TMZ's latest "Who'd You Rather" feature—pitting TikTok star Olivia Ponton against Selling Sunset realtor Emma Hernan in matching string bikinis—is the kind of content that invites reflexive eye-rolls. But dismissing it misses the point: these polls are less about beauty than about brand equity, and both women have built empires on exactly this kind of exposure.
Ponton, 22, amassed her following during the pandemic's TikTok boom, parlaying dance clips into modeling contracts with Wilhelmina and campaigns for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. Hernan, 33, leveraged Netflix's real-estate reality franchise into a frozen-food startup, cookbook deals, and a personal brand that treats the bikini shot as business collateral. Neither woman needs the tabloid's validation; both benefit from its traffic.
The economics of the comparison game
The "Who'd You Rather" format is older than the internet—FHM and Maxim ran versions for decades—but its survival into the algorithmic age reveals something durable about attention markets. Engagement requires stakes, and beauty comparisons manufacture stakes cheaply. For the subjects, the calculus is simple: any click that lands on your name is a click that could convert to a follower, a brand deal, or a product sale. Ponton's Instagram following exceeds seven million; Hernan's hovers around three million. A TMZ poll costs them nothing and reminds casual browsers they exist.
Why the backlash never sticks
Critics periodically call for retiring these features as retrograde. The argument has merit—reducing women to swimsuit comparisons is hardly progressive—but it ignores the agency of the participants. Ponton and Hernan are not unwitting subjects; they are professional image-makers who supplied the photos, tagged the brands, and understand that visibility is currency. The transaction is consensual, even if the format is crass.
Our take
The bikini poll is a relic, but it persists because it works for everyone involved: the tabloid gets clicks, the influencers get impressions, and the audience gets a low-stakes dopamine hit. Complaining about it is like complaining about the weather—accurate, perhaps, but unlikely to change anything. The smarter question is what happens when the next generation of creators decides the trade-off isn't worth it. Until then, expect more thong bikinis, more polls, and more engagement metrics climbing quietly in the background.
