KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — The hearts of Malaysian fans of Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle Four skipped a collective beat last night, when the country’s sole representative Tuti scored the lowest marks and came thisclose to being sent home.

But Thai-American host Cindy Bishop threw her a lifeline and offered her a reprieve that kept her in the competition for another week.

Mere points separated Tuti from the next model on the chopping block, South Korea’s Sang In.

In addition to Tuti and Sang In, only four girls remain in the competition: Angela from Singapore, Julian from the Philippines, Tawan from Thailand and Patricia from Indonesia.

Although she is arguably a strong contender and a judges’ favourite, the past two weeks have been particularly tough for Tuti, whose real name is Nuraini Noor.

Last week, cracks started to appear in the 24-year-old Kuala Lumpur-born model’s streetwise façade as her insecurities were laid bare.

She struggled during a photoshoot that required her to show off her pearly whites because she “hates her smile as it makes her look ugly”.

Audiences saw her dissolve into tears, as notoriously demanding model mentor and creative director Yu Tsai asked her to leave the set because “we’re not babysitting anyone here”.

In last night’s episode, Tuti hit another roadblock during a video shoot for Japanese automaker, Subaru.

She was unable to “find the light” — a basic posing technique that all models know in order to play up their features — despite scoring high in the go-see portion of the competition earlier.

Even before the first episode aired, Tuti was attacked on social media by critics who said a Muslim should not be taking part in a modelling competition.

Many asked why she was even allowed to compete in the first place, as Muslims are purportedly “banned” from such events where contestants have to expose their bodies.

Tuti previously won the X Top Model Search Malaysia 2012 and a subsidiary title, the X Walk, and told The Star that she had not faced any controversy from previous modelling competitions in Malaysia.

So, despite the palaver of the past two weeks and the brickbats from haters, Tuti, as the show’s catchphrase famously goes, is still in the running to be Asia’s Next Top Model.

Catch the show next Wednesday on Star World (Astro channel 711) at 8pm to see if she can claw her way back up to the top.