MICHELLE ELIMINATED FROM UPN'S "AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL"

Michelle, a wrestler from Terre Haute, Ind., became the ninth girl eliminated from the fourth cycle of UPN's hit series AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL, reducing the pool from six to five.

J. Alexander greeted the girls at a wild animal park, where they studied the movements of exotic animals and learned to use the animals as inspiration for poses. After being judged on their posing prowess, Tyra arrived to announce that the girls would spend the rest of the competition in Cape Town, South Africa.

Once in South Africa, the girls arrived at the Aquila Game Reserve where they took in traditional music and dance and narrowly escaped fierce lions on an Aquila Safari adventure. Michelle became annoyed by Keenyah and Brittany's flamboyant personalities and began to distance herself from the rest of the girls. "I'm part of the group, but not like a major part of the group," she said.

The next day, Jay Manuel greeted the girls for a photo shoot where they were transformed into native South African animals and posed with a live alligator for a Lubriderm Ultra Moisturizing Lotion ad. Michelle, who portrayed a zebra, felt very confident about her look and posing skills, but Jay felt she was unaware of her neck position and that her movements needed to be more graceful. "Every shoot to date I have told Michelle to drop her chin and trust her eye line from her eye to the camera," he said after the shoot.

That evening at dinner, Naima noticed that Michelle seemed alienated from the group and asked her why she wasn't more comfortable around the other girls, having lived with them for weeks. During her confessional, Michelle noted that the problem was mostly her insecurities, but some of the girls began to get annoyed by her social awkwardness, causing further tension between the housemates.

During the elimination ceremony, the girls were again tested on their posing abilities and challenged to embody 5 different emotions for the judges. While viewing the shots from the Lubriderm photo shoot, the judges noted that Michelle's pictures continued to show potential, but that her personal presentation and extreme emotions were not characteristic of a Top Model. "You have a face that is rare, but you fall apart under pressure and being a Top Model means being under pressure constantly," Tyra said to Michelle before eliminating her from the competition.

The winner of UPN's AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL will have the opportunity to be managed by Ford Models. She will also receive a $100,000 contract with cosmetics giant CoverGirl. Finally, the winner will appear in a fashion spread in Elle magazine.

The fourth installment of UPN's hit dramality series AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL follows 14 young women as they attempt to prove they have what it takes to make it in the high-stress, high-stakes world of modeling. Banks, who created the show, also serves as executive producer along with Ken Mok ("Making the Band") and Anthony Dominici ("The Amazing Race").

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL airs Wednesdays (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on UPN. For more information about AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL log on to www.upn.com.