Tyra Banks Addresses America's Next Top Model Firing

Teyona Anderson was named the 12th winner of America's Next Top Model last week.

But that news was almost overshadowed by the firing of Paulina Porizkova as a judge on the show, a decision that caused the model to blast series creator Tyra Banks in a number of interview.

Earlier today, Banks and executive producer Ken Mok released a joint statement in which they explained the reason behind letting Porizkova go.

"The current state of the economy has forced shows to make major budget cuts industry wide. America's Next Top Model is not immune to these financially challenging times. We've had to make significant cuts in every area of the production and, unfortunately, Paulina was a casualty of these cuts... We really enjoyed working with Paulina, and we wish her all the best in her future endeavors."

Porizkova has taken Banks to task for being rude to her on set, a statement we have no doubt is true, regardless of whether or not Paula is simply bitter for being fired.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.