Disaster for Australia’s Next Top Model as wrong winner is announced

First the Federal Election, then the AFL Grand Final and now ANTM!

disaster or publicity stunt?

I agree with poptart. Publicity stunt. Although I do believe sarah murdoch may of got the wrong name to sell it, surely the crew behind the scenes knew amanda had won. Once kelseys name was announced, her harpers bazaar cover straight away showed up on the big screen. If it was a communication error, it would have been kelsey being announced but amanda’s cover shot. Ohwell, good way to make ANTM world wide. Watch it on ellen, oprah, SNL, etc etc.

How embarrassing! I can’t believe something like this can happen… Poor Kelsey and Sarah. Talk about being put on the spot.

Sooo sooo wrong poor Kelsey, she should be offered something similar to what the winner gets.

Amanda Kelsey and Sarah murdoch handled it so well, and good on you kelsey, the proof is in your actions who should be antm???? did oz choose right?

How can someone possibly read out the wrong name,i dont feel sorry for sarah how do you think those girls feel,how are they going to make it up 2 this young girl who had her dreams taken away because of sarah.I hope the offer kelsey a opportunity to become a top model,that is the least they can do AFTER ALL THEY TOOK THAT GIRLS DREAM AWAY

There is always a conspiracy theory that it is a publicity stunt.
However, that was just way too embarassing not to be real.

@sheryl Apparently a Foxtel media release has said that Kelsey will be getting $25k and a trip to New York.

http://twitter.com/melissahoyer/status/25780694259

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_OowbhjJXE

Oops. Yes handled well but oh, how awful would everybody feel after this hiccup?
Let’s face it, the top 3 girls will not have any trouble making it in the big world of fashion. Sophie was my favourite.
Good luck to all the girls and I don’t think it will be too long before they are walking international catwalks and are gracing the covers of global fashion mags.

Dizzleinc – it was Amanda’s shot in the background.

I agree with the above comment, they being Fox 8 should offer Kelsey the SAME winners prize. They would have made soooo much money from the phone calls! I was mega pissed with it all in the end! Poor Kelsey, I just heart her!!!!

Watch it again. They are such bad actors. Its obviously staged as a stunt. Oh they looks so shocked….NOT! 10 points for effort though girls.

poor sarah, she seemed genuinely upset about the blunder. she handled it well though and so did kelsey and amanda.

How crazy….poor Kelsey. How can they get it wrong?!!!!!

I was initially going for Kelsey, but during the show, changed my mind, so can understand why the voting was so close.

At the end of the day, they should not have put it to the public vote. I hope they have learnt a lesson from this disaster and my goodness, I moreso hope that Kelsey does not end up being emotionally scarred from this.

To both Kelsey and Amanda I say, Congratulations to you both. You both deserve and will be running the catwalks of the world! I can’t wait to see……

I think that it is pretty suspicious, i mean being fed the wrong winner just doesn’t happen! Unless, Kelsey was indeed the winner but some one didnt like that and so rigged it so amanda would win. I mean, although i am an amanda fan i think it’s really odd and really it’s a pretty bitter sweet victory for amanda. Plus, I feel so sorry for Kels i mean imagine one moment being totally euphoric then to have all your dreams shattered! Poor girl! I dont think sarah or any of the judges were party to this though. Sarah as minta stated handed it so well. does anyone else agree with my run of events?

It looked like another stunt, here was Sarah, saying “Oh No “etc and the camera paned to the audience to see people standing with hands clasped and mouths open, then the words are spoken.
Sarah was professional in a very difficult situation, Kelsy showed she was an adult and Amanda must have felt dreadful.
There is a big difference in the name Kelsy and Amanda, they are so different., that no one could get them wrong.
If you watch the replay and Sarahs face, especially her eyes as she had a message come through, you can see that she was thinking- how on earth am I going to handle this!
She handled the situation as professionally as she could. How would she have felt having to advise the girls and the audience that there was a mistake!
Both girls are a credit to their families and professional in so many ways.
Shame on the net work for such a blunder, not acceptable in this day and age!
Lizzy

i think i want to slap sarah in the face with a big wet fish.

This will cause a lot of trouble for FOX8. Not only do I question their credibility but I believe they should be publicly held responsible for this. Never have I ever seen such a disaster on live tv. Yet again Kelsey proved she is professional and a top class model. I believe she should be given a contract as a compensation, I WILL NOT BE BUYING HAPRERS BAZZAR BECAUSE OF THIS!

I was so relieVed when Sarah revealed she had made a mistake.Though i do feel sorry for Kelsey,it must have been quite embarassing for her.But to me it did look a little bit staged.

