All featured on “America’s Next Top Model” E! News Documentary

Lisa D’Amato won “America’s Next Top Model” cycle 17 (“All Stars”), but she first appeared on the show in the fifth season in 2005.

D’Amato revealed that during her first audition, the judges and Banks asked her multiple questions about her difficult childhood and relationship with an abusive mother.

“They kept trying to selectively get more information,” said D’Amato, who was reluctant to talk about her past trauma.

When fellow contestant Colin Wotel called D’Amato an “alcoholic bitch” during an argument, the nickname stuck after the season ended. In “Dirty Rotten Scandals,” D’Amato responds to a clip of him stumbling drunk during Cycle 5, saying, “I wasn’t eating properly, I wasn’t sleeping properly, and I probably had a couple too many glasses of wine. There was always a split second before I was completely lost.”

“They just used my childhood trauma as a weapon and messed me up mentally,” she added, claiming she was “set up to be publicly humiliated.” “Tyla made me look crazy on purpose.”

D’Amato was invited to appear on “The Tyra Banks Show” in 2005, where she said she was ambushed with questions about her childhood after making it clear the topic was off the table. When she became upset backstage, security took her to a closet, locked the door behind her and kept her there for about 30 minutes, she said.

D’Amato criticized “Reality Check” in an Instagram post, writing, “I watched the Netflix docuseries ANTM and I still think it’s sugar-coated. For many people it was much worse,” and in the caption urged viewers to pay attention to “Dirty Rotten Scandals.”

When asked why he came back for the All-Star cycle, D’Amato replied, “I came back for revenge. I came back for redemption.”

Former supermodel Janice Dickinson (consistently referred to as the world’s first supermodel on both “ANTM” and the reality doc) was often the toughest on the show’s judging panel and appeared full-time from cycles one through four.

Some of Dickinson’s cruelest highlights include telling plus-size models that they were “morbidly obese” and needed to lose weight, telling a Cycle 6 contestant to “zip up, bitch,” and being painfully frank in criticizing what she claimed were the realities of the modeling industry on the show.

With E! In the documentary, Dickinson said she was forced to adopt the persona after Banks and the producers insisted they needed the “Simon Cowell” of ANTM and “begged” her to be “harsher and crueler.”

Dickinson left the show in 2005, but returned as a guest judge for cycles five, six, and seven, before retiring from production altogether.

In “Dirty Rotten Scandals,” she called Banks a “hardcore bitch” and added that the show “really tortured” the cast because of Banks’ ego.

“She blamed the girls for everything,” Dickinson says. “I was there and saw it.”

Keenya Hill (Cycle 4) spoke out about the unfair sexual harassment she received during a photo shoot for “ANTM” on both “Reality Check” and “Dirty Rotten Scandal.”

The E! Doc also gave a glimpse of Cycle 7’s black woman Jada Young partnering with a male model who “hated black girls” and didn’t want to kiss her during a photoshoot.

Like Hill, when Young expressed his displeasure, he was reprimanded by production and told to “give him the kiss that will change his mind.” Jay Manuel appears on screen and tells her to stop crying, while Banks quips, “Once you’re black, you never go back.”

After “Reality Check” was released, Young took to Instagram to share his thoughts on the show.

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to appear on America’s Next Top Model. It opened doors, shaped my resilience, and gave me an experience that I will always carry with me. But the truth is that some of the trauma from such a controversial show still remains with me. Both things can exist at the same time,” the caption reads. “Sending love to all my fellow ANTM models who have walked the same path, seen and unseen, celebrated, criticized, edited and forever changed.”

Cycle 1 contestant Ebony Heiss said Banks and the show’s producers kicked her out without her consent during the show’s audition process. Heiss, who had classified himself as gay on a screening questionnaire, expected that to remain within the production team and was caught off guard when Banks brought it up on national television.

A few months after the show, Heiss said she received a call from her church asking her to “come back to the Lord” and wondered if Banks had considered her safety when going out in public.

The show also briefly touched on Cycle 5’s Kim Stoltz being treated as a lesbian on ANTM, before discussing Cycle 11’s Isis King, the show’s first transgender model.

Ms. King faced transphobia and ostracism from other girls, one of whom referred to her as “he/she.” Critics of “Dirty Rotten Scandals” argue that Ms. Banks believed that “just acknowledging that transgender people exist deserves a pat on the back and is worth talking about.”

Cycle 2 winner Joanna House has confirmed that contestants on the series are not paid to appear on the show, nor do they receive any residual payments.

Banks told reporters that Cycle 1 winner Adrian Curry was “making a lot of money,” but that wasn’t true. Curry told her family that she could take care of her financially, but she was unable to receive the funding or sponsorship that had been promised. In a 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Curry said that instead of the promised $100,000 contract, all he received was a $15,000 makeup demonstration and a failed attempt to sign an agent.

Similarly, House made several public appearances on the show, but was not paid for any of them. House, who moved to New York City immediately after the show, needed to find his own accommodations and next steps.

Later in the documentary, “ANTM” producer Ken Mok rubs salt into the wound, thanking the “All Star” models for their return and allegedly telling them they “put my daughters through college.”

Angelea Preston first appeared on ‘ANTM’ as a contestant during Cycle 12, also competed in Cycle 14, and ultimately won Cycle 17.

Preston’s victory was never broadcast, and she was pulled into a meeting with ANTM casting director Michelle Mock and CBS executives, where she was told she would be stripped of the title due to her past involvement in sex work. In the end, the finale was reshot and Lisa D’Amato became the official winner.

“Before I was on ‘All Stars,’ I was in a bind and I was just feeling desperate. I wasn’t thinking straight,” Preston says in the documentary. “This show would have changed my life for the better. Just for them to take the shit out of me.”

Before “All Stars,” Preston met with Mock to discuss her involvement in sex work. “I know what happened to you, but I want you to take advantage of this opportunity and do your best,” Mock told her before the season started.

The show never stated why Preston was disqualified or whether she was the original winner, only raising questions from fans when the panel announced that Preston was disqualified because she revealed “certain information” to producers.

Gina Turner (Cycle 24) has suffered from hair loss since she was 10 years old.

Turner, a longtime fan of the show and Banks, was shocked when she learned that Cycle 24’s sponsor was a hair care brand rather than the makeup company that ANTM normally works with.

“How was I going to win when I was told Pantene was a sponsor?” Turner said. “I don’t have any hair.”

Before appearing on the show, the model appeared in Playboy, which she said helped increase her confidence in her sexuality. Banks made it clear that she disapproved of Turner’s work, to the point that during her audition Turner began crying as she tried to explain. Midway through the conversation, Banks completely changed the subject and told Turner to tell the room about his alopecia. The Playboy conversation was not aired, and it appeared that Turner was unwell.

“That was the first time they manipulated my emotions to shoot a scene,” Turner says. He explained that he was told to wear a wig during the transformation section of the program, but in the end he ended up with a shaved head.

“In retrospect, their editing was so deceptive that they made the audience think I was feeling powerful when, in fact, I felt so small.”