A new platform for 'Top Model' pair

J. Alexander and Jay Manuel (from left, flanking Tyra Banks on ''America's Next Top Model'') are getting their own show. (Monty Brinton/UPN)

HOLLYWOOD - In the pursuit of perfection, "America's Next Top Model" coaches Jay Manuel and J. Alexander have cut many girls down to size. "I'm seeing a carcass on a fence," Manuel, the show's creative director, once told a contestant while she posed during a photo shoot. Runway trainer Alexander doesn't sugarcoat his words either: "Your walk is as useless as a flashlight with no batteries in it in the dark."

The girls competing to win a modeling contract don't mind the critiques, however catty they may be. Manuel and Alexander seem like the gay best friends they always wanted: stylish, opinionated, and happy to coif the contestants until they're stunning.

In truth, Tyra Banks's sassy sidekicks, affectionately known to fans as Mr. and Miss J, are the unlikely heroes of "Top Model," keeping viewers laughing, models in line, and ratings high for 11 editions and counting. (The reality show's season finale airs Wednesday night.)

Now the pair are getting a chance to star in their own show, "Operation Fabulous," described as a cross between "Top Model" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

If picked up by the CW, the show will follow them to small towns across the country to advise everyday girls on how to work it in the real world.

The feel-good nature of the project is a slight change of pace from the snark of "Top Model," but CW president of entertainment Dawn Ostroff says behind the shtick are two guys who are always rooting for women. "Jay is your parent in tough love. He tells you the way it is, but only because he wants you to be the best you can be," she said. "As much as Miss J criticizes and rolls his eyes, deep down, he's just looking for the girl who can get it done."

Both men began separate careers in fashion long before being recruited by Banks for "Top Model" - Manuel as a makeup artist and Alexander as a model-turned-runway walk instructor. On "Operation Fabulous," the pair would do for the Plain Jane what "Queer Eye" did for the Straight Guy.

"On 'Top Model' they're competing for a demanding job, so we have to crack the whip," Manuel said. "But we like working with real women too. We want them to feel good about themselves."

Before their current careers, Manuel was pre-med and studied opera singing, going so far as to work with New York's Metropolitan Opera for a time; Alexander thought he would follow in his older sister's footsteps into an accounting job, though his father knew better.

Since 2003, Manuel and Alexander have coached aspiring top models on being comfortable whether they were walking down a runway blindfolded, posing underwater, dangling from high wires, or modeling clothing made of raw meat.

"It was always clear that there was another show to do around Mr. and Miss J," said executive producer Ken Mok. "There was always so much good stuff left on the editing room floor."