Tyra Banks has become infamous for her appearance on the reality show “America’s Next Top Model.” However, when Netflix released a three part documentary series on the show in February, many more troubling elements of the competition were brought to light.
“America’s Next Top Model” first aired in 2003 and gained immediate success with viewers. The show consisted of models doing challenges and competing with each other for a chance for the title of “America’s Next Top Model.”
Fans of the show immediately connected with both the personal dramas that occurred between the contestants and its difficult challenges. However, the Netflix documentary “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” showcases the darker behind the scenes events going on while the show was being filmed.
The documentary features in depth interviews with some of the show’s contestants and judges, including the show’s creator, Tyra Banks. It confronts makers of the show on some of the more questionable challenges that the contestants were forced to participate in.
One of the most controversial challenges was the infamous “switching ethnicities” photoshoot from the show’s fourth season. In this photo shoot, models were given an ethnicity different from their own, and were then judged on their ability to “portray” this ethnicity in the photoshoot.
Models also did a “homeless photoshoot” in the show’s 10th season. In this shoot, models were made to look like homeless people begging for change on the street. Real homeless people were used as extras for the shoot.
The documentary called out the judges’ insensitive behavior towards the contestants, as well as their incredibly tasteless photoshoots. One contestant, Dionne Walters, who appeared on the shows with season, remarked how in a photoshoot she was told to look as if she had been shot. The show’s creators knew that her mother had been previously shot and paralysed.
“They knew about it from the application process, but they still chose to have me do this particular photoshoot that involved gun violence. I thought it was a coincidence at the time, but I don’t think it was.” Walters stated.
Despite the show’s many controversies, “America’s Next Top Model” ran for a total of 24 seasons before its cancellation in 2018. At its peak, the show amassed over 100 million weekly viewers and featured internationally known judges such as Twiggy, Law La Roach and André Leon Talley.
Many of the show’s creators and judges acknowledged the show’s many discrepancies and their regret. However, when directly confronted with the show’s controversies Tyra Banks commented “You guys [the audience] were demanding it!”