Whether planned or not, it was pretty bad form from a professional channel like Fox8. Amanda lost her moment and Kelsey had hers cruelly ripped away. Congrats to both of them they handled it so well.

just a note – at first it was Kelsey’s photo up, then they changed it to Amanda’s.

They shouldn’t have left it to the public to decide.Seriously what do we know?I’m also so glad that Amanda had one,since we havn’t had a decent winner since Alice in 2007.I do feel for Kelsey,she looked really happy when she thought she had one.I could tell she was pretty embarrased when Sarah revealved she had got the votes wrong.But i honeslty do believe it was a publicity stunt.

I think it was a credible mistake and sometimes it does look like bad acting when you feel shocked and embarrassed. The video screen guys would have been ready for either one as soon as Sarah called out the name.
i would like to know what was exactly said to Sarah for her to say Kelsie instead of Amanda. They don’t even sound the same !

i feel so sorry for both girls. Especially Kelsie. She had the victory and dream torn away from her after 30secs of winning and Amanda didn’t get to appreciate her victory and winning feeling.

They will give Kelsie $25k and visit to New York modelling agency which I was glad to hear about. But I think she should get exactly what Amanda gets (except for the cover ofcourse), that is the least Foxtel can do after their HUGE stuff up. Besides they can afford it, they made a motza on the back of these beautiful girls.

Kelsie handled herself with grace and class, she really is a beutiful person inside and out.

ps. though I liked kelsie better, i still think amanda is the total package and they got the right winner……..eventually

your thoughts???

I think what has happened is they’ve announced Kelsey as the winner, they had her photo ready to go and popped out seconds after it was announced she was the winner. If Sarah had just misheard or they’d made a mistake in telling her, they didn’t make a mistake in telling the ENTIRE team, and if it really had been an error like that Amanda’s picture would have popped up, but Kesey’s name announced.
I think the judges were just like, nope! We’re not having this, because they were against her winning the whole time, and were just like (in that WHOLE 3 minutes where we thought Kelsey had won) nope, we can’t have this, just tell them they’ve made a mistake and it was close, but Amanda has to win. They couldn’t take the public deciding so had to interfere.

No way was this a set up. Sarah Murdoch would never do that, the woman has integrity and you can tell that she is genuinely shocked and horrified. In fact, if you listen carefully you can hear her very quietly dropping the f-bomb right after she finds out about the mistake. Also, people onsite say that the stage manager was immediately fired.

Sarah would NEVER participate in a stunt of this kind because it tarnishes her image and besides, she is actually a nice lady. And no way would they pull it without her knowledge because she is a Murdoch and the repercussions for anyone purposely putting her in that situation would be huge.

Besides, having run competitions for corporations I know that there are all sorts of permits etc that have to be gained to run a competition and pulling a stunt like that is (I’m pretty sure) actually illegal which would make Fox8 liable for damages. Messing around with winner announcements etc is all regulated. Definitely not a stunt, just a massive cock up!

I think Sarah was genuinely surprised and embarrassed . I don’t think it was a stunt. Feel sorry for both Kelsey and Amanda. It took the shine off winning for Amanda. Obviously kelsey was gutted. Fantastic TV moment though. It will definitely go viral

@ 1.06 seconds her heart rips.. so sad

I can’t agree with you Katherine, because if the judges wanted their
way no matter what, then they would have announced Amanda as the winner
no matter what the votes were. They would not have put Sarah and the girls through that awful ordeal.

Also it was only one of two photos so it was as easy as pressing either one button or the other to pop the picture up as soon as they heard Sarah announce Kelsie. Or you could be right and they announced kelsie to the whole team then realised it was a mistake – maybe a miscount or miscommunication – it is live TV after all…

Shit ending for a shit show

Surely they could have sorted this out off air or at least go to an ad break.

It was painful to watch and I don’t think it was handled professionally at all by Sarah, the producers, especially Fox. I wonder how long it will taketrot Fox to clean up this mess. They should never bother with live telecasts -they have gotten it wrong everytime since the show started and this was just the cherry on top.

Having worked in live TV I understandand how these things can happen. It probably was genuine but anything is possible in TV. Don’t believe everything you see.

I read an article recently about Sarah and she said

“I’ve aged 100 years in 3 months”. “…But I can’t sit around and do nothing”

Sarah didn’t “need” to go back to work when her Baby was 3 weeks old.

She married into very wealthy “Murdoch Dynasty”.

Hopefully this will remind her of the priorities in Life.

