Country of origin Malaysia Original network STAR World | No. of episodes 13 No. of contestants 16 | |
Original release January 8 – April 9, 2014 Judges Nadya Hutagalung
Joey Mead King
Mike Rosenthal
Adam Williams | ||
The second cycle of Asia's Next Top Model aired from January to April 2014 on on STAR World Asia and Fox Asia. Casting for cycle 2 concluded on August 25, 2013. Production and filming began in Malaysia. Nadya Hutagalung and Joey Mead-King returned for panel this season, while Daniel Boey and Todd Anthony Tyler confirmed their departure from the show. They were replaced by Mike Rosenthal and Adam Williams.
Contents
The season featured a larger cast, with the number of contestants increasing from 14 to 16. Nepal was not represented for this season. The international destination during the cycle was Hong Kong, China, becoming the second occasion in which the series traveled to the country, after cycle 1. Regarding the Malaysia Tourism Board as the main sponsor, the models traveled across Peninsular Malaysia, namely Penang, Pangkor Island, Malacca, and Kuala Terengganu; and Malaysian Borneo, namely Kuching and Gaya Island.
The prize package for this cycle included a three-month contract with Storm Model Management in London, the chance to appear in a spread and on the cover of both Harper's Bazaar Singapore and Harper's Bazaar Malaysia, a cash prize from FOX International Broadcast, a Subaru XV car, and the chance of becoming the new face of TRESemmé for one of their 2014 campaigns.
The winner of the competition was 22-year-old Sheena Liam from Malaysia.
Auditions
Casting calls were held in five countries, listed below:
Contestants
(Ages stated are at start of contest)
Judges
The 16 finalists moved into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, and after meeting the judges for the first time, had a runway challenge over a narrow strip of glass submerged in a pool. They later arrived on set for their first photo shoot, where it was revealed that the judges had decided to eliminate Jessie based on her poor performance at the challenge. The remaining models shot the series' opening sequence and promotional stills. At elimination, Elektra became the second contestant to leave the competition.
The contestants were introduced to fashion blogger Bip Ling for a lesson on taking selfies, and had a challenge in groups that involved touring the city and taking selfies, where Pooja was chosen as the winner. They were later taken to Batu Caves for an oriental photo shoot with photographer Maurice Mauricio in which they had to pose wearing designs by Melinda Looi. At elimination, Bona became the third contestant to leave the competition.
The remaining contestants took on an advertising challenge on top of the Kuala Lumpur Tower as part of the Visit Malaysia 2014 campaign, where Josephine was chosen as the best performer. They later had a chilly lingerie photo shoot at SnoWalk with photographer Jasper McIlroy, and at elimination, Jihye became the fourth contestant to leave the competition.
The contestants received makeovers and visits from their loved ones. They later had a mod-themed photo shoot at a hair salon with photographer Nicoline Patricia Malina wearing Silas Liew's neon collection, and met the judges for their first ever outdoor panel at the MBPJ Stadium, where Thao became the fifth contestant to leave the competition.
The remaining eleven girls were woken up by Adam using a megaphone. The always energetic Adam then announced that it was the fitness week. The blurry-eyed girls were then greeted by Daniel Remon, a trainer from Technogym Kinesis who taught them how to use the gym equipment correctly and safely, and also told them how important it was for models to keep themselves fit. After the lesson, the models were told to go to a boot camp. On the way to the challenge, Janice complained to Marie and Poojaa about Tia, which made the girls very confused about the 'BFF' relationship between Janice and Tia.
At the boot camp, they were welcomed by Joey and Jason de la Peña, an English journalist, who also is a presenter for Sky News, Russia Today, Sky Sports, and ESPN-StarSports, and a former cricketer himself. Before they started the group challenge, the top two girls from the previous week, Marie and Josephine were appointed as the team leaders and they got to pick their teammates to form a team of four each.
