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The second I spotted Tyra Banks as a talking head in the “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” trailer, I knew the Netflix docuseries wouldn’t deliver the long-awaited reckoning fans had waited for all these years.
The three-part documentary event, directed by Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, offers an “unprecedented look behind the scenes” of the hit modeling series, featuring new interviews with former judges — Jay Manuel, J. Alexander (aka Miss J) and Nigel Barker — contestants and winners, and yes, even Banks herself — who’s faced backlash in recent years over her show’s many controversies.
Of course, it wasn’t always like that, though.
When Banks’ smash series premiered over 20 years ago, its mission was simple: Show the world what it takes to become a top model — the highs, the lows and everything in between, without shying away from the industry realities Banks had once endured.
As the docuseries shows, that raw objective helped turn the show into an instant hit after its first season, paving the way for 23 more cycles to search for America’s next top models. But in true reality TV fashion, that sense of authenticity soon faded as the ratings skyrocketed. The challenges grew increasingly gimmicky (who could ever forget that infamous race-swapping shoot), and before long, the spectacle of the show overshadowed its original intent.
Many of us were too young to grasp the nuances of what we were witnessing on “America’s Next Top Model” during its run. Still, those who revisited it in the early months of the pandemic came to realize just how problematic much of it was — and, worse, how those moments had been normalized as simply good TV.
That’s why, rather than simply honoring the legacy of “America’s Next Top Model,” Netflix’s docuseries spends a considerable amount of time reexamining the series’ most troubling, controversial and downright offensive moments — at least to the extent it allows itself to do so.
From the body shaming and sexual misconduct incidents to the way-over-the-top makeover transformations — some of which included actual cosmetic procedures — to cringey photoshoot concepts that have aged like old milk, “Inside America’s Next Top Model” isn’t shy about putting these moments back on the Summer Jam screen.
However, in what feels like the most glaring issue in the doc, it does very little to take those behind the show to task for the lasting harm inflicted on contestants in the name of entertainment.
Frazer Harrison via Getty Images
Consider Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan. Near the end of Part 1, the docuseries revisits the episode “The Girl Who Cheated,” which captured Sullivan — who had a boyfriend back home — spiraling after it was revealed that she’d hooked up with another guy during the show’s Milan trip. The incident was caught on camera, but according to Sullivan, the events didn’t unfold the way the series portrayed them. What she describes sounds more like sexual assault.
“I just remember the guy looking at me, and I looked at him, and I was pretty drunk at that point,” she recalls in the doc, noting everything that happened next was “just a blur.”
“All I remember is him on top of me. I was blacked out,” she adds in her emotional interview. “No one did anything to stop it. And it all got filmed, all of it.”
When asked about Sullivan in her own interview, show creator Banks, looking as if she’s trying to jog her own memory, cops out and says, “I do remember her story. It’s a little difficult for me to talk about production because that’s not my territory.”
A voice off-camera then asked executive producer Ken Mok if there was ever a thought of turning the cameras off, to which he replied, “You know, we treated ‘Top Model’ as a documentary. And we told the girls that… ‘There’s going to be cameras with you 24/7, day in and day out, and they’re going to cover everything, the good, the bad and everything in between.’”
“‘No matter what happens on camera, we’re going to document all of that,’” the producer adds, although he later clarifies that “significant” edits were made before Sullivan’s controversial footage aired.
As former judge Manuel explained, production decided Sullivan’s incident would be a “storypoint” that they would see “all the way through.” But at no point does anyone seem to show remorse for what Sullivan experienced (except Manuel), nor do they offer her an apology, except the cameramen who had to film it all.
“That was, for good or bad, one of the most memorable moments in ‘Top Model,’” Mok says in the doc.
“Made for good TV,” Sullivan sarcastically adds.
She’s not the only “ANTM” contestant who airs grievances in the doc. Cycle 1 alum Ebony Haith opens up about feeling discriminated against as one of the few Black women during her season and being blindsided when the show publicly outed her as a lesbian. Meanwhile, fellow castmate Giselle Samson reveals that she still suffers from body dysmorphia over the judges’ harsh comments.
Later, in Part 2, Cycle 6 winner Danielle “Dani” Evans speaks about being repeatedly pressured to close the gap in her teeth to remain in the competition (she eventually got it semi-closed), only to learn that a contestant in a later season got a gap as part of her makeover.
In the doc, Banks says she has since apologized to Evans for the gap incident, though she said she was influenced by agents who told her at the time, “[Evans] will not work with those teeth.”
“Again, I could’ve just been quiet and let them handle it, but… hindsight is 20/20 for all of us,” Banks adds in her defense. “It just so happens that a lot of the things that are 20/20 for me happened in front of the world.”
“Inside America’s Next Top Model” is filled with more of these sorts of empty statements from Banks. Although she’s acknowledged her show’s wrongdoings in the past, you would think she’d take advantage of this bigger platform to go beyond vague regrets and actually confront the real impact of her series’ decisions head-on.
That said, it’s disappointing that she flat-out refuses to address the fallout between her and former friend Manuel in the doc after he and fellow judges Barker and Alexander were all publicly ousted from her modeling show.
“I should call Jay. I don’t wanna do this here,” she tells producers with a tight-lipped smile.
To its detriment, “Inside America’s Next Top Model” relies more on aggrieved contestants to address the show’s controversies instead of holding those responsible accountable. Rather than focusing on where the show ultimately went wrong, the docuseries seems more interested in taking a nostalgic walk down memory lane.
Perhaps this retrospective on the show’s complicated legacy was brought forth only now to set up the “ANTM” revival that Banks unveils at the docuseries’ conclusion.
“I feel like my work is not done. You have no idea what we have planned for Cycle 25,” she cryptically hints.
If the show’s team thinks the lesson here is just to give audiences more of the same, especially after all that’s been exposed over the years, then, clearly, they’ve missed the whole point.
“Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” is streaming now on Netflix.
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