Oxygen Finds ‘Next Top Model’

Oxygen has acquired the exclusive cable rights to America's Next Top Model, the reality-competition series created and hosted by Tyra Banks, officials said Thursday.

The network will bring viewers all the Top Model fashion challenges, photo shoots and model mayhem as the full library of the hit series joins Oxygen in January. In an agreement with CBS Television Distribution, Oxygen will retain exclusive cable rights to all episodes including the 11th cycle currently airing on the CW, the show's 12th cycle now in production and repeat airings of any future cycles beyond. 

America's Next Top Model premiered in 2003 and became a success, especially among young women - "Generation O," Oxygen's target audience. For the last full cycle of the show on the CW, the median viewer age was 32, and for the first three episodes this season on the CW, the show's median viewer age is 31.9.

The Top Model genre of programming and the show's personalities have already proven successful on Oxygen, with The Tyra Banks Show airing daily on the network and former Top Model judge Janice Dickinson's series The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency now in its fourth season.

"The acquisition of this franchise will be a great fit for Oxygen's slate of original programming and introduce the show to an untapped demographically desirable cable audience," Scott Koondel, executive vice president of off-network, cable and interactive media for CBS Television Distribution, said in a prepared statement.