arrived in cycle three, when contestant Magalie Berghahn was caught on a recorded phone call using deeply racist slurs against fellow competitors Lydia Nnenna Obute and Vanessa Lotz. Host Lena Gercke confronted Berghahn on camera with the video, then expelled her, declaring the competition had no tolerance for such language. Puls 4 faced criticism for airing the unedited clip in a preview, suggesting the scandal served promotional ends. Berghahn later said the episode destroyed her life. In January 2012, cycle-four contestant Sabrina Rauch, twenty-one, was killed instantly when her car struck a concrete mast on the way home from a party. Her elimination episode had been scheduled to air just days later, and the station opened the following broadcast with a silent screen of condolences.

Winners & Spin-offs

The inaugural cycle, broadcast between January and February 2009, crowned Larissa Marolt as its champion. Her prize package included a coveted spot on the fourth season of Germany's Next Topmodel, where she ultimately finished in eighth place. The second cycle, which ran from late 2009 into early 2010 under the slogan "More girls, more jet set, more glamour," was won by Aylin Kösetürk. Between the first two main seasons, Puls 4 capitalized on the show's momentum with a mid-2009 spin-off titled Die Model WG. The reality series followed six of cycle one's contestants living together, and Kordula Stöckl emerged as its winner. Beyond the headline victors, the franchise demonstrated an ability to extend its brand into adjacent formats, keeping the audience engaged during the off-season. The prize structures and spin-off strategy signaled that the producers viewed the competition not merely as a single-episode spectacle but as a platform for sustained audience engagement and cross-border modeling opportunities for its winners.

Broadcast History & Network Evolution

Austria's Next Topmodel has maintained a long association with Puls 4, which carried the series from its January 2009 debut through most of its run. The early cycles followed a roughly annual cadence: cycle two premiered in November 2009, cycle three in January 2011, and cycle five in January 2013, when Melanie Scheriau replaced Lena Gercke as host. Cycle six arrived in late 2014, cycle seven stretched from late 2015 into spring 2016, and cycle eight launched in November 2017. A notable disruption came in April 2017, when the ProSiebenSat.1 Media group announced that cycle eight would temporarily shift to ATV Austria, breaking the show's long-standing Puls 4 home. The arrangement was short-lived, however, as cycle nine returned to Puls 4 in 2019. Throughout this period, the series also evolved its production geography, with cycle three sending contestants to international destinations each week, and cycle six integrating a Facebook-only voting mechanism that gave every account three votes per round, a structure distinct from the American original's broader social-media scoring.