Dionne Eliminated From "America's Next Top Model"  5/11/07

 (Burbank, California) - Dionne, a student from Montgomery, Alabama, was the tenth girl eliminated during the eighth cycle of The CW's hit reality series "America's Next Top Model," reducing the pool from four girls to three.

The girls met with Aboriginal Elder Uncle Max and his niece Calita, who taught them about the native Australian art of storytelling through dance. They were then assigned the challenge of creating a dance through body art, movement and oral speech to represent their personal journeys. They performed the dances for young girls from the community, as well as Seventeen magazine's Entertainment Director, Carissa Rosenberg, who judged the competition and ultimately named Renee as the winner.

The following day, Jay met the girls and explained that they would each be assigned a dance from the Ngemba Tribe, which they would use as inspiration for their photo shoots. Dionne continued to have a difficult time softening her facial expressions during her shoot, and needed constant direction from Jay. "Working with Dionne is one of the most frustrating experiences because she has a beautiful spirit, but as soon as Dionne steps in front of the camera she starts to look controlling and mean," Jay said.

During the judging panel, the girls were given the task of evaluating each other by naming who they thought had the most and least amount of Top Model potential. When Dionne was the only one to not name herself as the person exhibiting the most Top Model potential, the judges questioned her motivation. After looking at their photos, the judges agreed that while Natasha had a bad week, Dionne's performances were not rising consistently throughout the competition. "If your path is rocky, and you don't believe in yourself, who's going to believe in you?" Tyra asked before eliminating Dionne from the race to become "America's Next Top Model."

In addition to a $100,000 contract with cosmetics giant CoverGirl, this year's prize package for the winner of The CW's "America's Next Top Model" will include a contract with Elite Model Management and a cover and six-page fashion spread in Seventeen magazine.

The eighth cycle of the hit reality series "America's Next Top Model" on The CW follows 13 young women as they attempt to prove they have what it takes to make it in the high-stress world of modeling. Banks, who created the show, also serves as executive producer along with Ken Mok ("Making the Band") and Anthony Dominici ("The Amazing Race").

"America's Next Top Model" airs Wednesdays, (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on The CW.

Source: The CW Press Release