By Michele Yeo
“I haven’t really said much but now it’s time.”
So says Tyra Banks as she sits down to reflect on America’s Next Top Model, the wildly popular modelling competition show that dominated television and pop culture for years after premiering in the early 2000s. Now, nearly a decade after the curtain closed on the final catwalk, the show is getting the Netflix docuseries treatment with Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Featuring interviews with past contestants, production execs, and key players like Jay Manuel, Nigel Barker, J. Alexander, and of course, Tyra herself, the three-episode series delves into the show’s origins, its undisputed success, its many controversies, and ultimately, its legacy.
After being passed on by every major network, ANTM premiered in May of 2003 on the relatively tiny network, UPN. The show was the brainchild of Tyra Banks, herself a top model, who wanted to create a hybrid of American Idol and The Real World set in the modelling world. A group of young aspiring models were put through a series of challenges with one contestant eliminated each week until the last one standing was declared America’s Next Top Model and given a contract with a professional modeling agency. The show was an almost instant success and ratings juggernaut. At one point during its run, more than 100 million people were tuning in worldwide and it eventually spawned multiple spinoffs in numerous countries. The series generated several iconic pop culture moments and memes and made stars of its judges and panelists before wrapping in 2018 after 24 seasons or “cycles” as they were called. In the years since, through streaming, YouTube, and social media, the show has enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance with new audiences discovering it for the first time and original viewers revisiting it. And, like many things from the early 2000s, several aspects of the show do not look good when viewed through a current lens.
Reality Check doesn’t shy away from the problematic elements of ANTM with several former contestants dishing to the doc about their less than positive experiences including being bullied for their weight and their looks. Dani Evans from cycle six, who had the gap in her front teeth fixed during her season, tells the doc she was essentially bullied into doing so and threatened with elimination if she didn’t. Fellow contestant Joanie Sprague underwent hours of painful reconstructive dental work to fix her “snaggle tooth.” Contestant Ebony Haith recalls feeling discriminated against for her skin tone despite the show being hosted by a fellow Black woman. Meanwhile, another former contestant, Shandie Sullivan from cycle two, is still emotional recalling how her drunken hookup in Milan was captured on camera and broadcast to millions. Shandi was in a long term relationship at the time and her consent with regard to her inebriated infidelity was dubious at best.
And then, of course, there were the totally unhinged photoshoots which had contestants posing as homeless people, drug addicts, bulimics, and victims of violent crimes. One contestant Dionne Walters, who appeared on cycle eight was made to pose as a gunshot victim despite her own mother being the victim of a shooting that left her paralyzed. “I think they wanted to see some kind of mental breakdown or see me crumble,” she tells the doc. “They didn’t get the reaction they were hoping for.” Another photoshoot, in a truly baffling decision that was made not once, but twice, had the contestants posing as people of a different race. Models were literally painted and sprayed with body makeup to appear as other ethnicities. It’s hard to believe this was ever thought of as a good idea, but not only was the race swap photoshoot not met with outrage, it was executed again – nine cycles later. Of the photoshoots Tyra says, “I didn’t think it was controversial. I was in my own little bubble…this was my way of showing the world that black and brown is beautiful.” She does admit it hasn’t aged well. “Looking at the show now, through the 2020 lens, it’s an issue and I understand 100 per cent why,” she tells the doc.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is the latest Netflix docuseries to retroactively scrutinize a reality show from the early 2000s that has aged like milk left out in the sun. Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, which hit the streamer in August, looked back at the super successful weight loss competition series that essentially physically and emotionally tortured people into losing weight. And, as with Fit for TV, in Reality Check the major players involved stop just short of showing real, true contrition for the more toxic elements of their respective shows, absolving themselves of total responsibility, often pointing to it being “a different time” or that they were simply responding to audience needs. “You guys were demanding it,” says Tyra of the show’s audience. “The viewers wanted more and more and more.” Of exploiting Shandi’s questionably consensual sexual encounter, former executive producer Ken Mok tells the doc it was, “for good or bad, one of the most memorable moments of Top Model,” while Tyra shirks all responsibility saying, “it’s a little difficult for me to talk about production because that’s not my territory.”
Tyra says she “can feel and taste what people wanna see” and according to her, that’s another season of America’s Next Top Model because she recently announced another one is on the horizon. “You have no idea what we have planned for Cycle 25,” she tells the documentary. That may be true but it’s a safe bet that it won’t involve race swap photoshoots.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is now streaming on Netflix.
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