Pulse’s CMS reality TV show recently took to the streets of Half-Way Tree for one of the show’s photo shoots, stirring up curiosity and excitement among commuters in Kingston’s busy city centre. The shoot, which challenged the contestants to ‘Stand Out in a Crowd’, went viral as each of the 16 contestants tried to outdo the other. As social media lit up, one onlooker stated. “The models dem look good. Mi love the tall one weh stop the traffic – a she dem fi give the prize.”
The show has been quite successful across key demographics in Jamaica. An offshoot of the Caribbean Model Search (CMS) Live event, CMS TV has taken on a new dimension as characters develop over the life of the show.
This year’s edition is a 10-episode series, which sees the contestants participating in various challenges in a bid to win the title and begin an international career. Having spawned some of the world’s most celebrated models from the Caribbean, Pulse’s CMS TV has continued this trend, producing two of the agency’s Vogue cover models – Jeneil Williams and Alicia Burke.
Burke, who won the CMS TV title in 2015, earned a coveted Italian Vogue cover and has risen to the top of world modelling to be named among the world’s top-50 earning models. She flew into Jamaica to guest star in one of the show’s episodes, which was shot on location at the Pulse Suites, on the company’s nine-acre eco-tourism mountainside property, Villa Ronai.
As the hopefuls take aim at the title, with the ultimate goal of starting international modelling careers and becoming Pulse’s next superstar, viewers will enjoy a highly entertaining, unscripted show that is as lively as it is emotional. And while the contestants were beachside for most of last season’s show, this year, the cityscape of Kingston provides its own challenges. The hometown hopefuls battle in the hills of St Andrew as well as other sites in the heart of the city.
With most of the contestants in this year’s show unable to swim, the highly anticipated water-based photo shoot creates fear, high drama, and even some mishaps. The men against the women take on an interesting dynamic, highlighting the competitiveness among and between the sexes.
The CMS TV show runs from October 25 to December 27 on TVJ each Friday night at 9:05 p.m. and is repeated on Wednesdays at 1:05 p.m.