GNTM - The start: "I have more balls than most men!"

At the beginning of the 18th "Germany's Next Top Model" season, Heidi Klum takes on all haters and critics.

GNTM - The start: "I have more balls than most men!"

At the beginning of the 18th "Germany's Next Top Model" season, Heidi Klum takes on all haters and critics. Then it's off to Los Angeles. Also present: excited chicks, self-confident "bad bitches" and a rebel with an impressive free-range attitude.

Rambazamba on the catwalk, tearful backstage dramas and a tour group leader who is always in the limelight on the search for the golden needle in the haystack: "Germany's Next Topmodel" is entering its 18th round and there are 29 success-hungry hobby influencers who hope never to be confronted with a very specific sentence. "Unfortunately, I don't have a photo for you today!", from the mouth of the format boss is roughly comparable to the arrest at GTA or the emergency brake in the penalty area.

For a GNTM candidate it means: pack your bags and go home, back to real life. But none of the 29 supposed model rough diamonds want to go back there. The tension is correspondingly high. After all, anyone who has been selected for the start of the season from over 7000 applications does not want to start the return flight after the first decision.

But before the big meeting starts, model mom Heidi first faces the format criticism that comes up every year. All haters and doubters will be served clean wine. To be clear: GNTM is not bullied, nobody has to go hungry and every single episode is checked by youth protection before it is broadcast. And anyway: Heidi Klum was also put into different drawers thirty years ago. You have to defend yourself somehow: "In my time, the top models were all very thin, but I had a lot of curves. But I was entitled to them, I didn't starve them away," Heidi sounds while her would-be successors are about to appear biting their fingernails nervously and jitterily after the first show appearance.

After an intensive round of explanations and an appetizing preview of what viewers can expect in the next few weeks, things finally get going. Instead of in Bielefeld, Paderborn or at Berlin Central Station, the entire GNTM workforce, including the models, meets in sunny Los Angeles. Away from the glittering metropolis, an impressive blockbuster film city set awaits business newcomers. headlights on. Vintage cars line the dusty streets. Hollywood seems to be very close.

For the shy Katherine, it's all a bit too big: "I'm away from my mom for the first time," groans the 20-year-old Flensburg native, who likes to go to church to recharge her batteries. Even Juliette is still a little overwhelmed: "When I see Heidi, I'm sure tears will come to my eyes," sobs the tall blonde with the eye-catching nose piercing. While some candidates struggle with self-doubt and fears, others fall into the house as if the whole world had just been waiting for their first appearance. Elsa, for example, has lip injections, a lot of mess between her ears and, in her own words, "a lot of star potential".

Cassy, ​​strutting around in a bright green Wonderwoman suit, is nothing less than THE "motherfucking bad bitch". In terms of confidence excess, only curvy model Zoe can keep up. The blonde with the ice-cold look somehow doesn't take the whole fuss with her. The unimpressive self-proclaimed rebel makes it clear, "I've got more balls than most men!"

To make getting to know each other a bit more exciting, Heidi Klum, star designer Peter Dundas and guest juror Winnie Harlow invite you to the first fashion show. "Walk like a boy" is the motto. In other words: a strong run and no swinging hips. More than half of the prospective models already fail with the ABC of stairs. Heidi Klum, who looks in the 80s aerobics commemorative outfit as if she had just come from the Cologne carnival, observes everything with eagle eyes and sorts it out vigorously in episode one.

For some young women, the journey is over before it even begins. Of course tears flow. But the show must go on. We know. Because: "Only one can become Germany's next top model!" That's how it looks, Heidi. It's always been like that. It will stay that way. Let's see who can hold out until May and make it to the grand finale. We are as excited as Robin's Flitzebogen.