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For the premiere season, the show was hosted by Tyra Banks, who also served as one of the four judges with Kimora Lee Simmons, Beau Quillian, and Janice Dickinson (who was always proclaimed as one of the world's first supermodels). By the second season, only Tyra and Janice remained judges. Subsequent seasons' judges have included former fashion model and fashion photographer Nigel Barker and fashion editor and stylist Nole Marin. After season four, Janice (amid rumors of personality conflicts with some other judges) and Marin were replaced by Twiggy, who had attained modeling fame in the 1960s, and Miss J. Alexander, who had been the show's runway coach since the first cycle; Dickinson has continued to make intermittent guest appearances on the show after leaving the judging panel, giving advice to the contestants. The contestants are also coached through photo-shoots by Jay Manuel, a photo stylist. Jay is nicknamed Mr. J as opposed to J. Alexander's Miss J.Twiggy will not be in cycle 10 =(

Cycle 1: Adrianne Curry

Cycle 2: Yoanna House

Cycle 3: Eva Pigford

Cycle 4: Naima Mora

Cycle 5: Nicole Linkletter

Cycle 6: Dani Evans

Cycle 7: CariDee English

Cycle 8: Jaslene Gonzalez

Cycle 9: Saleisha Stowers

Cycle 10: Whitney Thompson

Cycle 11: Brittany "McKey" Sullivan

Each season of America's Next Top Model has from 9-13 episodes and starts with 10-14 contestants. Each episode, one contestant is eliminated, though in rare cases a double elimination or no elimination was given by consensus of the judging panel. Makeovers are administered to contestants early in the season (usually after the first or second elimination in the finals), and a trip to an international destination is scheduled at about two-thirds of the way through the season (usually with five or six contestants remaining).

Each episode of Top Model covers the events of roughly a week of real time (however, while overseas, an episode roughly covers three to four days, totaling two weeks of filming abroad), and features a fashion challenge, photo shoot or commercial, a critique of each contestant and her performance by the judging panel led by Tyra Banks, and the elimination of one or more contestants. As of Cycle 10, the current judging panel includes runway coach J. Alexander, fashion photographer Nigel Barker and Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova. Previous judges included fashion icon Twiggy, supermodel Janice Dickinson, fashion stylist Nole Marin, designer Kimora Lee Simmons and fashion editors Beau Quillian and Eric Nicholson. Photo shoot director Jay Manuel, though not a permanent judge, is featured every episode. Usually, an additional guest judge will sit in on the panel every week. Each episode is usually associated with a theme in the world of modeling, such as dealing with the press in interviews, selling a commercial product, appearing in a runway show or going on "go sees".

An episode usually begins with the contestants receiving training in an area concurrent with the week's theme. For example, contestants may get coached in runway walking, improvisational acting, or applying make-up to suit various occasions. A related challenge soon follows, such as a mock runway show or interview, and a winner is chosen by a judge. She receives some prize, such as clothing, a night out, or an advantage at the next photo shoot, and she is usually allowed to share the benefits with a certain number of other contestants of her choice.

The next segment is a photo shoot, and each contestant's performance will reflect heavily on her judging for that week. Each season features photo shoots such as bikini or lingerie shots, beauty shots, posing nude or semi-nude, posing with a male model, and posing with animal(s). Usually one photo shoot per season is replaced with a commercial shoot (excluding Cycle 2, Cycle 5 and Cycle 9 where there were both a commercial and a photoshoot and Cycle 3 where there was no commercial at all) and in Cycles 2 and 9, a photo shoot was replaced by a music video for Tyra Banks and Enrique Iglesias respectively.

The final segment of each episode is judging. During judging, contestants are often given a challenge in some area such as posing, selling a product, runway walking, or choosing a representative outfit or make-up to satisfy a given prompt, known as a pre-evaluation task. This practice has been discontinued since Cycle 8. Each contestant's photo is then shown and evaluated by the judging panel. After all photos have been evaluated, the contestants leave the room as the judges deliberate. The elimination process is ceremonious, as Tyra reveals and hands out the photos of the contestants that have not been eliminated one-by-one, in order of merit, each time saying, "Congratulations. You are still in the running towards becoming America's Next Top Model". The last two contestants who have not received their photos are brought up as "the bottom two", and Tyra critiques each one before revealing which of the two is continuing on in the competition (the other being eliminated). However, there have been three exceptions, as Cycle 4 had a double elimination, Cycle 5 had a non-elimination, and in Cycle 9, the original eliminee was saved by another contestant's decision to quit on the spot, just moments after Tyra had called her name for safety.

The format varies slightly when only three contestants remain. With the exceptions of Cycles 1 and 2, (when CoverGirl wasn't a sponsor), and Cycle 3 where there was no commercial, the three remaining contestants compete in one last photo shoot and commercial for CoverGirl, followed by a judging session in which the judges eliminate the contestant they feel to be the weakest. The final two then compete in a runway show in front of the judges and a live audience, before both their performances there and during the entire competition is considered when the judges declare a winner.

Since CoverGirl has become a sponsor, each week from week 3 to 12, recap excluded (with exception of Cycle 3, Cycle 9 and Cycle 10 where it was awarded on Week 2 as well) a girl can be voted CoverGirl of the Week by the viewers. From Cycle 11 onwards, this has been replaced by a Top Model in Action segment, focusing on former contestants and their post-show accomplishments.