Over the President’s Day holiday, Netflix dropped a brand new documentary that pulled the layers back on one of the early 2000s most bingeable shows: “America’s Next Top Model,” hosted by Tyra Banks alongside judges including Jay Manuel, Miss J Alexander and Nigel Barker.
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Initially conceptualized as a competition show for potential fashion models, “ANTM” quickly turned into a complete spectacle as audiences watched young women go through insane challenges week to week in order to prove that they had what it took and would do whatever to stay in the competition. The new Netflix documentary, “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” reveals that much of what happened on the show was deeply problematic, and that Banks is responsible for much of it.
She getting dragged for the role she played in the questionable and often cringey aspects of the show — as well as her response to it now after all these years. And trust us when we tell you, social media isn’t holding back how they feel.
Tyra Banks Lacks Accountability
One of the main criticisms from folks after watching the doc is that Banks lacks any sort of accountability for how some of the girls were treated. One major example of that is when she insinuated right at the very top of the doc that the show was inherently non-problematic until people started watching it in 2020 while stuck at home during the COVID pandemic.
She also shirked responsibility for some of the things captured on the show—most notably Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan’s sexual assault in Milan that was aired on national television and Cycle 4 contestant Keenyah Hill who was regularly fat-shamed and got groped by a male model during a shoot.
In both situations, Banks did nothing to help aid in the situation and even exacerbated them both by playing into the narrative that what Sullivan did was “cheating” and downplaying Hill’s uncomfortability. Banks explained that even though she was an executive producer on the show, she ultimately had little to do with the production side of things.
She even said that some of the outrageous things they put girls through were a result of audience demand: “You guys were demanding it, and so we kept pushing it,” she said in the doc.
While former judges Alexander, Barker, and Manuel owned up to their role in “ANTM’s” questionable material, Banks’ non-admission, in turn, sparked outrage from viewers.
“Nahhh Tyra Banks is pissing off in this documentary because how can she say “I wasn’t involved in the production side of things” meanwhile SHE was the executive producer of the show! No accountability whatsoever!” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
“Ok so that Netflix show was really just 3 straight hours of Tyra Banks taking zero accountability for creating a show where she profited off the abuse and exploitation of young women for years. Got it,” said another.
Added one other person: “Tyra banks really sitting up in this documentary like she’s not the main villain in all these girls lives.”
Tyra Banks Lacks Self-Awareness
One of the other overwhelming sentiments from fans was that after all these years later, all these horror stories and all the criticism—Banks still appeared to lack a level of self-awareness due to her announcement that Cycle 25 would be coming down the pike soon.
Many fans felt that the documentary could have been a prime opportunity for her to own up to how she fell short, how she failed to show up for some of the young women when they needed, and ultimately how she failed to really make serious changes in the fashion industry and instead perpetuated some of the same harm at times.
Instead, fans felt they got a disingenuous attempt from Banks at trying to make herself look like she was aware of her faults and wrongdoings all while not doing anything to correct it. A good example is when Cycle 6 winner Dani Evans — who was forced to close her tooth gap on the show—revealed that she received a disturbing phone call from Banks years later. In that convo, Banks admitted that she knew there were “certain doors that you couldn’t even get into because you did ‘Top Model.’ And I did nothing about it.’
Another example came towards the end of the doc when she “thanked” people for calling her out because it would in turn help others to be prepared for when they’re called out one day, too. Umm, what kinds pseudo-psychological notion is that. Girl, we’re talking about you right now, not anybody else!
“Hearing how Tyra Banks did nothing to help these girls and *intentionally* did nothing to help girls like Dani and Shandi. It’s giving malignant narcissist. Dani deserved better. Shandi deserved better,” wrote one user.
“Tyra shamelessly promoting cycle 25 after we just watched 3 episodes of traumatized girls, she’s crazy,” one person wrote on X/Twitter.
Tyra Banks Is A Bad Friend
In addition to all the drama with the contestants and Banks, the other notable talking point was the breakdown of the relationship between Barker/Manuel/Alexander and Banks. While all four of them started the show together and took it to enormous heights and ratings, they aforementioned trio were all let go after Cycle 18 when the new guard decided they wanted to take the show in a different direction.
As Manuel revealed in the documentary, there was no conversation with Banks after the decision was made but it came at a time where they were already on shaky ground to begin with. That’s because Manuel had tried to quit the show after Cycle 8 which led to him receiving a cold response from Banks. Though he was eventually persuaded to stay on, their relationship never recovered.
When Banks was asked about the specifics of the nature of her friendship with Manuel today, she resisted talking about it and said she’d prefer to have the convo with him herself—even though she hadn’t done so yet in all these years.
To make matters even worse, when it came to the friendship between Banks and Alexander—who was her longtime runway coach, he shared in the doc that he suffered a stroke in 2022. This led to him being in a coma for five weeks and unable to speak or walk.
While he’s paralyzed and wheelchair-bound now, he shared that he hadn’t seen or heard from Banks since his illness outside of one text he received years ago. When producers asked him to confirm whether or not she’d come by to see him at all, Alexander was curt: “Not yet.”
Naturally, this reveal didn’t sit too well with viewers either.
“Miss J knew Tyra since she was 16 and she didn’t even visit him in the hospital when he had a stroke….sent him a damn text like some distant co worker smfh. NASTY WORK! TYRA YOU ARE A NOT A GOOD PERSON,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
“Imagine trying to leave your job and they tell you no you can’t. So you stay, they strip your responsibilities, treat you like trash… then you get fired by someone you thought was your best friend. That’s what Tyra Banks and them did to J. Manuel,” said another.
Added one other person: “It also speaks volumes that J Alexander is now paralyzed from a stroke, and Mr. Jay and Nigel are still close to him support him and visit him, while Tyra who has known and had a mentor relationship with this man since she was 16 has not reached out to him. Sick b*tch.”
This documentary is bringing up a lot of serious feelings and serious discussions for everyone involved. It’ll be interesting to see how the fall out continues to play out.
“Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” is available to stream on Netflix now.
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