“It’s the curse of top models,” Tessa Bergmeier (33) comments on her fate on the RTL show “I’m a star – get me out of here!”. The 33-year-old is by far not the first ex-candidate of “Germany’s next top model”, which the viewers constantly send to the jungle tests.
The audience apparently wants to see the TV models, often dubbed “bitches”, suffer. The height of fall seems particularly high here. And the more forcefully the models complain, the more viewers pick up the phone. These former “GNTM” participants can sing a song about it.
For many experts, Larissa Marolt (30) is still the best jungle candidate ever. The winner of “Austria’s next top model” and later participant of “GNTM” was only a hate figure in the camp in 2014 and later a darling of the public. She took second place behind Melanie Müller (34). The woman from Klagenfurt earned silver through ten jungle tests. She had to complete eight of them in a row. She set an international record. No participant in the globally successful jungle show had to go more often in one go. Marolt’s record for overall tests only fell in Germany in 2020. Non-model Daniela Büchner (44) sent Germany into the ring 12 times.
Gisele Oppermann (35) broke Larissa Marolt’s record of consecutive trials in 2019. The “GNTM” sixth from 2008 had to look for stars nine times in a row. The “cult crybaby” broke five of them, only the ex-soccer player Thorsten Legat (54), who was consulted as a drill instructor, coached her to four stars. Oppermann was only spared even more tests because she was voted out as the fourth candidate. At the exam nominations, viewers called in droves, but not for their whereabouts.
Sarah Knappik (36) was “only” allowed to play six times in 2011. She also remained below her potential – like Gisele Oppermann, she had to go fourth. However, she was not voted out, but left the jungle camp of her own free will. Sarah “Dingens” polarized her fellow campers in such a way that they threatened to go on strike, either she or we. Eventually, Knappik more or less withdrew.
Gina-Lisa Lohfink (36) offered plenty of test potential on paper. But she remained relatively pale in 2017. She only had to hunt for stars once and was only eighth overall. She is remembered more because of her campfire flirtation with a member of the extended “GNTM” family …
… Alexander “Honey” Keen (40), who, as a friend of the “GNTM” winner Kim Hnizdo (27), was always present in the model show at that time. That qualified him as an IBES candidate. There he had to take the test more often than his flirt Gina-Lisa Lohfink, a whopping five times. Not only an unnecessary refusal when a bracket was too tight on his neck made him the hated figure of the season.
PS: “GNTM” stars do not automatically have a subscription to jungle tests. With, among others, Micaela Schäfer (39, yes, she was also with “GNTM”), Fiona Erdmann (34, she was in the shadow of Georgina Fleur) or Sara Kulka (32) were other of Heidi Klum’s girls at IBES – and did not have to take the exam significantly more often than their fellow candidates.
