A bombshell upset at the Australia’s Next Top Model finale has resulted in host Sarah Murdoch announcing the wrong girl as the contest winner live on air.
Murdoch declared 19 year old Kelsey Martinovich as the winner tonight as the crowd erupted.
But no sooner had Kelsey made her thankyou speech did a gobsmacked Murdoch begin to backtrack before a stunned audience.
“Oh my God, I don’t know what to say right now,” she said.
“I’m feeling a bit sick about this. No. I’m so sorry about this. Oh my God. I don’t know what to say. This was a complete accident. It’s Amanda, I’m so sorry. It was fed to me wrong. Oh God. This is what happens when you have live TV folks. This is insane. Insane, insane, insane….”
18 year old Amanda Ware was suddenly elevated as the series winner.
The two girls, in a clearly embarrasing live television moment, consoled one another and Murdoch.
“It’s ok, it’s ok,” said Kelsey.
The disastrous moment is unprecedented in the show’s history.
The mix-up stemmed during the show’s first ever three-way finale, which saw 19 year old Sophie Van Den Akker from Melbourne placed third.
The finale of the FOX8 series aired live before an audience of 2000 at Luna Park, Sydney.
For the first time the winner was chosen by the viewing audience via SMS and interactive Red Button. The choice left the judges Alex Perry, Charlotte Dawson and Jez Smith urging for their favourites during the show.
During the show Perry openly campaigned for Amanda Ware from the top of the show whilst voting was still open. His fellow judges didn’t reveal their picks until an hour later when Smith agreed with his choice whilst Dawson favoured Sophie Van Den Akker.
The 2hr finale brought back all the former contestants from the series for group fashion parades, joined by male dancers, DJs, aerial performer and band. It also included video messages from models including Megan Gale and Elle MacPherson.
Amanda wins representation by modelling agency Priscilla’s, a $25,000 contract to appear in a Levi’s campaign, a trip to New York to meet ELITE agency, a Ford Fiesta Zetec, $20,000 cash and an eight-page spread for Harpers Bazaar Australia.
No doubt many fans will be campaigning for Kelsey to be awarded significant prizes as well.
UPDATE: “Tonight we saw the perils of live TV. At the time of the result announcement there was a miscommunication between the broadcast truck and the stage,” said Jamie Campbell, Foxtel Director of Publicity.
“Sarah handled what was a difficult situation with utmost professionalism and grace. Amanda and Kelsey were neck and neck in the voting all night.
“We apologise to Kelsey for the error, and Foxtel will be sending her to New York as well as awarding her $25,000 as a prize,” he said.
Disgraceful blunder and those responsible should be sacked.
Kelsey is gorgeous and will have no trouble landing a lucrative modelling contract. She handled the situation by displaying maturity beyond her years
That was funny.I think that’s the first time they have gone live with this program,now probably the last lol.Got To Love Live TV
I love a good conspiracy! ACA will rate its socks off tonight.
Here is a decent quality video: youtube.com/watch?v=mHcnw7qWLIg
so she was fed the wrong information on purpose (without her knowledge)? we may never know ha!
Another reason why this concept of a live finale is a disaster.
Eg:
Jodie Mears no show = Fail
Wrong winner announcement = Fail
Foxtel – Please revert to the true format of the franchise.
This was a shock but it wasn’t a publicity stunt Sarah’s face told it all. I voted for Amanda like in the last minute. Though next time they shouldnt leave the voting lines open till the end i think that stuffed it up because they all wanted Amanda to win and she did.
Andrew ANTM showed 3 Harper’s covers during the show with the 3 finalists. Nothing unusual there.
Sarah should never take up acting cause that was shocking! So set up, why would she read out Kelsey and have the cover of Kelsey behind her for it all to be changed to Amanda mins later? And how can Harpers Bazaar say they had the cover ready to go to print when the voting was open till the announcement obviously and they were so close?
If you watched the show a week before the editor liked them both and also the team of judges had fawned over them the whole season, they just couldn’t split them.
I call bulls**t!
Kelsey won last night we all know that, why did this happen.
Sarah Murdoch and both girls will be on ACA tonight.