Since the group was odd numbered, Nicole and Tia were the last two girls to be picked, with Josephine making the last pick. Nicole was picked instead of Tia, leaving her to form a one-man team. Joey then mentioned that this would be a team work challenge, the timer would stop when all the models have reached the predetermined finish line. Tia being alone in her team, was in at an advantage for she need not wait for any teammate. Team Marie started the obstacle course first, where they finished at 15 minutes and 15 seconds, while Team Josephine finished at 7 minutes and 50 seconds. Team Tia finished at only 2 minutes and 3 seconds, making her the challenge winner. Tia won a pampering spa treatment at the Ritz Carlton Kuala Lumpur, and picked Janice to enjoy the prize with her.
Marie and Pooja recalled what Janice gossiped about Tia in the car and shared it with the other girls. Back at the model house, the girls had surprised gifts from M·A·C Cosmetics. Roommates Tia and Sneha thought it would be fair to gather everyone in the living room to discuss and arrange who should get the products. Nicole was angry as she felt it unnecessary to argue over 'small cosmetics'.
For the photo shoot, the remaining models traveled to Studio Image Rom and participated in a futuristic sports theme photo shoot, featuring Malaysian photographer Loh Lin Shan. For this week's photo shoot, Loh told the girls to fully utilize their sports prop while giving futuristic, avant-garde poses.
Jodilly, Nicole and Sheena were praised and complimented by the photographer. Natalie greatly improved, showing her best yet while Janice was praised for enhancing her energy on set despite the photographer felt she was shielding her feelings at most times. The previous week's top three Marie, Josephine and Poojaa all seemed to be confused and took a huge step back from their performances. Katarina and Sneha were consistently giving safe and boring poses, especially Katarina who seemed to be not trying at all. Sneha was criticized for looking aged. Tia was criticized for having the "Tia Expression" and ignored directions given by mentors, Joey and Mike.
After the photo shoot, the models found out that the kitchen in the model house was closed, followed by a Nadya Mail stating that Poojaa and Sneha were chosen to prepare a three course meal for the house. Both of them were first-time cooks but the outcome was surprisingly delicious. After the dinner, Janice saw Jodilly, Katarina and Nicole sitting in their room, assumed that they were bitching about her. Nicole quickly invited Janice to sit down so they could have an intervention, when Nicole mentioned about Tia being her "BFF" in the house. Furious Janice defended herself by saying Tia was only her 'pretend BFF', as they got along "best" but doesn't mean they're best friends. All the girls were left confused. Then, Janice quickly recalled that she heard her name being mentioned several times from the other girls (Sheena and Natalie) during the photo shoot, and snapped into an argument with everyone in the house, which resulted in the disappointed Tia moving to another room.
At the judging panel, the models were presented with special guest Malaysian model Amber Chia. Natalie was praised at panel for delivering a great photo. The judges were surprised by Nicole's shot and praised for her consistency. The judges were also happy to see that Jodilly and Sheena had stepped up their game. Janice's energy looked drained at the panel, where she expressed her feelings of having to live with the girls in the house, which causing her a lot of stress, yet the judges praised her for improving since the previous weeks. Josephine, Marie and Poojaa had a huge step back despite having good photos the week before. A disappointed Joey opined that Marie's shot was a "flop". Poojaa was criticized for her signature "hands-on-hip" pose every week, and for not giving any variation at all, while Sneha and Katarina were criticized for being too safe every week. Challenge winner Tia had been slipping back gradually. Even worse, Mike later brought up the 'ill-mannered' issue that had happened during Tia's photo shoot. Nadya then quickly mentioned that this was the worst performance throughout the competition, and warned the girls to step up their game.
As the judges deliberated, Tia broke down in tears after being accused by the judges of ignoring Mike and Joey during the photo shoot. Natalie received first call out, and Jodilly secured her second best photo. Nicole and Sheena rounded up the top four, making Sheena extended her record of being the girl with most non-consecutive top three appearance in the cycle, with four. Josephine, Poojaa, Sneha and Tia landed in an unusual bottom four, marking Sneha's third consecutive bottom three appearance and Tia's second bottom two appearance. Poojaa, who was in the top three last week, was surprisingly eliminated for giving the same pose on her photos for the fifth consecutive time.
