Media Room

The Star | 1 May 2008

Tey Cindy wins Dreamgirl reality show

Top model: Tey Cindy receiving her prize from Edaran Tan Chong Motor executive director Datuk Dr Ang Boon Beng while runner-up Adeline Lee Ying Ying (left) and second runner-up Hanis Zalikha Zainal Rashid look on.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s first online reality series, the Malaysian Dreamgirl modelling competition, ended with 21-year-old contestant Tey Cindy being unexpectedly voted the winner at Tuesday’s grand finale in the 1 Utama shopping centre.

The programme had been watched by half a million viewers in more than 120 countries, drawing more than 200,000 SMS votes.

The competition had been running for two months over 18 episodes on www.malaysian dreamgirl.tv, documenting the experiences and challenges faced by 12 selected finalists fighting for public votes.

At the grand finale, only three were left, of which 18-year-old Hanis Zalikha Zainal Rashid was widely considered to be the favourite by judges and fellow contestants.

“I would have preferred Hanis to win,” said Elaine Daly, former beauty queen and judge/coach for Dreamgirl.

“Cindy wasn’t my favourite choice, but the public has voted.”

Tey appeared shocked when the results were announced, as she had expected the crown to go to second runner-up Hanis, especially because of the negative publicity over her attitude towards other contestants.

“Though I expected Hanis to win, I still believe I deserve this,” said the performing arts graduate, who walked away with a Nissan Latio 1.8Ti, a RM10,000 pre-loaded AmBank NexG PrePaid MasterCard, and a host of fashion products worth RM5,500.

Capxion Media CEO Jerad Solomon, who came up with the Dreamgirl idea, is already looking to build on the show’s success.

“Season two will be bigger and better. Being a Malaysian record holder has been a big motivation for us, and we will push ourselves to deliver more record-breaking productions,” he said.