Malaysian Sheena Liam won Asia's Next Top Model title - STAR World Asia photo

Marie Nakagawa being a person of color representing Japan appeared to have been set up to fail by the Asia Next Top Model judges - STAR World Asia photo

Video Beat EXTRA - Malaysian Sheena Liam WINS Asia's Next Top Model adds MYSTERY

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

The question is due to Sheena Liam being Malaysian and achieving success only after the missing Malaysian airplane tragedy was she a politically driven predetermined favorite to be selected the winner? Liam was never selected 1st until the missing episode 11 - Recommended TV Listings

Monday, April 14, 2014

INTEGRITY QUESTIONS ARE RAISED REGARDING SELECTION

When Malaysia's Sheena Liam won Asia's Next Top Model it raised some questions. From the start Liam never was selected first choice until the mysterious missing episode 11 in which Singapore's Nicole Lee was eliminated and the show never aired. Our take was something was very wrong by not airing that episode. Our speculation was that there was an emotional experience that the producers didn't want to televise. With the proper editing whatever went wrong could have been corrected.

From the outset Lee wasn't happy with the way the shows were edited in depicting her as an emotional our of control character. The producer's statement was the show was not televised in respect to the victims of the missing Malaysian airline Flight 370. If the airlines could use anything during the tragedy of the still missing flight it would be good publicity.

The Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport went missing n 8 March 2014 at 01:20 MYT.

The sequence of the shows telecast is suspicious. Episode 10: First aired March 26, 2014. Episode 11: The Girl on Life's Journey was omitted. Episode 12: First aired April 2, 2014 The shows explanation was that the footage of episode 11 featured the top five models, Jodilly, Katarina, Marie, Nicole, and Sheena participating in a photo shoot for Malaysia Airlines.

After the show took two weeks off to prolong the gap between the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 incident and the airing of the episode, the producers of the show decided to omit the episode entirely to respect those affected by the tragedy. The previews for the episode following episode 10 only featured Jodilly, Katarina, Marie, and Sheena. Sheena's photograph could still be seen as the 'photo of the week' banner for the episode that wasn't aired.

The show released a recap of what had happened during the episode in their official YouTube channel. In it, it was revealed that the top five models had met season one winner Jessica for a runway lesson before being flown to Hong Kong wearing Gucci, where they met Helena Chan, another contestant from season one.

The photo shoot turned out to be a campaign for Malaysia Airlines, where they had to pose with luggage with a Malaysian Airlines airplane as the background. At panel, Sheena was given her first best photo in the competition, and was then followed by Jodilly and Marie. Katarina and Nicole landed in the bottom two, but Katarina was spared from the competition and Nicole was sent home. The season picked up again with the top four episode just before the finale.

Up to that point Sheena's best effort was a 2nd place finish in episode one. To her credit was she finished 2nd in 6 of the first 9 episodes. She was seldom a standout as were other models and often criticized for having a one look face. The sum of the parts didn't add up to a win.

In the following episode 12 which was the first to be televised after the two week hiatus and missing episode 11 it appeared that the show went very political in favor of Malaysia. There was a major turnaround in attitude towards a black model representing Japan. Throughout the competition there was no mention of Marie Nakagawa being a person of color representing Japan.

In an earlier episode the models had members of their family visit them to lend them support. Marie was the only one that had no visitor. She wasn't deterred as she finished first three times during the first seven episodes including back to back firsts in episodes 7 and 8 when she competed against 8 and 10 competitors respectively. Episode 7 was a double elimination episode resulting in the drop from 10 to 8 competitors.

Subsequently Marie appeared to be set up to fail. Although her being black was never mentioned during the series until it was first noted in episode 12 in which she was eliminated after being in the bottom two with Sheena. It seems as though she went from a Top Model favorite to the bottom of the heap or turned from a silk purse into a sow's ear by the judges. During that episode Nakagawa noted that she couldn't obtain work in Japan because she was black and wanted to be first black model to win Asia's Next Top Model and help break the racism practice that goes on in the industry today. The set up to fail indications came about when she was given a dress that was too large for her small thin frame. She felt uncomfortable.

The judges proceeded to keep badgering her and she admitted to getting nervous. The verbal attack on her was unusual. They eventually changed her dress but continued to criticize her which seldom happened in previous episodes as she was the most complimented model throughout as she finished in the top three in 4 of 11 episodes.

Marie's three first place finishes through eight of the 12 episodes she appeared in was the show's seasons best. Runner-up Jodilly had two through 10 of the 13 episodes she appeared in and Sheena also had two in her 13 episodes. Sheena's wins only occurred AFTER the Malaysian plane went missing during the omitted episode 11 that never aired and the public can't verify if it was deserved as well as the final title winning episode 13.

With her elimination that left Sheena to compete with two Filipino models Jodilly Pendre and Katarina Rodriguez. In the finale Rodriguez was the first to be eliminated. Pendre was given the most praise for her modeling skills. Then came the bomb…. The judge's choice was to choose the classic model or current. The choice was the technically weaker of the two being current and being Sheena.

The question is due to Sheena being Malaysian and achieving success only after the missing Malaysian airplane tragedy was she a politically driven predetermined favorite to be selected the winner? Having an airline as a major sponsor and transportation is an asset for the contestants and production crew for a show that is produced in Malaysia. Agree or not?

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