America’s Next Top Model Cycle 20 to Premiere August 2nd on The CW

The CW has announced that cycle 20 of America’s Next Top Model will premiere Friday, August 2nd at 8:00 with a two-hour episode. The show then shifts the 9:00 the following week, where it will stay through its fall finale.

The last remaining series from UPN, America’s Next Top Model was shifted to Fridays last season from its regular Wednesday hangout after ratings plummeted during the British Invasion cycle. The College Edition, which debuted last August, managed to hang on well enough for the show to make it to a full 20 cycles, thanks in part to the revamped judging panel, the newly introduced social media aspect, and the network’s need for cheap, reliable programming on Fridays. The show will be airing into the fall for a second consecutive season, this time along with the second season of The Carrie Diaries. As cycle 20 will be starting three weeks earlier than cycle 19, I’m assuming that the final season of Nikita will take over in late October/early November and air through the end of the fall.

Cycle 20 of America’s Next Top Model is set to feature male models competing alongside female models for the first time in the show’s history. Details have yet to be released on how this will work out (e.g. will there be two winners) and there’s no guarantee that viewers will take to the format change, but several cycles ago, Tyra promised us that normalcy is out and themed cycles are the in thing from now on. Perhaps the introduction of male models, even if for one cycle, will be the thing that gives the show the shot in the arm it needed.

You can check out The CW’s 2013 schedule here.

Do you like the idea of a Top Model cycle that integrates males and females? Should the show have dropped the social media aspect for the 20th cycle? How long do you think America’s Next Top Model can remain on television?