Tyra Banks Is ‘ANTM’s’ Biggest Villain, But Jay, Miss J and Nigel Need to Be Called Out

Netflix’s new documentary, “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” may do a stellar job at highlighting how bad host Tyra Banks was to a myriad of young women who were on the popular show decades ago. But her bad behavior was consistently and constantly supported by others around her, namely the judges: Jay Manuel, Miss J. Alexander and Nigel Barker. And they deserve to get called out for it, too.

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Across the three-part documentary, several former contestants came on the record to discuss their sometimes horrifying and disturbing experiences while filming the show. From sexual assaults and harassment to photo shoots that sometimes quite literally put their lives, mental, emotional and physical health at risk—these women endured multiple hardships in the name of becoming the next top model. And all the while Banks nor Manuel, Alexander or Barker stepped in to say enough was enough.

Take Cycle 4’s Keenyah Hill, for example. When she was getting groped by a male model during a photoshoot and tried to call attention to it and how uncomfortable it was making her feel, her concerns were brushed off in the moment by Manuel. He told her that there were over 50 people there on set and that her push to stop the shoot was essentially unprofessional. Hill was then made to keep it pushing.

While he did suggest to the male models to contribute to the shoot without grabbing on Hill, he minimized Hill’s issues and didn’t fully step in to mediate the situation with was problematic. Later, when it was time for her judging session, Banks later categorized what she did as slightly unprofessional and Manuel didn’t add any further context to the situation.

Also, when Manuel tried to quit the show after Cycle 8, he was somehow persuaded to stay on all the through his eventual firing after Cycle 18. Even though he described that particular timeframe of working there again as “mental torture,” it makes you question why he would choose to come back into a toxic work environment if it was as awful as he described.

When it comes to Miss J, while the shade and jokes may have been somewhat funny at times—his harsh criticisms often got a pass when they shouldn’t have. Let’s not forget how he called “plus-sized” Cycle 3 contestant Tocarra Jones “nasty” and told her to suck in her gut while practicing her runway walk.

“Miss Tocarra, you know you plus-sized. Suck in your gut baby, with it hanging out, it looks nasty,” he said at the time.

Even while watching some of the clips back during the documentary, Miss J chalked up his behavior and words to them being reflective of the societal times they were living in and didn’t do much to really apologize. The same can also be said of Barker who, admitted that in hindsight, there were things that definitely weren’t OK and instances where he knew things were going off-kilter. However, he didn’t do too much or say too much outside of mentally making a note of things.

At the end of the day though, all of Manuel, Alexander and Barker’s sentiments can be summed up in one word: complicity. Had they really been moved by the off-putting things that these women were going through and had they really done what they could have and should have done to use their influence to sway things in a more healthy and positive direction in the moment all those years ago—these women wouldn’t be so traumatized all these years later. Placing all the blame on Banks is the easiest thing to do when she’s the front-facing person of “ANTM” and especially if it means the complicit role you played will get little blowback. And if we really want to take it there, the judges shift towards blaming Banks could read as hypocritical and retaliatory, especially given the fact they only really amplified those feelings when it was time to talk about how they were fired. Meanwhile, their whole job on the show was essentially firing models week to week, but we digress.

But while Banks may have been the biggest villain on the show, her behavior could only be perpetuated by an underlying ecosystem that made it OK for her to do so. And if the person at the top is being rude and mean and nasty, implicitly and explicitly, then of course it’s going to trickle down onto those who work underneath them. Sadly, this proved to be the case on “ANTM,” but it’s only fair that we call out those who constantly empowered Banks and reflected the same kind of behavior. Nobody gets a free pass on this show and we all should be louder about that.