The controversial legacy of “America’s Next Top Model” is the subject of Netflix’s new documentary series “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.”
The three-episode series, now streaming, explores the behind-the-scenes turmoil and complicated legacy of the iconic reality series, which aired from 2003 to 2018.
Series creator and host Tyra Banks (52), former Top Model executive producer Ken Mok, and former judges J. Alexander (67), Jay Manuel (53), and Nigel Barker (53) ), and interviews with former contestants such as Shandi Sullivan (43), Dani Evans (40), Whitney Thompson (38), Ebony Heiss (47), and Gisele are featured on screen. Samson, 41 years old.
Here’s the biggest bombshell.
Banks is said to have almost “been sexual” with Les Moonves.
Mok recalled that he received “a lot of pushback” from the network (then UPN, now The CW) when he was casting the show with the contestants.
“If you had one person with a different skin color, that was the definition of diversity,” Mok said.
He said he wanted a Hispanic cast on the show, but Les Moonves, a former media executive who was president of parent company Viacom at the time, humiliated him and said he “didn’t want that.”
“I lost it,” Banks recalled on screen.
Mok claimed, “Tyra was arguing with Les to the point of almost getting into a fight…Let’s not ruin the show before it airs.”
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Manuel, who was the creative director of “America’s Next Top Model,” recalled that when he was filming cycle one, “I had no idea what was going to be on the air.”
“The phone rang, and it was Iman who called… She said, ‘I was watching,’ and handed the phone to David[Bowie],” he recalled. “He said to me, ‘You’ve found where you belong.'”
body image problems
Contestant Gisele Samson, who took part in Cycle 1, said the show had perpetuated body image issues.
“I’m 18 years old and growing, and[Banks]is like, ‘Gisele, your butt is so wide.'” They chose to put it there (on screen). ”
Samson said that what she felt about herself in that moment “has stayed with me forever. Why does my butt have to be so big? That’s what I still say to myself.”
Samson added that she believes the modeling career she wanted never materialized because of the way she was portrayed on screen. “Agents and managers didn’t want to have anything to do with me because they didn’t have confidence in me. Who would hire that girl?”
Shandy’s on-screen assault allegations
Ms Sullivan, a former Cycle 2 contestant, claimed she was too inebriated to consent to sex with a man during the models’ trip to Milan. The incident was filmed and featured as an on-screen story about a boyfriend cheating on her.
“I remember him climbing on top of me, and I was blacking out. No one tried to stop it, and it was all filmed,” she said.
“I remember her story very well,” Banks said. “It’s a little difficult to talk about production because that’s not my area.”
Considering the program is being treated like a “documentary,” Mok informed the women from the beginning that cameras would be watching at all times.
Manuel recalled that Shandy was in the shower with the man, and that the rule was that cameras couldn’t follow people who went into the bathroom alone.
“But she wasn’t technically alone in the shower, so a camera came in and filmed it. I don’t know whose decision it was.”
But he said producers felt the need to “see it all the way through” because it was a “story point”.
When Shandy called her then-boyfriend to let him know what had happened, he called her a “fucking bitch” and the show captured the incident on camera.
“It was just the sound guy and the cinematographer,” she recalls.
After getting off the phone with her boyfriend, she “lay on the floor in a fetal position and just cried. Then[the sound guy and the cameraman]both came up to me and said, ‘We’re so sorry we had to film.'” They just knew this wasn’t right. ”
Mok said that while editing the episode, they “shrinked that scene down significantly.”
Reflecting on the incident, Banks said she had no involvement in the show’s “story” or editing.
“That’s Ken Mok…but it’s important for people to know that we didn’t put everything on TV.”
Controversial photoshoot including ‘race swapping’
The documentary explores how Top Models began doing outlandish photo shoots, including having models pose with cockroaches, pretending to be murder victims and pretending to be of a different race.
The bank cited “fear factor” and “survivors” as segments. “That was a time when there were shows that pushed the envelope. And we kept pushing it. You wanted it. Viewers wanted more of it.”
“The most difficult shoot was this race-swap shoot,” Manuel said, pointing to the Cycle 4 and Cycle 14 photo shoots in which aspiring models were dressed as other races, such as a white woman dressed as a black woman.
“My parents are from South Africa and grew up during apartheid. I know that history very well,” he said. “I had to do my job.”
Banks didn’t think it was controversial at the time.
“I was in my own little bubble, in my own head. This was my way of showing the world that brown and black is beautiful. But when I put it out there, the world was like, ‘Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?’
