• May 17, 2004
• Vol. 61
• No. 19

The Face-Off

There's cutting-edge...and then there's FOX's beauty contest for the surgically altered. On The Swan, average Janes get their noses bobbed, teeth veneered, thighs lipo'd, tummies tucked, faces lifted, breasts augmented, abs aerobicized and hair extended—oh, and there's therapy. On the May 24 conclusion, one of the final eight "swans" will be crowned in a pageant. Reaction has been mixed: Some TV critics have called the show "ghastly," "hurtful and repellent" and "appalling"; on the other hand, about 10.5 million viewers watch each episode

Rachel Love-Fraser, 27
"I'd pick myself apart in front of the mirror, and I don't anymore," says the married office worker from Sammamish, Wash. After seven procedures ("I wanted to surrender myself to the process"), she has also lost 32 lbs. "I'm happy about who I am. Finally."

Cristina Tyree, 27
Her tummy tuck was one of the most extensive ever performed by Terry Dubrow, one of the show's cosmetic surgeons. "Thanks to that and exercise, I have no fluffy Jell-O anymore," says the Rancho Cordova, Calif., office administrator. "I can't wait to belly dance for my husband."

Belinda Bessant, 27
As a hospice worker in Las Vegas, the single mom of a 4-year-old "knew all the procedures. I was more excited than anything." The two rounds of surgery, 11½ hours in total, "hurt, but wasn't that bad." Most grateful for: the therapist. "I wish I'd done that for myself a long time ago."

Cindy Ingle, 32
After nursing two sons, "my breasts were like two wet tube socks," says the homemaker from San Diego, who's now a D cup. Of her 14 procedures, she's happiest about her nose job. "I hated my profile. People may think, 'How petty she is to want to change her nose.' Well, it's made me feel really good."

Beth Lay, 25
"The most painful thing was the liposuction in my legs," says the married customer-service supervisor from Milton, Wash. "It felt like they'd been pounded by a baseball bat." Another kind of ache: that her son, 2, "won't really remember the old me. I have struggled with that a little bit."