MSNBC is premiering a reality series?! I’m SHOCKED! I’m OUTRAGED! Reality TV on a NEWS network?! OK, OK, who am I kidding? Being the reluctant reality junkie that I am, there was never really a question of whether or not I’d watch another show about The Beautiful People.
Going in to episode 1 of Models NYC, which premieres with a special sneak peek this Saturday, April 14 (regular episodes air Mondays beginning April 16), I had high expectations. After all, I’m still nursing the pain of losing VH1’s erratic, dramatic bitch-fest The Agency. MSNBC, I decided, had to bring something extra special to the table to challenge the magic of Pink, Sean and Becky at The Agency‘s Wilhelmina Models.
Knock-down, drag-out shouting matches it does not have … but the personalities at Q Models make up for the missing cat-fight quotient. Models NYC gives us a look inside the world of a boutique modeling agency that represents only 159 models (as opposed to the 800+ repped by larger agencies). At Q, we meet owner Jeff Kolsrud, agents JP and Tahlani and assorted staff, but where the show really succeeds is in its realistic look at the day-to-day lives of working models. Sure, they can make upwards of $150,000 a year, but that’s most often the result of schlepping all over New York City to make it to 25 or more castings each week.
Hitting the pavement for Q are Maria, a 21-year-old who is holding down two full-time jobs and making herself sick in the process; Asha, a hot-in-London import trying to translate her UK success in the New York market; 29-year-old Sabrina, an “over-the-hill” model surviving quite successfully on well-paying catalog gigs; Andreyna, a feisty 18-year-old dedicated to modeling and partying; and a collection of other models seeking fame and fortune — or, at least, rent money.
I do still miss my girl Becky, with her fierce and passionate rants the likes of “They weren’t even pretty at all! And fat!”, but Models NYC does a respectable job of filling the Agency void, and gives what is likely a more probable picture of the daily grind of modeling.