Every so often we are graced with an epic live television scandal we remember for years to come. And 13 years ago, the live finale of Australia’s Next Top Model gave us exactly that.
Hundreds of thousands of young Aussies were glued to their television screens on September 28, 2010 to see who would be crowned winner between contestants Kelsey Martinovich and Amanda Ware.
Host Sarah Murdoch – fellow model and wife of media heir Lachlan Murdoch – was tasked with revealing the winner to Australian viewers.
In a bungle only the Oscars Moonlight-La La Land mix-up could compete with, Murdoch announced Martinovich as the winner. The only problem? She was actually the runner-up.
Watch the full clip above.
“The winner and Australia’s next top model for 2010 is… it’s you Kelsey,” Murdoch said, with a dramatic flair saved only for live reality television.
The audience erupted into manic appliance as a shocked Martinovich, then aged 19, sobbed with happiness.
Though, mid-way through her frantic acceptance speech, Murdoch looked visibly uncomfortable as she listened to a voice in her earpiece.
“Oh my God, I don’t know what to say right now,” a confused Murdoch told the audience, as she touched the earpiece.
“I’m feeling a bit sick about this. No, I’m so sorry about this… Oh my God. This was a complete accident, I’m sorry… It’s Amanda.”
Murdoch explained the winner was “fed to me wrong” as the audience gasps echoed around the room.
“This is what happens when you have live TV folks, I’m so sorry,” she added.
A baffled, gracious Martinovich tried to comfort a shaken Murdoch as the news washed over her.
The real winner, it seems, was 17-year-old Ware.
She gave an awkward “woop” as her milquetoast win was finally announced.
As the finale began to wind up, Murdoch blamed the mishap on the razor-edge difference between the votes.
“It was literally between a couple of votes,” an apologetic Murdoch continued. “It kept going back and forward and we ended up with Amanda as a winner.”
After the awkward on-air bungle, Foxtel – the channel which aired the series – actually awarded both the models the $20,000 winnings and a flight to New York.
Harper’s Bazaar magazine also opted to print both Ware and Martinovich’s covers.
During an interview with A Current Affair, Murdoch later said a producer had been in her ear to inform her Martinovich was the winner.
“The point was that I was going to be contacted through my ear and I wasn’t, so I was going with what I had been told,” she said. “As far as I knew, it was the right call.”
Murdoch admitted she couldn’t bring herself to watch the episode after it aired, revealing she still felt “sick” over the mishap.
“You wouldn’t put your worst enemy through the situation let alone these girls,” she added.
The model and TV host also denied it was a publicity stunt, which it was rumoured to be in the days following the finale.
The winner and runner-up, for their part, have both gone on to enjoy glittering careers as models.
Now, 13 years on, Martinovich is a jet-setting model and has worked for the likes of Bonds, House of Holland and Christopher Esber.
Ware relocated to London for a while, before returning to Australia. The former ANTM contestant also revealed she decided to quit runways at the age of 23, instead focussing on campaigns.
In 2021, Ware appeared on the Back From Reality podcast during which she reflected on the finale gaffe.
“Honestly, I still cringe today. Even you saying it – my heart drops,” she recalled. “Even today, I think it’s still on Germany’s top ten worst moments of TV ever.
“It’s still cringe-worthy, even now, 10 years on… I can’t even watch it… it’s so embarrassing.”
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