Where are those former 'America's Next Top Model' contestants now?

If you're a regular watcher of "America's Next Top Model," you probably know the prizes by heart at this point. Every week at elimination, Tyra breathlessly reels them out to the group of anxiety-ridden models waiting for their name to be called: a contract with a modeling agency, a spread in a magazine (this cycle, of course, in Vogue Italia), and a chance to be a spokeswoman for CoverGirl cosmetics. Tonight we finally find out which Cycle 15 lady will hit the jackpot.

But the runner-up shouldn't worry too much. Some of the most successful "ANTM" alumnae don't win the title -- in fact, some of them don't even make it to the finale.

Take Yaya DaCosta, at left, who came in second during Cycle 3. Though she didn't become the face of CoverGirl, she did land contracts with big names like Garnier Fructis and Sephora, before launching a successful acting career. This year, she had a role in The Kids Are All Right and a part in the upcoming Tron: Legacy. Not bad for someone kicked off the Tyra farm.

Kim Stolz, who came in fifth in Cycle 5, now has a healthy career as an MTV news correspondent. Even Cassandra Whitehead, who stormed out after the makeover episode of Cycle 5, went on to act in One Tree Hill, CSI: Miami, and this season's finale of Mad Men. 

'America's Next Top Model': Will Ann or Chelsey take the prize?

Wednesday marks the finale of the 15th cycle of "America's Next Top Model,"  the show's inaugural foray into the world of high fashion. Though in many ways it was a season like any other -- tearful confessions to Mr. Jay, acrobatic challenges, off-kilter contestants -- the focus on haute couture tamped down the drama in the house considerably. It also led to the elimination of the fresh-faced Covergirl-types who Tyra and the judges normally select for the last two ladies standing; Chris, Kayla, and Jane, girls who would have had more than a fighting chance in seasons past, were all dismissed in the past two episodes. 

And so we have Chelsey and Ann, ladies who both, by the sheer eccentricity of their looks, break the mold in terms of "ANTM" winners. Ann is this season's breakout star, beginning the cycle with a five-show best picture streak unprecedented in Tyra-town. Her waifish face, slightly large ears, and super-tall super-skeletal frame endeared her to fashion houses and photographers, though she suffered whenever a challenge required her to speak in public. She's the most reclusive and shy model to get this far in a cycle to date. 

Chelsey, on the other hand, is closer to the normal "Top Model" winner. Her ice-blond hair and enhanced gap-tooth smile give her a little edge in photographs, and she's a better catwalker than Ann. She also was the only girl who leaped with recognition every time a photographer, designer or judge was announced. The lady knows her stuff, and she's determined. But Chelsey's photos haven't always been strong, and in terms of high fashion, Ann wins it every time. 

So who will win the cover of Vogue Italia? Our bets are on Ann. If Tyra and company are trying to make a statement about the new highbrow "Top Model," they'd be remiss not to pick the model with the most upscale photos, no matter how much she stutters. But only Wednesday's episode -- and the esteemed Roberto Cavalli's runway show -- will tell us for sure.  

Photo: Chelsey, left and Ann prepare for their final challenge. Credit:  Ivano Grasso / The CW

'America's Next Top Model': Jane: 'I'm just bad at reality television'

On this week's episode--the penultimate installment of  'America's Next Top Model', cycle 15--both eliminees had a fighting chance at the final prize. They'd made it through grueling photo shoots, catwalks that were actually treadmills, and unfortunate fake commercials. Now it was down to the final four--soon to be two--and it was close to anyone's game. Jane Randall, a 19-year-old Princeton sophomore with no previous modeling experience, broke out early in the game thanks to her elegant, surprisingly refined photographs. Unfortunately, compared to the buoyant Chris White and the shy Ann Ward, Jane was deemed by the judges to come off, well, a little flat. 

"It was so frustrating," Jane said over the phone. "The judges kept asking 'Who are you, Jane? What's your personality like?' I was about to tell the judges, well, I don't know who you are. I was tempted to ask 'Who are you, Tyra?'"

Jane spoke to Showtracker about the wonders of Zac Posen, what she wished she had done differently and who deserves to be the next top model. 

‘America’s Next Top Model’ recap: And then there were two

On most reality shows, as the pool of competitors gets whittled down and the challenges get less zany, you tend to get more invested in the characters. Not so on this season of ‘Top Model.’ As the show progressed, the models with the liveliest personalities and most villainous streaks—Ana Maria, Chris, Kacey, Rhianna—were cut one by one. Catfights are at a minimum. Miss Jay’s fashion has barely registered on the bizarre-o-meter. Andre Leon Talley seems asleep at the panel most of the time. It all seems too serious to be much fun. Has this cycle’s focus on high fashion sapped the show of its jubilant, gossipy energy?

Though tonight’s episode should have been a high point of tension—it was a double elimination! In Italy! A hair away from the finals!—it turned into a slack-jawed snoozefest. The ladies went to see acting coach Barbara Terrinoni, who put the girls through their emoting paces and had some sharp, sweetly-accented barbs for the models. “Are you alive?” she asked the perpetually tear-stained, waifish Ann. When Ann began to smile, Terrinoni practically recoiled: “Not like Frankenstein!” 