“It’s a problem, but I 100 percent understand why,” Banks said in retrospect.
Pressure to undergo cosmetic surgery
Danielle Evans, aka Dani Evans, was a participant in Cycle 6 in 2006. She had a gap between her teeth and was proud of it, but recalled that the piece encouraged her to take her to the dentist and have it fixed.
“I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to close the gap, it’s not your right to tell me what to do with my body,'” she said.
But eventually she was pressured to shut it down.
The documentary noted how Banks encouraged other contestants to widen the gap between their teeth in future seasons.
Barker echoed similar sentiments, saying he didn’t think it was a good idea for Evans. “I thought she looked great with the gaps between her teeth, but that perfection is boring,” he said.
On-screen, Banks chimed in, saying, “I actually apologized for the issue with Dani and what happened.”
Ms Banks claimed she felt like she was “between a rock and a hard place” after being told by her agent that Evans would not be able to get a job because of the gap in her teeth.
“That’s what they told me. And again, I could have just shut up and let them do it. But hindsight is 20/20 for all of us,” Banks said. “It just so happened that a lot of things happened in front of the world that were like 20/20 for me.”
Evans mocked Banks’ apology on screen, saying, “Fuck you. Even if I bridge the gap, the door won’t open for me. I should have known what I was doing. It’s a TV show to you guys, but this is my life.”
Models felt unprepared for their future careers
“They just threw me to the wolves,” she said after Evans won in 2006.
She said she thought she would have a career as a model, but since she was appearing on “America’s Next Top Model,” the designers didn’t want her to appear on the show and distract from the collection.
“What I’m most upset about is a conversation that Tyra had with me a few years later. She was like, ‘I knew there were certain doors you couldn’t even get in,'” Evans claimed because of the show.
Ms Evans said: “Tyra, with all due respect, you have no idea how painful it was for me…but for you to admit to me 15 years later, “I don’t know what hell you’ve been through, and I don’t know what you’ve been through.” “And for her, a Black woman, to call me and say, ‘I knew you were struggling and I didn’t do anything about it,'” Evans said.
Evans said the show “built an empire supporting every girl’s dreams” and “a multi-million dollar brand that never came to fruition.”
Fired Alexander, Manuel and Barker
In 2012, Banks reportedly fired Alexander, Manuel and Barker.
Banks said the network instructed her to do so.
“It shocked me. I was like, what? I didn’t need to replace it,” Mok recalls.
“Tyla sent me flowers for my birthday… and five days later I was fired,” Alexander said.
Mr Barker said he felt “betrayed”.
“It was tough because I didn’t have a backup plan at that point. I was on ‘Top Model’ for 17 seasons.”
Manuel claimed they agreed to issue a press release explaining the situation as if they had not been fired.
He said he felt it was “intentional” that the show prevented people who have been on the show “from the beginning” from “moving forward in their careers gracefully.”
Banks called it “the most painful news I’ve ever had to deliver” and said, “I cried myself to sleep that night.”
She called Alexander, Manuel and Baker “some of the closest people in my life. And me and Ken have to break the news that the deal is done and it’s over. You can imagine what that feels like.”
“But bosses have bosses, and the big boss was very clear: There are no sacred cows. And I heard that mean, ‘You too, Tyra. So pick up the phone and do what I tell you to do.’ ”
Banks said he doesn’t think they didn’t realize the order “came from above.”
“I think they still think it’s about me and Ken,” she explained.
Battle of Alexander’s Heath
Alexander revealed in December 2022 that he suffered a stroke. He was in a coma for five weeks, unable to walk or talk.
“It was emotional. I cried. I’m not ashamed to say I cried. And when I got to the hospital, Jay and Nigel came to visit me,” he said.
“It was a real shock, it was really upsetting, it was scary, it was scary,” Barker said. “We both cried, and I hugged him.”
Alexander is now speaking and participating in the document, but the camera moves to show him in a wheelchair.
“I taught the models how to walk, but now they can’t walk. Not yet. I’m determined to walk. We’ll see each other again, I’m sure. It’s not over for me yet,” he said.
Banks say ‘cycle 25’ is coming
After the show, Banks moved to Australia, where he continued his entrepreneurial endeavors with “Smize & Dream” ice cream.
“I live in Australia now and I feel like my work is not done yet. You never know what I have planned for cycle 25,” she said.
She did not elaborate further and cycle 25 has not been announced. Page Six has requested comment.