I really feel for everyone as someone made a mistake and I’m sure there will be a price to be paid. My guess was that Kelsey was supposed to be announced as the runner up.
I only saw what they showed on the news this morning.
It seemed like Sarah was given the wrong information.
I thought she handled it very well & seemed genuinely upset at the mistake.
What I don’t understand is all the people on the net & elsewhere
making fun of her reaction & the whole thing!
Have they never made a mistake?
Or been given the wrong information?
All ladies behaved very professionally under trying circumstances, especially Ms Murdoch. A real shame that Amanda didn’t get to fully enjoy her moment.
However, there are some questions that need to be asked. Why, at 0:36 in the above video clip, do we see Amanda’s magazine cover displayed on the screen when Kelsey has been announced the winner? You’ll notice that by 0:40 it’s been pulled and replaced by the generic red “Top Model” splash screen. When Amanda is finally announced as the winner, the magazine cover returns and you can clearly see that it is her and not Kelsey.
And then there’s this which appears to show that Harper’s Bazaar posted at 4:51pm about Amanda being the winner, several hours before the winner was announced. i56.tinypic.com/10oe1zk.jpg
The pic is of uncertain provenance but, the displaying of Amanda’s cover in the above clip is clearly not fake, so questions do need to be asked.
TV 101. But that’s what you get when you have Macdonald’s children running TV shows!
OMG….poor Sarah
Great show, the announcement of the winner was similar to the ‘ chook’ raffle winner at the footy club on friday nights.For something so professional sadly it makes the whole series almost a joke
Hilarious!
0.39 – Sarah gets the update.
Wow I’m glad everyone on this site has never stuffed up at work and has therefore the right to call for the head of someone who can’t publicly defend themselves, while unequivocally praising Sarah Murdoch as if she were a hero. I have no idea what happened, but neither would anyone making comment here and these stuff ups are often the result of a complex series of events, not just one individual saying “Kelsey and then going um….sorry I got it wrong it’s actually Amanda”.
With all due respect due to Sarah Murdoch, who handled the unfortunate situation she found herself in quite well, it’s important to remember that on-air talent make a relative fortune for the very reason that they are up there to be the face of the show and handle whatever comes their way in a live environment. Also in this case, as she is a co- Executive Producer of the show she is technically (if not practically) as responsible as any other senior producer of the show.
And whether they are at fault or not, the publicity machines of networks will always protect the reputation of their talent at any cost, even if it is at the expense of others.
I was rooting for Kelsie the whole night and I was gutted at the stuff up… as I am sure Kelsie will have been..
I have just looked at the Harper Bazaar site and they are publishing both covers… Awesome… Go Kelsie!!!!
What a terrible mistake.’m not sure who I felt more sorry for. Sarah handled the situation extremely well. Even though I was hoping that Amanda would win Kelsey’s way of ealing with the situation was wonderful. Many girls could learn from Kelsey and the way she behaved. Well done.
There is no way this was rigged. You only have to focus on the look on Sarah Murdoch’s face (jaw drops visibly) as Kelsey is telling Amanda how wonderful she is – that’s when Sarah found out. I don’t know how *anyone* could have handled such shocking news any better. It’s not like she could have laughed it off. Props to Kelsey for taking it incredibly well and telling Sarah not to worry about it. Sarah was clearly gutted at having to deliver this embarrassing news.
“Oh my god Im so sorry”… and so fake… no way could this happen…
It’s sad to play with one’s emotions just for ratings Foxtel.. Shame!
if they told Kelsey she was the winner then even if it’s an error aren’t they obliged to commit to that decision?
there is no way that this would have been a stunt, Sarah Murdoch is co-executive producer and is the consumate professional, she will be absolutely horrifed at the global ridicule this will bring her and the show over the coming 24 hours. Meanwhile, this has been one of the best seasons of the show, as Sarah promised, there has been very little bitching between the contestants and the show has been 100 times better for it.
This is just so funny, I’m going to record the replay on FOX8 later today, but I hope they do not edit the mistake out.
Awfull to see such a thing happen for Kelsy. Her size was always an issue. What about the most successful model of all time Kate Moss who is only 5’7. Get it together Alex.