Eva has upper hand on ‘Model’

While this season of “America’s Next Top Model” (7 p.m., UPN) has felt like a letdown, we’ll all have to adjust to the fact that personalities like last season’s Shandi come but once in a reality TV lifetime. Nobody’s ever going to top her transformation from Rexall-shelf-stacking duckling to hot-tub-loving swan. And maybe that’s a good thing.

After the uninspired Ann was sent packing, the final three would-be mannequins come down to Eva, Yaya and Amanda. Amanda had to be considered an early favorite. Her transformation from North Carolina mom to luminous Annie Lennox look-alike was spectacular. And her back-story of impending blindness only added to her allure. But she’s clearly been in a rut of late, relying on her blond locks and radiant eyes to carry the day.

Yaya is nobody’s idea of a winner. She’s the A-student who always tries too hard and lets you know how smart she is. Yaya is the quintessential runner-up. Eva began the competition as the perceived bad girl. Her early pact with Ann crashed and burned because Ann, the fetching jock, could not grow and change, as Eva has done, from self-described ghetto diva to a near-sophisticated lady. Even if she wears her emotions on her sleeve and tucks her heart a tad too close to her tear ducts, Eva’s the only girl in the surviving trio to bring passion to her performance week after week. And for that, she deserves to win.

Tonight’s other highlights

  • Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): loose nukes in the former USSR; marketing to children; a profile of Kevin Bacon.
  • The gang looks back at the comedy domain they mastered on “The Seinfeld Story” (7 p.m., NBC).
  • Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw host the “Christmas in Washington 2004” concert (7 p.m., TNT).
  • Dennis Haysbert narrates “Secrets of Pearl Harbor” (8 p.m., Discovery).