She made a choice to get pregnant again, when she she had signed a new contract for Top Model.

Most Mothers DO NOT have that choice.

Maybe SARAH should just try to be a Better Mum?

Even Puppies have to stay with their Mother until they are 6 weeks old.

My opinion was formed after reading Sarah Murdochs comments to the Herald Sun newspaper.

I didn’t fabricate anything…

@ Bettermum1 – whats any that really got to do with this whole incident?

Whether it was genuine or not, the explanation given was that Sarah had been read out the wrong name, so its not like she’s got them confused and said the wrong one on her account. She didnt have the voting results in front of her, someone would have read it through to her in her ear piece. I dont think Sarah is at all to blame for this. As someone said, it would tarnish her reputation, so why would she willingly do that as a stunt?

DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!

My god 12 year old girls have just discovered mumbrella.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I websurfed, weak and weary,
…Over many a strange and spurious website of ‘tv blunders galore’,
…While I clicked my fav’rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning,
…And my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for her dear glamour.
…”‘Tis not possible,” murdoch muttered, “give back the title por favor!” –
Quoth the contestant, “fk u and ur stupid show u wh0re”

I can’t even find the words to explain how I am feeling except disgusted I feel sick to my stomach, I was sooooo happy when Kelsey was announced considering I voted 10 times for her, she is fantastic and now the whole show has just lost a viewer forever, I think they should have waited until the show had finished to tell Amanda she had won and then just reported it after on the news instead of embarrassing Kelsey like that on live t.v. I mean did you hear what she said when she heared she had won, she said “now I feel tall” she was soooo thrilled and to literally just ripp it away from her before she even go to let it sink in is soooo cruel and fox 8 should be ashamed I love kelsey and I hope that her getting $25,000 and a trip to New York isn’t a rumor, this really ruined my night, once again Kelsey is sooo gorgeous and a true winner in my eyes

Australia’s Next Top Model lost me after promoting fur, horrible people.

I can’t believe this happened, such a tragic mistake.
I feel so sorry for Kelsey, personally I was so happy to hear her named the winner so to have that suddenly taken off is such a shame.
Possibly the worst way to lose.
I was very impressed by how she handled it and I know she will do so well out there with or without the prize.

I really hope Harpers will release both covers! Kelsey definitely deserves it after this and I know I really want to see that published for her.

Will never watch again. If planned stunt, shame on them. If actual error, what idiots. Either way, show is doomed.

Hope they axe the dam show now.

All this distracts us from the real loser on the night Alex Perry! Is he kidding??!! I am his target audience and his behaviour during the show was stupid. Talk about shooting yourself and Amanda in the foot! He is bad pr for himself and his brand. When Kelsey won I was elated because he would have to eat his sunglasses!

A great series ruined in a minute of madness. I feel sorry for everyone involved in the show because Sarah Murdoch did a great job since taking over and i hope she continues with the show.
Kelsey and Amanda and Sophie are excellent models and they’ll all do well regardless of this.
It’s a real shame because the live show was probably the best one they had done so far but I think after this they’ll have to go to a recorded final or don’t have audience votes.

I know for a fact that it is the producers of these shows that decide who wins, not the voting public. Someone who was counting the votes probably didn’t know that the producers had already chosen their ‘winner’ Amanda and just fed through to Sarah the person who honestly had the most votes.
You shouldn’t be voting in these shows, it is a revenue spinner and if there was ever a tv insider who decides to do an expose you will all find out. You are getting ripped off, I’m sorry to say

@Sarah Murdoch – your post is priceless. I’ve had to post in on my FB account. : )

Ohhh that is cringe worthy!

Could you imagine what would have happened if Jodhi Meares was a) still host and b) shown up to the final? There’s no way she would have admitted a mistake had been made. At least Sarah has some integrity to admit a mistake had been made and crowned the rightful winner.

Tim this is so interesting and a great example why it pays to be first in online. Swarms of uneducated, bogan in the making, 12 year old girls come to Mumbrella to chat as it was first to post. Its incredible

Katherine, you are so wrong. I was there and the judges had nothing to do with it at all. They all looked pleased for Kelsey when her name was announced and were just as shocked as we all were when the mistake was made. This was no publicity stunt. All the staff on the show were devastated and embarrassed.

