Season 1
The Model Million$ (also known as Model Millions) is a South African reality television competition created by Kerry McGregor and produced by Bottomline Media Productions in which 15 models were intended to compete to win a grand prize of R1-million and a contract with a leading modeling agency.
Hosted by model sisters Kerry and Tracy McGregor and presented and narrated by Anthony Oseyemi, the show also offered viewers the chance to win USD$1-million through an interactive SMS competition.
There were three permanent judges - the McGregor sisters and comedian Cokey Falkow - as well as a mystery guest judge each week.
The Model Million$ premiered in South Africa on SABC3 on Wednesday 1 October 2008, at 20h31. There were supposed to be12 hour-long episodes in the series, culminating in a grand finale on 31 December 2008.
After the show's premiere, the show was marred by production delays, on-set controversy and financial difficulties and the second episode was postponed.
It returned for episode 2 the following week, went on hiatus for two weeks to accomodate the live broadcast of the ODI cricket and never returned.
On Monday, 10 November SABC3 announced that the series had been cancelled because of lack of funds.
Full story: Cancelled: The Model Million$
Synopsis
The Model Million$ series follows amateur South African models on a 12-week journey as they compete to win R1,000,000 in cash and a lucrative modeling contract.
These 15 hopefuls will battle it out model-style, working on real advertising campaigns and shoots for various leading South African companies each week.
Those that can stand the pressure and deliver for their 'clients' will get to stay, but those that can't will be going home.
Each week viewers will be challenged to predict - through an interactive SMS- and IVR-based competition - which of the 15 models will be eliminated at the end of that episode.
Those who are correct in the majority of their predictions, throughout the series, will be in the running to win USD$1-million in cash during the grand finale, which airs live on New Year's Eve, 2008.
Viewers will also be given an opportunity to submit their own content in the form of pictures or videos that could make it onto the contestants' cell-phones in specific episodes.
The content with the most votes will win a lucrative weekly prize including an all expenses paid trip on location with the cast and crew.
Casting
Nationwide castings for The Model Million$ took place on Saturday 20 and 27 November, 2008 in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Thirty girls were chosen from all three venues to go through to the final round of castings in Cape Town on 27 November, from which the Top 15 were chosen to compete on the show.
Females aged between 18 and 30 with valid South Africa passports were invited to audition. The casting venues were as follows:
Johannesburg: Fashion TV Cedar Square
Shop 1 & 2, Cedar Square Shopping Centre, Cnr Cedar and Witkoppen Roads
Cape Town: Fashion TV Cape Town
114 Hout Street, Cnr Buitengragt
Durban: Cafe Vacca Matta Suncoast
Shop U4, Suncoast Casino & Entertainment World, 1 Beach Blvd
Related Articles
New on SABC3 in October 2008
Wanted: Models For A Million Bucks