The remaining top 10 girls were happy to stay in the competition. Poojaa's departure left a deep impact and much frustration from some of the girls, most prominently Nicole, who is also from Singapore. Feeling disappointed and upset, Nicole felt that all the kind hearted girls had left while the attention-seekers had remained in the house.
The next morning, the girls were warmly visited by model mentor Joey Mead-King at the house with experienced senior make-up artist from M.A.C., Haritha Shan. Sharing some tips on being classy and beautiful, Haritha gave all of the girls a goody bag of M.A.C. cosmetics. Joey then joyfully announced that they were going to a cocktail party challenge at Malaysia high-end bar Marini's 57, which was located at the 57th floor of the world's tallest twin tower, Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). Malaysian girls Josephine and Sheena felt they were at an advantage as they had known some of the familiar faces of the local and popular, iconic figures there. The models were required to be sociable, classy and poised, and they needed to impress the crowd and be the most memorable model among the pack. However, Nadya and Joey did not tell them that there was one undercover judge, which was Subaru Asia Region manager, Glenn Tan.
All dressed in the amazing cocktail dresses by Malaysian multi-winning designer Sonny Son, the girls all looked very gorgeous and glamorous. All of them were excited and happy, which very much annoyed Janice as she felt that the girls were too silly for being too excited for such an event. She then started to alienate herself from the rest of the girls. Nicole was mad as she felt Janice created so much drama, faking in front of the judges just for the fame, which makes Nicole thinking that she could not throw out her humanity for the glamour and limelight, while the nice girls had left so early. At the cocktail party, all of the girls were warm and friendly. Generally, all the girls did well. All of them were sociable and glamorous. However, none of the girls seemed to have entertain the undercover judge, Glenn Tan, with only Natalie, Marie and Jodilly who got the chance to talk to him. Reasonably Natalie and Jodilly both received great feedback from Glenn. However, Jodilly, who was deemed to be honest and classy, and left a more remarkable impression on him, was chosen as the challenge winner. Her prize was an extra 15 frames for the next photo shoot.
After the cocktail party, as the girls were waiting at the hotel lobby, Janice suddenly apologized to the girls, especially to Nicole and Tia. Argument started to fire up when the girls like Katarina, Tia, Sneha and Nicole did not feel Janice being sincere with her brief apology. Janice felt she had lost all of her dignity as she apologized, and then called the girls mean as they didn't accept her apology at all. Since then, the girls had not bothered to entertain Janice anymore.
This week, the top 10 girls were required to be edgy and tried to take risk for their photo shoot at the Subaru XV Assembly Line factory in Malaysia. The girls will be joined by a few muscular, male models from Malaysia and Brazil, namely: Danny, John, Nate and Vitor. This week's featured photographer was Timon Wehrli and beautiful fairy tale-ish elegant gowns created by Indonesian couture designer, Imelda Kartini. They were hoped to break free from their shells and be brave risk-takers as last week's photos were mostly unimpressive. Jodilly, Josephine, Sheena, Sneha and Nicole received great feedback from the photographer for being very versatile and for delivering some story behind the shoot, despite of their distracting and hot surroundings on the set. This was especially true with Jodilly and Sneha, who received positive comments for their great shapes and graceful movements. Natalie, Tia, Katarina and Janice, however disappointed and failed to impress the photographer. But generally, the girls did great.
At the judging panel, Jodilly, Josephine and Nicole were acclaimed by the judges, securing the top three spots, giving Josephine her fourth non-consecutive top three appearance, a feat held by Sheena as well. Marie and Sneha showed improvement and received mixed reactions from the panel. Jodilly and Josephine both gave romantic shots, with Josephine slightly off the concept as she seemed to have paid more attention to the male models on her photo than to the car, which should have been the major point of the shoot. Tia and Janice were critiqued for appearing lost and consistently delivering nothing through their shots. Tia delivered too much "ego", while Janice's 'pull-my-hair' poses were awkward, despite her swagger. Last week's best photo winner Natalie, who was slowly improving, seemed to have taken a step back as she looked like she was staggering in pain on her photo. Generally, all the girls showed some improvement.
