The America’s Next Top Model Documentary Offers No Real Accountability
It’s been 23 years since the premiere of the modeling reality competition show America’s Next Top Model. From the O-M-G moments to the chaotic challenges, host and executive producer Tyra Banks, fellow judges Nigel Barker, Jay Manuel, and Miss Jay Alexander, and network producer Ken Mok sat down to break down the culture behind the hit series in the three-part Netflix docuseries Reality Check: America’s Next Top Model.
When I first heard this docuseries happening, I was really excited because I grew up addicted to watching this show. I was looking forward to seeing past contestants speak on their experiences and bring light to what they’ve gone through. Even more so, I actually hoped that Banks would address the issues and take responsibility for her part, yet that was not the case. Instead, we, the viewers, are blamed. As if a big part of the fanbase were not young, impressionable girls.
It was incredibly disappointing and frustrating for Banks to provide the most vague answers to pressing questions and double down on her intentions of “changing the industry” while still perpetuating the same problematic ideas of the modeling industry. This is especially prevalent in Cycle 4 contestant Keenyah Hill’s story where she talks about being body-shamed with a photoshoot about gluttony and another where she portrays an elephant. Banks constantly emphasizes that she wanted to fight against the fashion world at the time given her history and her personal experience of being rejected based on her skin color. She wanted to give young women the confidence and the empowerment to believe they can also achieve this dream too. You cannot have this kind of idea as the basis of your show and reinforce the exact ideas of beauty and success that the fashion industry held at that time. Equally so, it's just as frustrating for the judges to pass off all the controversial photoshoots and comments as reflective of “the time.” An explanation doesn’t mean excuses and, boy, there were a lot of excuses.
Every contestant has a story, from Cycle 6’s Joanie Dodds to Cycle 1’s Giselle, that just goes to show that this series has done a lot of harm. While the show may have helped launch a lot of these women’s careers (if they were lucky), it’s revealed that their mere participation on the show came with a negative label. Cycle 6 winner Danielle Evans opened up about this very issue and her anger towards Banks for not helping her despite seeing her struggle to book anything after the show. That sense of betrayal is felt through the screen and it’s really hard to hear. After every story, I simply couldn’t help but feel so terrible for these women. None of them deserved that at all.
Another heartbreaking moment comes with Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan who speaks up about her experience on the show and the disturbing moment that shook up the series. Banks acts as if she can’t seem to remember all the details of the situation, meanwhile she shoved this situation on live television on her own talk show back at Sullivan’s face. Traumatized by it still, it is unfair to reduce her assault as her “cheating” on her boyfriend and for no one to have stopped it from happening when Sullivan was very clearly too inebriated to consent to what happened to her. At the very least, Barker, Manuel, and Alexander recognized that this was one of the most difficult moments in ANTM history and clocked Banks on her “struggling” memory about it. Though none of them were perfect, I did feel sad that they got the short end of the stick by the network and Banks after the first couple seasons. The dynamics changed and it was very difficult, even as a viewer, to continue watching the downfall of the series.
Every contestant on this show deserved so much better and I am glad they are speaking about this now. Networks, producers, hosts, judges, and all parties involved in any reality competition series need to continue to be held accountable for their wrongdoings. These women were failed by the people around them in front of millions of Americans. The audacity for Banks to consider bringing back another season just shows that greed and entertainment outshine morals.
Reality Check: America’s Next Top Model is out now on Netflix.