'America's Next Top Model': Chris says, 'I just came on the wrong cycle'

When the feisty, bouncy Chris White was eliminated from 'America's Next Top Model' Wednesday night, the outcry from her fans was immediate. "I'm in tears over this week's 'ANTM,' " wrote one Twitter user, and his sentiments were echoed around the blogosphere. Chris' clever comments and effervescent, down-to-earth personality made her a fan favorite, but it also convinced some of her competitors that she wasn't serious about the challenges. Fellow model Chelsey sniped that Chris' look was too commercial and her dedication to the show was less than absolute. Which is why out of all the ladies of cycle 15, Chris would undoubtedly make the most entertaining dinner companion. It's also why she got eliminated.

The judges' loved Chris' personality all cycle but this week chose the blander, frostier Jane over Chris' girl-next-door looks. It was a bit of an upset and also somewhat unfair. On any other season of "Top Model," Chris' bouyant energy and commitment to her shoots would have gotten her that Covergirl contract. It may have just been Chris' bad luck to land on a high-fashion-centered season. "I may have won if I came on an earlier cycle. I believe that I have the look someone is looking for," Chris said over the phone. "I just came on the wrong cycle."

But Chris also got one of the warmest send-offs of any contestant, with Tyra praising her potential as an actress and Andre Leon Talley proclaiming her the next Wanda Sykes. Chris chatted on the phone with Showtracker about being sick of male models, why her sister Terra was eliminated unfairly, and extending her career as a high school drama nerd. 

‘America’s Next Top Model’ recap: Oh my go-sees

It’s getting down to the wire on this cycle of "Top Model," and the models are breaking down, getting snappy and trying to outlast the other ladies for a shot at the title. This far in the season, there are no more hi-jinks — serious photo shoots and assessments by fashion designers replace the acrobatic challenges from earlier. Plus, there’s no more obvious chaff left. The strategy of waiting out the worse model has officially reached its limit. Despite Ann’s commanding lead in the first half of the season, it seemed on this week’s episode that any one of the ladies could nab the Vogue Italia cover. Well, almost any one of them. 

Over in Milan, it was the week of the dreaded go-sees, in which the models had four hours to visit four casting calls. After harnesses, heavy makeup and dead sea creatures, it would seem like this challenge would be a cinch, but go-sees are always a battleground for the models. What it amounts to is essentially an orienteering mission. The girls have to make their way around the city by public transportation or walking, but all of them did pretty terribly.

Jane and Chris teamed up and managed to stumble into their call at Versace, but gave up pretty quickly after that. (Plus, the manager at Versace seemed to eat models like McNuggets, dismissing Chelsey as "two seasons ago.") Only Chelsey made it to more than one appointment, and Ann and Kayla both arrived late to the IMG headquarters, disqualifying them from the prize. Suffice to say, if these contestants were Girl Scouts they wouldn’t have earned their badges. Maybe next time, invest in a compass?

'America's Next Top Model': Liz rocks the boat

From the moment she stepped onto the show, Liz Williams, a 21-year-old Texan and mother of two, was the wild girl on this cycle of 'America's Next Top Model.' She was still fairly tame by reality television standards — no two-day binges or wearing underwear on her head — but her witty comments and silly antics made Liz one of my favorites of this group, and her angular, androgynous looks endeared her to the judges. Her wry assessments of the challenges injected some humor in moments that would otherwise be weighed down by the collective anxiety of the contestants and the judges' sense of self-importance.

Last night, Liz was finally eliminated for a less-than-flattering photo shoot, in which she was perched atop a boat while wearing a full skirt and cropped leather jacket in the sweltering midsummer heat. But even as Tyra told Liz to pack her bags and fly back home, she had some words of encouragement for Liz: "Remember, this is not the end of your modeling career," said Tyra.

And Liz seems to have taken the advice to heart. She's got big plans to move back to L.A. and work as a television host one day. I talked to Liz on the phone about her big roller-skating commercial flop, her party girl image and why she was surprised that Chelsey called her a whiner. 

‘America’s Next Top Model’ recap: Tyra’s Italian job

And now it’s time for the international portion of "Top Model." You know, the part where Tyra jets the last handful of wannabes to exotic locations so that the elimination process can get ever more tortuous and the challenges have that added zing of translation error? That’s the one. On this week’s episode, the ladies flew to Italy after a somewhat transparent fake-out by Tyra, who appeared “at the site of the next shoot” — a canal — in a Venetian gondola. It was the wrong Venice, get it? Must have made a wrong turn somewhere in, um, Nebraska?

Shenanigans notwithstanding, the models were soon racing around the canals of Venice in a water taxi and lolling around in a swank hotel suite, a scene made slightly less glamorous when some intrepid seagulls poop-bombed the girls on the balcony. No matter! For it was on to the photo shoot.