At the backstage, the drama heated up as Nicole felt offended by what Janice told the judges, Janice defended herself and made the other girls felt bad and tense. Back to the judging panel, it was revealed that Jodilly received her first call-out, the first one for the Philippines. Janice and Tia found themselves in the bottom two, both for their third times. Just before Nadya handed out both photos to both of them, Nadya confessed that they were actually both going home, due to their dull performances, but since this was a predetermined non-elimination episode, both girls got to stay and compete for another week. However, both girls would have five lesser frames than the other girls for the next photo shoot.
On the way back to the penthouse, Janice and Nicole, on board in the same car, started to have another argument which made Nicole wanted to get out of the moving car on their way home. Back in the house, Tia was frustrated about her last photo and began to doubt herself whether she was a model. In the house Janice apologized to Nicole again, and Nicole taught Janice how to properly apologize. For the next challenge, the girls needed to create the day and night look in two different occasions in front of the judges, Joey and Adam. Five models were appointed out of the challenge and would become the partner for the girls still in the challenge to help these latter girls with their makeover. Sheena chose Josephine since they're both from the same country. Surprisingly Nicole picked Janice, acknowledging that Janice had been making real effort to mend her attitude toward her and all the girls.
Later, they had a photo shoot mostly about hair. Coco Lee became the special guest judge on the set, along with Mike Rosenthal. Janice and Tia, who were supposed to be eliminated last week, received 10 frames, while the rest of the girls got 15. In the judging panel, the judges loved Marie's energy, Nicole's edginess, and Sheena's elegant poses, made them secured the top three spots. On the other hand, Janice, Sneha and Tia found themselves again in the bottom three spot for their weak photos. Nadya handed Tia's picture as she was declared safe from elimination, leaving Janice and Sneha as the bottom two models. However, Nadya handed a blank photo, revealing that both Janice and Sneha were doubly eliminated, much to the dismay of the other girls.
The girls, especially Josephine, excited about Janice's elimination, while Jodilly felt sad since Sneha's gone. The girls split up, with Jodilly, Katarina, Nicole, and Tia hanging out together, while the other girls Josephine, Marie, Natalie, and Sheena formed their own group chat. Sheena talked to Natalie about her anxiety, and how she missed her family during the competition. The girls later went aboard to Penang, where they did their next challenge: to make a campaign, with extra accessories, millipedes. The girls must stay calm throughout the campaign despite the millipedes kept bugging them during the filming of the ads.
As the reward challenge, Tia had a special one on one dinner with the famous Prof. Jimmy Choo, the world-renowned shoe designer. She then brought home a cake from the restaurant for the other girls in the house. The following day, Adam brought the girls to join Yoga class with Waka Yogi. After that, they went to Pangkor Island and there picked lottery to decide their next photo shoot locations.
At the judging panel, Marie was applaused for her best photo, Josephine and Nicole also excelled, securing the top three position. Katarina was praised as she was deemed finally improved by the judges. Natalie, Jodilly and Tia found themselves in bottom three; Natalie for looking lost in the photo, Jodilly for the disconnection between her face and body, and Tia for not listening at the photographer and mentor during the shoot. Natalie was later deemed safe, leaving the tearful Jodilly and Tia in bottom two. Even though she won the challenge this week, Tia was sent home, sparing Jodilly from the elimination.
The girls went abroad to the jungles of Sarawak, Borneo. Unlike other girls who brought small bags for the trip, Sheena decided to bring her big suitcase. She eventually regretted it as they had to cross over some creeks in the jungle on foot bringing their own belongings. In the jungle, they were challenged to make their own tents for staying overnight there and to eat fried maggots for their dinner later in the evening, which disgusted all of the girls.
