Reality bites for modeling hopefuls

It was the day they'd all been waiting for: Young people had been selected by Gemase Simmons to compete in his modeling reality TV show and filming was finally getting started.

Chris Hansen: You thought you were walking into a dream, basically.

Phillip Doubek: Oh, yeah.  I mean (laughs) I was living the life.  I was telling my friends, you know. Telling' other people.

Following what is by now a well-worn reality show formula, day one began with a challenge.

The would-be models were assembled in a hotel lobby wearing '20s style costumes, receiving instructions from one of Gemase's on-air assistants.

Tiphani Abney: So we have on these costumes and then they tell us that we have to run from the bottom of the steps of the hotel to the [roof]. At the end of the race there was a shoot. We all went to one room and then he took us out of the room, you know, one-by-one and there was a shoot.

Hansen: And who won the competition?

Female contestant: I think Ugo.

And like so many other reality TV shows, when it came time to do the judging, the host played the nitpicking critic. And, of course, contestants were interviewed every step of the way, sometimes by Gemase himself.

Joslyn Pennywell: We also did confessions where we had to go into a room one by one and discuss our experience so far. 

On the second day of shooting, the group moved to a ranch for what the show's host, Gemase, called "model bootcamp."

And there was good news: Initially, the contestants were told that the show would be broadcast nationally on the ION network. But as taping got underway, Gemase said it had been picked up for even wider distribution by an international network called Fashion TV.

The bootcamp contests were fierce, but for kids reared on reality TV, it was just what they'd expected. Except for one thing... Phillip and some of the others thought they'd be competing against at least twice as many models.

Doubek: The only thing I didn't understand is he told us for the guys it's not gonna be easy. You know, “There's gonna be a lot more of y'all.” And when we showed up there, was like, what?

Female contestant: Yeah, all 10 of us total.

Doubek:  And I was kind of skeptical at first, you know, thinking' like, "What happened here?"  

They say Gemase explained away the missing contestants by saying this small group had been given a free pass to the final round.

But there was something else that seemed unusual: Gemase had made some big claims about his background.

Female contestant: He said he used to work for Ford Models.

In fact, the host's modeling career was an important part of the show.

Pennywell: He kind of trained us per se that whenever he would walk in we would have to say, "Supermodel on deck”

Problem was, Gemase Simmons didn't exactly fit the profile of a supermodel.

Sabrina Griffin: He was shorter. He was more average looking.

Looking back, those were a red flags that the contestants say they should have paid more attention to.  After all, who was this man they'd signed up to spend the next two months with? They really weren't sure.

On the other hand, this all had to be real.  After all there were those lights, those cameras, and of course, the action.

The challenges were heating up. There was a pre-dawn wake-up call, a drill sergeant to bark orders, and a race through the mud wearing next to nothing on a chilly Texas morning.

Cameraman Izzy Cardoza was in charge of the shooting.  He's an award-winning news photographer, who's also shot for reality shows including “American Idol.”

He thought the physical challenges were borderline cruel.

Izzy Cardoza, cameraman: These kids were just freezing. Some of them were in their underwear.

But for the most part, the models-in-training took it in stride.  As long as the cameras were rolling, what's a little dirt and pain for the chance at $50,000 and the job of their dreams?

They even laughed it off when two members of the group got in trouble for taking hot showers in the middle of the mud competition.

The host went berserk over that. And, as punishment, the whole group had to run laps on a tennis court-covered in mud for 90 minutes. 

The contestants assumed that the tantrum was largely for the benefit of the cameras.

After all, on reality TV, crazy sells… and there was plenty of crazy.

But the cast members were about to become leery of their on-air host. That's because in this reality show, the really weird stuff may have been happening off camera.

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