Liri – you don’t know s&%t. I know for a fact that it IS the public that decide this. Stop making up lies

Oh for petes sake i can’t believe how stupid some of the comments are here…how old are you people!
This was no publicity stunt and bagging out Sarah is pathetic. Grow up.
Very sad for Kelsey, though I am glad she wasn’t the winner as she is not a top model. She will get work but not on the catwalk and not with high end editorial…she is just too short.
Amanda will do very well as will Sophie.
Looking forward for next years show….with the gorgeous Sarah Murdoch hosting as she does a brilliant job.

What a show.I really enjoyed all episodes BUT was i the only one who had problems in voting on foxtel for Kelsey?

Kelsey you make your parents proud, you showed the world you are A PROFESSIONAL MODEL

I just wanted to have the front cover of Kelsey on the stands. It was brilliant.

I once jumped a bigger shark.

Wow this just proves anything can happen in tvland.
This was reality tv at its best. I feel for Amanda though, her win was overshadowed by this controversy. But I have no doubt the show, plus Sarah will be back next year.
I’ll be watching.

Me too.

The industry should call for this competition to be audited to make sure it was done by the letter.

Even though I believe Amanda deserved it, my sense is that Kelsey really won it but the organisers decided differently and went against the public vote.

Just wanna point out that Sarah Murdoch was not to blame for what happened. Also wanna add that it wasn’t staged, the judges and production staff had to go to a meeting after the show and sh!t hit the fan.

Enough said.

yes i typo’d and submitted before checking -.-

I think the Magazine should have Kelsey’s page then another page that says Oops! then Amanda’s page. That would be so funny! What a huge stuff up. The show seemed to go on and on then for it to end like that, I felt so ripped off!

what a joke!
poor kelsie, sarah murdoch should have known, if you ask me sarah just read out the wrong name and then whe she was corrected she tried blaming evryone else but herself by saying sorry this is “live tv folks” and “it was read to me wrong”
poor kelsie she deserved to win rather than amanda, she is so coky anyway , thinking she would win the whole time, kelsie deserved it more!

OMG! No – this was no stunt!! Who the hell want’s to look like a complete idiot if front of hundreds and thousands of viewers……LOL!

I would simply – pack my bag…..and move Countries……lol!

Poor, poor girl…..what a stuff up!

Enough about Kelsie, let’s let Amanda enjoy her glory! Kelsie seems to be getting everything and some from this ordeal and poor Amanda (the winner) is just sitting pretty in the background. Congrats Amanda!

umm sarah or whoever you are who wrote last, of course kelsie should get more, how would you feel if that was you! standing up on the stage all excited then someone says opps not you! yerr and no amanda should not have one!

That was hilarious, great TV. Is this show always that funny? If so I’ll watch the next series… finale…well the last three minutes

To all you conspiracy theorists who “know for a fact” … go and work in live television, gain some experience and knowledge … and then comment. (If you listen hard you will hear “it’s a fuck-up” from off-stage)

As for the image of Kelsey immediately being flashed-up … ummm … three covers were prepared (and shown and discussed) … the rest was just (very good) vision switching. 10 out of 10 for the Director and Vision Switcher.

Yes, it was a fuck-up. My guess is that having decided to go to a three-way public vote just last week that the production simply wasn’t geared up correctly to handle the voting. It was a bold decision that has backfired – and one I’m tipping they won’t do again. I thought Sarah Murdoch handled it very well – I’ll be stuffed if I’d know what to do in such a situation. I also think both Amanda and Kelsey handled the situation with great maturity, aplomb and grace well beyond their years. Both girls will be successful for a very long time.

@ Deb hahahahaha gold! Or the cover could be one of those hologram covers that changes so at first it is Kelsey… oh wait, now it is Amanda.

Good on you Amanda for winning, Kelsey for taking the mistake so gracefully – I would have thrown a tanti and run off with the crown (so to speak) and to Sarah for managing to not crumble to the ground when she realised a MISTAKE had been made.

Everyone complaining on here seems to forget that we are actually humans, and humans make mistakes whether on live TV or not – chill out!! There are much worse things going on in this world then a winner announcement blunder…

You all sound like a bunch of High School girls, or have High School girls hijacked mumbrella?

@ claire, hey heres an idea, shut the fuck up!
dont tell us to relax

@Madeline – sorry didn’t realise I had specifically pointed you out, must have been in the imaginary typing I did. Oooh and swearing at me too, my how mature you are… seems like Anita’s comments are correct. Grow up.

I didn’t even know that this show existed – glad I got rid of Foxtel at home.

