The two-hour premiere episode devoted an hour to narrowing 32 contestants to 13 finalists, and the second hour featured the first photo shoot and elimination. The bedroom themes for this cycle were Twiggy, Janice Dickinson, Christie Brinkley, Iman and a room themed of past contestants of America's Next Top Model. The girls were led to believe that they would all be shaved bald as a way to level the competition for the photo shoot, when in fact they were fitted with skull caps and posed wearing Swarovski crystals in an array of mannequin heads.
The two-hour premiere episode devoted an hour to narrowing 32 contestants to 13 finalists, and the second hour featured the first photo shoot and elimination. The bedroom themes for this cycle were Twiggy, Janice Dickinson, Christie Brinkley, Iman and a room themed of past contestants of America's Next Top Model. The girls were led to believe that they would all be shaved bald as a way to level the competition for the photo shoot, when in fact they were fitted with skull caps and posed wearing Swarovski crystals in an array of mannequin heads.
In this episode, the twelve remaining contestants received makeovers. During the makeover process, Jay spoke with each of the girls to establish a name for their individual style, which they later had to attempt to embody in a clothing challenge. For the photo shoot, the girls posed with ice sculptures.
This episode featured the eleven remaining contestants practicing the runway. The girls had to do a runway with cockroaches for Jared Gold's spring collection. For the photoshoot, the girls had to take a photo while falling and were posed as a character from a popular fairy tale.
Episode four featured the girls receiving lessons on commercial and high-fashion posing. Their challenge was to model for a Sears catalogue, using the four seasons as their back-drop. This week's photoshoot involved the contestants posing as their dream careers.
In this episode, the girls learned about improv by attending a workshop at The Groundlings. Later, the girls put their skills to use in a challenge led by Nick Cannon. In lieu of a photoshoot that week, the girls once again had to utilize their improv skills in a commercial shoot for CoverGirl.
On this episode, the contestants learned the "runway twirl" from the Aswirl Twins. They put their knowledge to the test in a church fashion show challenge. The photoshoot required the girls to "krump", which is a modern dance style, to advertise Payless ShoeSource shoes.
In this week's episode the contestants were critiqued quite harshly by a woman. After the critique, each model took a Polaroid shot to measure how they took the criticism and how it affected their work through their facial expressions. Two photoshoots were taken in this episode, one where the contestants were made up to look like dolls. The other shoot directed by Tyra, required each girl to be photographed crying.
This episode began with a session of press training, in which the final six contestants were taught how to deal with difficult interview questions and given pointers on how to improve. Before long, the contestants were told that they would be heading to Bangkok, Thailand for the remainder of the competition. Upon arriving in the city, they were given the assignment to pose hanging upside down from nets as mermaids over an open floating market.
While in Thailand, the girls competed by learning and performing an intricate Thai dance and perform in front of judges. One of the girls was unable to participate in the challenge as she was taken to the hospital for exhaustion, dehydration, and food poisoning, but she returned in time for the week's photoshoot. To arrive at the shoot, the girls traveled by elephant deep into the jungle, where they posed on the elephants to advertise Venus razors.
It’s down to the final four models who meet Thai designer Pichita Rucksajit. They are tasked with traveling by “tuk tuk”, a Thai taxi, to meet and impress local designers. Next the girls fly on to Phuket where Tyra gives them a lesson about the regions culture and local history which includes the 2004 Tsunami.
Later the girls hit the beach for a photo shoot modeling Op bikinis to appear in a June/July 2006 spread in ElleGirl magazine and Amp’d Mobile with Nigel Barker behind the lens.
