Tyra Banks Faces ANTM Criticism in New Documentary
Netflix is gearing up to drop a three-part documentary on February 16 that digs into the complicated world of America’s Next Top Model and the legacy of its creator and host, Tyra Banks.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model offers a candid look at the show that was beloved by fans yet criticized by many in later years, bringing together never-before-seen interviews with Banks, judges Nigel Barker, Jay Manual and Miss J Alexander, as well as a roster of former contestants including Whitney Thompson, Dani Evans, and Giselle Samson. The new project will reflect on the highs and lows from all sides of the show’s 24-cycle run from 2003 to 2018.
In the recently released trailer on YouTube, Banks acknowledges that certain moments of the show may have “gone too far,” admitting that she pushed contestants hard amid pressure for drama and entertainment in the name of good show ratings.
At the time of its original airing, America’s Next Top Model was praised for challenging beauty norms and introducing fresh vocabulary like “smize” to pop culture. But critics and social media commentators today point to episodes that included body-shaming humiliation, extreme challenges and makeovers, and controversial shoots that invoked racial stereotypes.
While some former participants have welcomed the chance to revisit those moments, others, like first-cycle winner Adrianne Curry, have declined to participate in the documentary and pushed back against what’s being called a “woke” reexamination of the series’ legacy.
Reality Check joins a growing wave of documentaries about the early reality-TV boom in the 2000s with shows like the Biggest Loser, which also faced backlash over extreme weight-loss practices and long-term health consequences for contestants. These projects reflect a cultural shift toward questioning how entertainment often times normalizes harm, how power, image and vulnerability were handled, and whether today’s reality television has truly learned from those mistakes.