I just hope that this means that Fox 8 does away with live telecasts altogether. I agree with the poster who said that they never get it right….plus it’s the most flat, boring way to end the show. Why do you think America’s next top model have never attempted a live telecast for the final ep….even with their substantially bigger budget and resources? Because it’s boring and too much can go wrong.
The stuff-up was actually the most interesting thing that happened on that finale, anyway. It never works when Fox8 try to turn everything into ‘Australian Idol.’

i get the feeling that a lot of the people commenting on this aren’t usually mumbrella readers…

Murdoch is a soo dumb! She even voted for Tony Abbott!

I voted for Tony’s cousin Peter.

Because of Sarah’s mistake, i think they should’ve both won, or atleast given Kelsey a modeling contract and some money?

poor kelsie
and claire and madeline stop using thsi fr attacking eachother o the internet geese

publicity stunt! and please don’t get on bad mother rants… surely Lachlan was looking after the bub?

Ouch. If it’s real, that host will probably lose her job.

Hey peoples, it can’t be a stunt when it’s live TV. Remember this, when it’s live, ratings haven’t even been calculated. When it’s advertised, ratings are counted due to the lead up to an advertisement stating something is going to go wrong.
If you watch Sarah’s eyes very closely, she goes into freeze mode…..this is no publicity stunt…..not by Sarah Murdoch anyway. Secondly, Kelsey was too short to be ANTM or a model at all. There is a height limit and unfortunately she was under, so when you think about it the poor lass wasn’t going to win anyway due to the world of modelling rules.

This is champagne commentary.

Hi everyone, as a long time professional event manager of high profile events/marketer, I looked on with horror last night. It would be a worst nightmare for anyone, and I feel empathy for all involved. The nightmare was handled very graciously by Sara, Kelsey and Amanda, and my heart goes out to Sara, as the one who had to re-correct an absolute debacle.

HOWEVER… it still should not have happened, if there was more intricate pre-event planning. (Don’t worry, this is not a shameless plug!).

Whilst everyone relies on others as a “collaborative team effort”, I think a good perspective is ‘never assume anything’ – yes, that may mean you (the ‘event manager’), is annoying as hell…but I would personally never ever assume everything is right, planned and checked for events, including scripting cues and instructions!
People cannot be trusted and yes, human error happens! My opinion is Sara should have checked first, even if the nation were waiting on live for another two mins… rather than just assuming it was ok to announce the last information she had received. Pedantic, I know, and yes, this is even despite her position and expectations of staff and what she rightfully would expect. Meanwhile, somewhere in her team, behind the scenes, she was majorly let her down. They gave Sara no clear instructions, at a critical moment. Sara made a wrong assumption.
So…that’s my wrap up, for what it’s worth, in the Mumbrella mix.
There is always the “envelope style” event to go back, yes…if we want to avoid the perils of LIVE TV and all things digital (As if). Even in that now ‘retro’ scenario, there should be an ‘inner circle’ of trust for event mgt, with everything spelt out and extremely clear. Black and white. No ambiguity.
The ‘inner circle’ anticipates every aspect of delivery, contingency and circumstance. Things may still go wrong, of course… but everything in their power….that is controllable…is.

Yo MZoo4, I’m really happy for you; I’mma let you finish. But Beyonce had one of the best music videos of all time! ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME!

It’s funny because when I saw the add for it I said to my sister “They shouldn’t make it live, something’s gonna go wrong.” XD

You are fired!!! She should know better than that. what a humiliation..its not OK>>>

@madeline that seemed a bit uncalled for. Why don’t you take your own advice and “shut the fuck up” yourself.

I was absolutely disgusted!!!….Please P L E A S E!!! No more Live finals.
Firstly, u dont get to see the models in the exact environment, such as a
normal Fashion Show, pitted against other Models and how well they look
and feel in said environment.
Secondly, it is boring compared to watching them, like we used to, compete
in the Final Fashion Show and seeing their excitement and who, just..explodes
off the catwalk. Please Please, revert back to the way you used to do the final
episode. NO MORE LIVE FINALS!!!!

P.S. I would like to clarify one thing, and that is:-
No one is to blame and it was handled as best it could be
but, not only did it let the two contestants down, but it also
let the public down as well. Crap Happens….
BUT PLEASE NO MORE LIVE, ITS BORING, (sorry)

I couldn’t agree more with Marlene …the live finals are dull, awkward, so much can go wrong ( and does!) and make it all look like some crass regional beauty contest…I thought it was supposed to be a ‘professional’ modelling competition? Those ‘Idol’ like finals just cheapen whatever credibility the show was striving for. They always look tacky, awkward and amateurish.

I watched it on SMH then jumped straight over to Mumbrella to see how many conspiracy theorists the story would attract. I was not disappointed.

shut da fuck up elle