For photo session, they had to be made over by US-based make up artist Rob Scheppy, each with a different "Jungle Warrior Princess" persona. Natalie struggled as the smoke from the torches she held made her eyes tear up during her shoot. Katarina and Jodilly excelled the photo shoot, while Nicole had struggled, despite some very good direction from Mike Rosenthal and Adam Williams. Sheena pleaded Adam and Mike to help her win a first call-out. Marie who couldn't swim, once fell from the boat but she kept trying. After the shoot, the girls arrived at their new penthouse. The Malaysian girls, Josephine and Sheena, received the biggest room, and invited Marie and Natalie to sleep with them. This led to some talks amongst Jodilly, Katarina, and Nicole, discussing the other girls as they had become jealous of them.
For the judging session, the models had their second outdoor judging panel at Rumah Melanau on Sarawak Cultural Village. Nicole's photo made Nadya worried that Nicole isn't the 360 model she seeks. Katarina had shown improvement, made her received her first call out from Nadya, with Jodilly, who also had good photo, getting the second call out. Sheena was then called out, after previously broke down in tears of disappointment of her photo in front of the judges. Josephine, Natalie, and Nicole were in the bottom three but Josephine was later declared safe, leaving Natalie and Nicole in bottom two. Ultimately, Natalie was sent home.
After elimination, the girls played Truth or Dare to spend their time at the hotel. The following day, the girls were sent to Gaya Island, near Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, to continue their journey in the Malaysian Borneo. After arriving at Gaya Island Resort, the girls were introduced to the executive manager of the resort, where they were then taken to take a trail through the jungle of Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park in Gaya Island until they found a secluded beach. Sheena again had a trouble taking the physical demanding task, where Jodilly and Nicole were pumped up to do it. At the beach, the girls then played with water, where Nicole was found out not wearing a bra that disgusted Marie and Josephine.
After spending an exhausting day in the jungle,the girls were greeted by Adam on a yacht, where they also met Jade Parfitt, who gave them some tips of being a good model. Later that night, the girls had a dinner with the Storm Models agent, Marina Fairfax, that also gave them some modelling tips.
The next day, the girls headed to a private beach, where they had a photo shoot with Los Angeles photographer, Jack Guy, wearing a summer gown collection by Australian fashion designer Alex Perry. Jade Parfitt accompanied them and gave them some directions on the set. Katarina was praised for giving a bombshell performance, as well as Jodilly, while the other girls got mixed feedback. Later that day, the girls once again played Truth or Dare where they found some interesting thoughts amongst the girls that made the rivalry of the competition even heated up.
For the judging session, the girls were back in Kuala Lumpur. At the panel, Jodilly was praised for having very good movement as she seemed levitating on print, while Josephine was said to have exaggerated her pose and Nicole's pose that looked like poses in wedding magazines. Josephine and Nicole eventually landed in the bottom two, but Nicole was later spared and Josephine was sent home, making Sheena very sad.
Since the models had a photo shoot with Malaysia Airlines, the episode was originally canceled due to the issue of the lost Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 which crashed in the South Indian Ocean. The show released a recap of what had happened during the episode in their official YouTube channel. The episode was eventually broadcast about one month after the season finale, on a season re-run.
In the episode, it was revealed that the top five models were flown to Hong Kong wearing Gucci. On board the plane, Adam Williams and Joey Mead King gave the girls a runway lesson in the aisle. Afterwards, they were challenged to perform a fashion show inside the plane wearing dresses from Malaysian designer Jonathan Liang. Upon arriving to Hong Kong, Adam and Joey took the girls to the highest point of the city for High Tea. After their meal, it was revealed that the winner of the challenge was Sheena.
The models later met season one contestant Helena Chan for a trip in Victoria Harbour. Back in the hotel in Malaysia the models were introduced to Jessica Amornkuldilok, the winner of cycle one. The photo shoot turned out to be a campaign for Malaysia Airlines, where they had to pose in a hangar with luggages in front of the Malaysia Airlines flight A380 as their background set. At panel, Sheena received her first best photo in the competition. She was soon followed by Jodilly and Marie. Katarina and Nicole landed in the bottom two, yet it was Nicole who was sent home.