The theme of this week’s shoot was “steampunk on a boat,” or so it would seem from the styling, which was meant to be very Marie Antoinette, but ended up looking more like the Sofia Coppola version. Split into teams of three, the girls had to pile into a gondola and pretend to be fawning over Casanova, played by a super-dashing male model. (Quoth Chris: “Mama wouldn’t mind be bringing him home, honey.”). It ended up being a battle of models vs. heatstroke, fighting to keep smiling with their eyes while sweating under long-sleeved 17th century garb. 

'America's Next Top Model': Esther responds to the Shabbat scandal

She may have been one of the quieter members of the household, but until she was eliminated in Wednesday night's episode all eyes were on 18-year-old Esther Petrack this season. Not, as you might expect, for her particularly curvy frame -- she wears a bra size that would make Pamela Anderson blush -- but because she keeps kosher. Esther is Modern Orthodox, which posed particular problems in the modeling industry. Modesty aside, there was the question of working the runway on the weekends -- would she break the Sabbath for a designer? In the first episode Esther hesitates, and then replies, "I would do it."

Esther's perceived lack of observance caused an uproar in the Jewish blogosphere, even prompting her mother to leave a widely read comment on a rabbi's blog that defended her daughter. The assent to breaking the Sabbath was a result of bad editing, she noted, and came out of an extensive conversation with the judges on how Esther would work around her religious strictures to appear on the show. 

"It's so frustrating," she said in a phone interview. "It's just not true. And the people who are writing these articles, sitting in their rooms typing, well, good for them. I'm glad they feel good about themselves at night. But I still kept kosher; I'm still a good person; I still give money to homeless people. It's not like I opened fire on a group of children or burned down a prison."

‘America’s Next Top Model’ recap: Posin’ for Posen

"America’s Next Top Model" isn’t usually a tear-jerker. The drama between housemates reeks of reality television setup, the challenges may be grueling but they’re rarely worth the tears contestants shed over them, and the models seem to exploit every detail of family turmoil and personal conflict to sway the sympathies of the judges. But this week, I felt a real sinking in the pit of my stomach — twice. 

First, there were the mean girls. The ever-adorable Zac Posen — who looks like either an extremely dapper Elijah Wood or far-less-sinister Chuck Bass — showed up at the Venice Beach condo to inform the models that they would be doing a runway show for his new line. Chelsey blushed, Kayla squealed, Ann looked really nervous. Not to mention that they were going to be working with a crop of professional models. And the kicker: Ms. Jay encouraged the pros to work their mean-girl nastiness at the wannabes to test their “endurance.” That’s when the women of ANTM started to crumble: Liz responded to the taunting by making faces, Chelsey ignored it, Chris sassed right back. And Ann collapsed in on herself like a failed soufflé.

'America's Next Top Model': Kendal thought Tyra's critique was 'a low blow'

Wednesday night on "America's Next Top Model," Kendal Brown, a shy 23-year-old from Northport, Ala., was sent home for lacking in the modeling skills department. "I'm worried that you're a verb and not a noun," Tyra said. "You are a model but you aren't modeling."

But Kendal, though she looked meek in her post-elimination interview, disagrees: "I felt like it was a low blow," she said to me over the phone. "If I was just the noun and not the verb, then why had I made it through those other challenges?"

Though Kendal faded in the background for many of the challenges, she started to shine on the Patrick DeMarchelier challenge. She seemed like an emerging dark horse of the show, and I had high hopes that an Alabamian would earn the "Top Model" crown. Alas, it was not to be. I spoke with her about the challenges of the judges' panel, what she wishes you could have seen, and why she would have rather been anyone but Vera Wang.

It seemed like you got dealt a tough hand in the last challenge when you had to impersonate Vera Wang. Which designer would you have played if you had gotten to choose?

Any of the guys. I felt like with a guy you could do more to it; you can lean forward and really use your body. Vera Wang was very simple, very plain. I honestly think I could have done a better job as a guy. I could have used my body.  Wang is just humble and sweet. She’ll come out and wave and smile. When you see her in the magazine she was just smiling. That photo shoot I was struggling.

‘America’s Next Top Model’ recap: No more fun and games

It’s as solid a rule for reality television as it was for Newton: What goes up must come down. The front-runner in the first half of a "Top Model" cycle rarely goes on to nab the trophy. No matter how promising you are at the beginning, someone can always emerge from the middle of the pack and dazzle the judges with one amazing photo shoot. Even Ann -- she of the five-week photo streak -- had to fall sooner or later. And this week, fall she did, though not as far as some of her housemates would have liked.

It all started with a trip to the Grammy Museum. Team Tyra, competing for the illustrious slot of the girl everyone ignores when they hand over that gramophone to Kanye, had to split up into twos and pick out a look that they would wear as an award presenter. But, as always, there’s a bit of a switcheroo: Each member of the duo would choose the other one's clothes. It seemed like an opportune moment for some Pyrrhic sabotage, but none of the models went that route -- or at least, no one admitted it. I felt bad for Chelsey -- it was hard enough to find a dress for the gigantically tall and freakishly thin Ann, and then Ann got her what looked like a black velvet toga. In a size 12.