loses her temper in spectacular fashion<\/a> at contest Tiffany Richardson, after misunderstanding her post-elimination response as something to be read as ungrateful. \u201cI have never in my life yelled at a girl like this!\u201d she screams. \u201cWhen my mother yells like this, it\u2019s because she loves me. I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you, how dare you!\u201d<\/p>\nThe confrontation might have happened in 2005, before gifs and memes were as deeply embedded within our culture, but it\u2019s managed to survive and mutate, a copy-paste punchline easily found on many a social media thread. Yet it doesn\u2019t take much to figure out that something darker is happening in the scene and something even darker was taking place off-camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot more that was really said,\u201d says Jay Manuel, one of Tyra\u2019s ex on-screen right-hand men, in a new docuseries. \u201cI will probably never repeat the lines that were actually said in the room that day \u2026 People have tried to make it something funny but it really wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The re-assessment of America\u2019s Next Top Model, from revolutionary reality show to hotbed of toxicity, had slowly been taking place in the years since it ended but it gathered steam during the pandemic when so many of us had that much more TV watching time on our hands. It\u2019s not as if the millennials who grew up with the show, which aired from 2003 until 2018, weren\u2019t aware of how problematic so much of it was but it took a younger generation to look at it with fresh eyes, and what Banks now calls \u201ca 2020 lens\u201d, to bring about a social media reckoning. The cavalcade of aghast YouTube and TikTok breakdowns of crucially awful scenes (bodyshaming, racism, pretty much everything judge Janice Dickinson said) forced Banks, who created and hosted the show for 22 of its 24 cycles, to respond. Snippets, from panels or elsewhere online, showed her to be overly defensive, highlighting the good in an attempt to paper over the bad, but it wasn\u2019t enough and finally, she\u2019s agreed to be part of Netflix\u2019s juicy three-part series Reality Check, the most substantive ANTM autopsy to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of beauty in this show,\u201d co-director Mor Loushy says to the Guardian in a video interview. \u201cThere was a lot of ugliness in this show. But let\u2019s talk about all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understandable why Banks would have an initial impulse to play defence. She\u2019d grown up in the fashion industry at a time when there were very few Black women allowed in and while she had opened doors (she was the first Black woman on the front of Sports Illustrated and GQ and was one of the very few women of colour to achieve supermodel status) she\u2019d also had plenty closed in her face. \u201cI would go home and just feel defeated,\u201d Banks says of her early modelling days in Paris. \u201cI was constantly being told no you can\u2019t do this because you\u2019re Black. There were not a lot of Black models back then. We were being paid so much less just because of the colour of our skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea of a reality show about models \u2013 pitched as The Real World meets American Idol \u2013 was her way to not only find \u201cpayback\u201d as she calls it but also show that diversity within the industry was essential. The process of trying to sell it to a network led to yet more rejection for Banks (models were seen as \u201cunsympathetic\u201d characters) but after it was finally sold to Paramount offshoot UPN, it become a surprise ratings hit and provided an underserved young female majority audience with something unusually relatable.<\/p>\n
But while the show did offer up the idea of diversity \u2013 women of colour, queer and trans contestants, plus-sized models \u2013 it also upheld the same standards Banks was apparently railing against.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey started as misfits with very good intentions,\u201d co-director Daniel Sivan says. \u201cThey were starting as disruptors but as power grew, they became bullies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series documents how Banks and her panel of judges, including two gay men of colour in Jay Manuel and J Alexander aka Miss J (another revolutionary addition at the time), found ways to make magnetic television (in its heyday, the show was watched in 170 countries) but often at the expense of the women, who were as young as 18, at its centre. \u201cThey did these girls so dirty,\u201d says an influencer clipped in a montage.<\/p>\n
Tyra Banks Photograph: Barbara Nitke\/Cw Network\/Kobal\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
The ways in which they were done dirty go from micro to macro and denigrating to downright dangerous. There was Dani Evans who was told she needed to close her tooth gap in order to stay on the show, something she eventually allowed them to do as part of a \u201cmakeover\u201d (\u201cIt\u2019s my life and it was toyed with consciously,\u201d she says while Tyra says she was \u201cbetween a rock and a hard place\u201d when she gave the advice). There was Keenyah Hill who went from being bullied at school for being too thin to her exaggerated \u201covereating\u201d being turned into a cruelly edited storyline (comments graduated from \u201cshaped like a boy minus the breasts\u201d to \u201cKeenyah needs to lose weight\u201d). There was Dionne Walters who had to pose as a shooting victim in the \u201ccrime scene\u201d week after she had told producers that her mother had been shot years earlier (\u201cI think they wanted to see some type of mental breakdown,\u201d she says).<\/p>\n
