And the winner is.......

Hooray, finally the one I ended up rooting for ends up winning, even though there were some pitfalls along the way for her. It almost makes up for last cycle's winner where Danielle (Dani) was so unbelievably bad as a spokesmodel.

I agree. This is the first cycle that the girl I liked won. I just rewatched the first season and I was so mad that Elyse did not win. But, I guess she got the last laugh on that one. Now, she is the most sucessful one of them all.

Caridee was on Regis and Ho, and she said that the show completed filming back in June, so she's had to sit on the news for half a year.

Another home state winner, which is shocking because you rarely see North Dakota people in anything, let alone something like being 2 out of 7 Top Model winners.

I have no idea why I keep subjecting myself to this show, but it was kinda nice to see Caridee win as she was my pick early on. (I had a soft spot for Brooke even though she never stood a chance.) It's annoying how even with as non-sensical as the judging is, ANTM still manages to be unerringly predictable. Once Melrose was still being lavished with praise by the last few episodes, I knew she didn't have a chance. I don't think there's really any doubt that it's Cover Girl and Seventeen picking the winner either. As grating as I find Jay Manuel most of the time, it's kinda funny how he pointed out that Melrose was being criticized for having exactly the characteristics they want in a model, and she wound up getting the boot.

It's also amusing that they showed all Melrose's worst photos and all of Caridee's best ones, and then proceeded to rip Melrose apart on all the photos - even the one they judged to be a great photo in an earlier episode.

Yeah, it was suprising to me. Melrose consistenly had the best photos, or at least very close to the best almost every shoot. She won the most challenges. And they said that her runway finale was like she was a working model already. And yet, they chose Caridee? Made no sense to me. Although Caridee does shoot younger than Melrose.

I saw her on Regis & Kelly also. She needs a lot of work on her poise and interview skills.

I think Caridee just takes better pictures than Melrose does, and that's why they chose her. My fav was still Brooke though.

Melrose's look was too old in the first place. There is one like here every season. The only difference is that they usually find a reason to get rid of that person before they make it to the final 3 or 2. Melrose had no shot at winning no matter what she did on this last show.

Yeah. What the hell are you guys putting the water up there? Dakota girls are frakkin' hawt.