After the panel, the girls were given another Nadya Mail that sent them to Malacca. In Malacca, the girls were allowed to take a break from the exhausting competition, where they could shop, travel, and take a ride on a traditional Malaccan rickshaw. After that, the girls went to Majestic Hotel where they enjoyed an afternoon tea before going back to Kuala Lumpur.
The girls were then sent to a go-see challenge with the Harper's Bazaar Malaysia where they met the editor-in-chief. Katarina was called first but the editor was not impressed with her catwalk. Jodilly followed next but she was somehow unsure of Jodilly's poses because they were too cliche. The editor was impressed with Marie and Sheena's portfolio and performance, the latter of whom winning the challenge. She was awarded with a shopping spree of MAC Cosmetics worth $1,000. She shared her prize with the girls.
After the girls went home, they met mentor Joey Mead-King to have a conversation with former Pussycat Dolls member Ashley wherein she shared modeling tips to all the girls. The following day, they were greeted by Swedish pop duo Icona Pop to introduce them to their next photo shoot for Harper's Bazaar. The photo shoot took place at the Chin Woo Stadium, where they then met Kenneth Goh, the creative director for Harper's Bazaar Singapore. He was quite impressed with Jodilly and Katarina's performances during the shoot. While Sheena gained mixed reactions from Kenneth and Mike, Marie was deemed to have a poor performance during her shoot.
At panel, the judges have acclaimed Katarina and Jodilly's shots while Marie and Sheena gained lukewarm reactions from the judges, saying that Marie had given forgettable shots and failed to give her full potential, despite having scored three first call outs during the competition. Meanwhile, Sheena was critiqued by Adam, who said that he saw the same facial expression every week and he started to get bored with it.
Katarina earned her second first call-out, followed with Jodilly, granted them the first and second place in the finale respectively. As expected, Sheena and Marie were placed in the bottom two. Marie, for not having presence during shoots and at panel and for not following brief in the recent shoot, and Sheena for having too much pressure since she is a Malaysian and many of them were rooting for her in the competition. Marie was then shockingly sent home, whilst Sheena was revealed to be the last finalist of this cycle.
The girls flew to Kuala Terengganu for their final photo shoot. After arriving at Tanjong Jara Resort, the girls were greeted by a group of traditional gompang players that led them to Nadya in a nearby kampong.
Their final photo shoot was revealed to be about the kampong life. They had to express the feeling of longing and a little bit of sadness. Sheena and Katarina did well in the photo shoot, while Jodilly had a trouble with her expression as being overdone.
The girls were back to Kuala Lumpur for their final runway. At the model penthouse, they were greeted by previous eliminated models. Jodilly was so emotional when she met Sneha and Nicole, so did Sheena when she met Josephine. The final runway took place at an abandoned railway station inside the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre complex in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur. A few hours before the show began, Adam taught the models how to walk in a real runway. Jodilly had a large amount of blisters in her feet, made her really depressed. For the final runway, they modeled three designers' collections, namely Jonathan Liang, Ghea Panggabean and Albert Andrada. Jimmy Choo and a lot of fashion people came to watch the final runway, in addition to Justice Crew which performed that night. Katarina remembered that she was the only girl fell at the first runway challenge back at week one, made her pumped up to do well.
The final panel was divided to two phases. First phase, they will be judged for their last photo shoot. Sheena was praised as being chameleon during the competition and also has more potential to win, Katarina as being grown so much from her first week, and Jodilly was praised for her work ethics and of having a mixture of modern and retro look. As the girls were called back after the first deliberation, Katarina was eliminated because she was considered only be great in a beauty shot, not for the high fashion shoot.
The last judging was based on their final runway. Sheena was once again praised for being a face of modern Asia and having the strongest runway walk, while Jodilly was praised as having a classic Asian look. The girls were later called back, and Sheena was revealed to be the winner of the show.