There was a weight test for contestants in earlier seasons, making young women like Shannon Stewart, who was struggling with an eating disorder, even more conscious of her body. There was also the infamous \u201crace-swapping\u201d week which saw contestants wearing make-up and styling to cosplay as other races, a genuinely shocking clip to rewatch (\u201cThis was my way of showing the world that brown and Black is beautiful,\u201d Banks says of her initial intention before later admitting \u201cIt\u2019s an issue and I understand 100% why\u201d).<\/p>\n
Then there was Shandi Sullivan who says what was framed as a drunken indiscretion with a male model was in fact sexual assault and the cameras kept filming anyway (\u201cNo one did anything to stop it,\u201d she says, tearfully).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely one of the most difficult interviews I\u2019ve ever done in my life,\u201d Loushy says. \u201cIt was a really a red line that was crossed in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the most chilling moments in the series is a shameful defence for the decision to keep the camera rolling, not just during the assault but after as Shandi calls her boyfriend in tears. The makers were filming a \u201cdocumentary\u201d so they shouldn\u2019t interrupt what\u2019s taking place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a documentary film-maker is not a get out of jail free card,\u201d Sivan says. \u201cEven in this interview, which Mo conducted, Shandi broke down crying and Mo said cut and we stopped because you don\u2019t just keep filming because it\u2019s good TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Banks is asked about this particular incident, she says \u201cit\u2019s a little difficult for me to talk about production because that\u2019s not my territory\u201d.<\/p>\n
Banks was not alone in making Top Model of course, the show became a collaboration between her and producer Ken Mok as well as those involved with the network. It makes blame \u201ccomplex\u201d says Loushy. The women they speak to clearly have a great deal of anger for Banks, who flipped between protective house-mother and betrayer-in-chief, but the show existed at a corrosive pop culture moment where women\u2019s bodies were being scrutinised and ridiculed and reality TV was in its wild west era (\u201cYou guys were demanding it,\u201d Banks says. \u201cThe viewers wanted more and more and more\u201d). Banks was an easy fall guy, according to Loushy and Sivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cTyra was one of the only women who was a show-runner back then,\u201d Sivan says. \u201cThe misogyny goes in both directions, not just to justify the harm that was done on the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds: \u201cThe whole concept of telling someone that she is too fat wasn\u2019t even badmouthing back then. It was just part of the culture. And harassing people, having a man grab a woman\u2019s ass is something that you would see on Home Alone 2, it was a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n
There may now be a more formalised duty of care for some reality shows but is our culture, with social media now a prevalent force, really that much better now?<\/p>\n
America\u2019s Next Top Model Photograph: Evan Giordanella\/Cw Network\/Kobal\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show did present and showcase so many different images of beauty,\u201d Sivan says. \u201cAnd now, even when you look at Instagram and it\u2019s supposed to be all so democratised, everybody\u2019s extremely skinny, fit, going to the gym, getting plastic surgery. Our own daughter is obsessed with make-up and she\u2019s 10 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banks does show more self-awareness than we\u2019ve seen from her before when talking about the problems that arose. She even addresses the uncomfortable clip of her screaming at Tiffany. \u201cI went too far,\u201d she admits. \u201cI lost it. It was probably bigger than her. It was family, friends, society, Black girls, all the challenges we have. So many people saying that we\u2019re not good enough. I think all that was in that moment. That\u2019s some Black girl stuff that goes real deep inside of me, but I knew I went too far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps her most surprising admission is that we might not have seen the end of America\u2019s Next Top Model. \u201cYou have no idea what we have planned \u2026 for cycle 25,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
When I ask Loushy and Sivan if they think the show might actually return, they seem sure that those involved would want to do it again. \u201cCycle 25 is Tyra\u2019s dream,\u201d Sivan says. \u201cI think it\u2019s also the judges\u2019 dream. I think they all want to do another cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loushy admits that even in her research, binge-watching all 24 cycles, she still understands why it was a success. \u201cI couldn\u2019t stop watching,\u201d she says. \u201cIt still works even with the lenses of today and I enjoyed every second of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But is it possible to resurrect and avoid the same problems? What would that show even look like in 2026?<\/p>\n
Sivan says: \u201cOur only tip that if anybody revives this show I hope it focuses more on the personality of the contenders and not on how they look.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even for those who didn\u2019t watch the show religiously, there\u2019s a scene in America\u2019s Next Top Model that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-476485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}