In May 2017 the finale of Season 12 aired and Heidi Klum was heavily criticized by the media and audience for her performance. For example, Süddeutsche Zeitung said, that the only winner of the show after 12 Seasons is just Heidi Klum and not the participants. They critzied that it does not matter who is winning the show, because it is only about promotion, the showmanship of Heidi Klum herself and about showing a pestilent body image. Among other things, Heidi Klum had sung by means of Playback and was criticized for the quality of this performance by Spiegel Online. In addition to that, the Season 12 finale had very low ratings.