For As Long As I Live, I Will Never Forget The True Chaos That Was The Season 6 Finale Of "ANTM"
A decade has not dulled the humiliation that Australia collectively felt on that hallowed evening in 2010.
There have been a lot of unforgettable moments in Australia's long and illustrious history of television.
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Sammy's death on Dance Academy, the gut-wrenching goodbye to Claire on McLeod's Daughters and the moment we were first introduced to Max Regnery on The Saddle Club, to name a few.
But nothing, I repeat nothing, will ever come close to the majestic trash fire that was the season 6 finale of Australia's Next Top Model.
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Cast your mind back — the year is 2010, the month is September and Sarah Murdoch is getting ready to announce, on live television, whether Kelsey Martinovich (with the big ol' earrings) or Amanda Ware (no earrings) has been voted Australia's Next Top Model.
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Several seconds of tense, foreboding music pass...
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Until finally, Murdoch announces:
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Everyone screams. Kelsey is ecstatic. Amanda is trying her best to look respectfully enthusiastic, while internally weeping. And Sarah Murdoch is just pleased that this whole circus is finally coming to a close.
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Ohhohoho, but it is just beginning, sweet Sarah.
Until Sarah finally utters:
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Followed by: "It was fed through to me wrong...I'm so sorry."
And let me tell you, a chaotic evil like no other fills the room in the moments that follow the announcement.
At which point, Amanda lets out the saddest, most awkward little "woo".
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We collectively bask in the horror of it all for another minute or so, before Sarah finally tells Amanda to "walk that catwalk, enjoy it" and the camera mercifully cuts to black.
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As an consolation prize for causing such a monumental fuck up, Foxtel actually awarded both girls $20,000, as well as flights to New York. Harper's Bazaar also elected to print both girls' covers on the October issue, so really, it was a pretty sweet deal for being runner-up — if you take away the mass-humiliation on national TV.
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And considering I can barely remember any of the contestants from the other 10 seasons of Australia's Next Top Model, there's no denying both Amanda and Kelsey earned themselves some serious fame.
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