Which America's Next Top Model scandals will be addressed in Netflix's documentary? Extreme makeo...

Tyra Banks opens up about the series' controversial past in the upcoming documentary. Which America's Next Top Model scandals will be addressed in Netflix's documentary? Extreme makeovers, dramatic exits, and more Tyra Banks opens up about the series' controversial past in the upcoming documentary. By Randall Colburn :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RandallColburnauthorphotoe7e8b48d9f8645588439077e721a5f48.jpg) Randall Colburn Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at . His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications.

Tyra Banks opens up about the series' controversial past in the upcoming documentary.

Which America's Next Top Model scandals will be addressed in Netflix's documentary? Extreme makeovers, dramatic exits, and more

Tyra Banks opens up about the series' controversial past in the upcoming documentary.

By Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on *The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer*, and many other publications.

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January 27, 2026 5:23 p.m. ET

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Tyra Banks on 'America's Next Top Model'. Credit:

MICHAEL YARISH/THE CW

- A new Netflix documentary about *America's Next Top Model* delves into the hit reality show's biggest scandals.

- Tyra Banks, Jay Manuel, Nigel Barker, and Miss J. Alexander are among those interviewed.

- The three-part series arrives on Feb. 16.

"I haven't really said much, but now it's time," says Tyra Banks, mouth twisting into a smile that promises *several* pots of tea.

So begins the trailer for *Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, *an upcoming docuseries about one of the most popular (and scandalous) reality competitions of the century thus far.

Created, executive produced, and hosted by supermodel extraordinaire Banks, *ANTM* ran for 24 seasons (called "cycles" on the show) between 2003 and 2018. Each cycle introduced a diverse array of aspiring models who lived together while competing for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and prizes like magazine spreads and agency contracts.

Banks saw the show as a means of fighting against the rigid standards of the fashion industry, but any competition series centered around cosmetic beauty is going to cause controversy — and *ANTM* caused a *lot* of it. (In 2023, ** spoke to 14 different ANTM alums about 20 of the series' most shocking moments.)

"*America's Next Top Model *was a groundbreaking force that forever shaped pop culture, but there's more to its complicated legacy than meets the eye," said producer Jon Adler of EverWonder Studio in a statement to EW. "[The documentary] will reveal fresh insights and intimate reflections on the drama, controversy, and personalities that defined this iconic series."

In addition to Banks, the docuseries will feature commentary from *ANTM* alums Nigel Barker, Miss J. Alexander, and Jay Manuel, as well as producer Ken Mok and several former contestants.

With no shortage of material to cover — including mandatory makeovers, internal feuds, allegations of body-shaming — you may be curious what the three-episode docuseries will likely tackle. As we wait for its mid-February release, read on for what to expect from *Reality Check*.

What scandals will Netflix's *America's Next Top Model *documentary cover?

Like many reality shows of its era, *ANTM* has ignited ample discourse on social media and elsewhere, with critics calling it exploitative and decrying the harsh criticism deployed by Banks and the judging panel.

"I knew I went too far," Banks acknowledges in the *Reality Check* trailer. Later, though, she adds that while the show "was very, very intense... you guys were demanding it. So, we kept pushing more and more and more."

The trailer also hints at some of the show's most shocking scandals.

Ethnicity-switching photoshoots

Tyra Banks in 'Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model'.

No contemporary conversation about *ANTM* is complete without addressing the instances in which the contestants were tasked with switching their races during a challenge.

In cycle 4, it was explicitly stated by Manuel that the cast would "switch [their] ethnicities." Some white contestants were made up and styled to appear Black, while others went from Latina to white, and so on. Four years later, in cycle 13, contestants partook in a similar challenge that was described as a tribute to the immigrant history of Hawaii, where the shoot took place.

In a 2023 interview with EW, cycle 13 model Jennifer An recalled being caught off guard when stylists began painting her body. "I looked around and I'm like, 'Guys, but I'm in blackface right now.'" she said. "I know that this is wrong, this is uncomfortable with me, nobody asked if I was okay with this, but I also realize that I'm in this competition state. Like, what can I do? I have no say over anything… once the cameras are on you in that way, you feel like you have to perform and not cause an issue, because the history of the show is, if you cause an issue, you get kicked off. So, I was like, let me just shut my mouth and stay on the show."

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Banks vehemently denied the blackface allegations. "I want to be very clear: I, in no way, put my 'Top Models' in blackface," she said in a previous statement. "I'm a Black woman. I am proud. I love my people and the struggle that we have gone through continues, and the last thing that I would ever do is be a part of something that degraded my race," she said. "I'm sorry to anybody that watched *Top Model* and was offended by the pictures because they didn't understand the real story behind them or even if you did see the whole episode and you were still offended, I truly apologize because that is not my intention. My intention is to spread beauty and break down barriers."

In a separate statement to EW in 2023, a spokesperson for Banks clarified that the experiment's intention was to push back against an industry where "lighter skin and straight hair were pervasive beauty standards" that "perpetuated deep insecurities within women."**

Not everyone who engaged in the shoots feels so strongly. Cycle 4 finalist Keenyah Hill previously told EW, "There's a big difference between us being artistic and having fun with photo shoot ideas and different parts of our aesthetic. That's our job as models. If there's a [non-Black person] who goes out on Halloween, painting their skin brown and making a mockery of it, then it's blackface, and making a mockery of [Black people.] Those are two different things; look at the context."

Per the trailer, it appears more will be said about the race-swapping shoots in the documentary.**

Danielle Evans' dental makeover

Jay Manuel in 'Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model'.

Another infamous *ANTM* incident highlighted in the trailer concerns cycle 6 winner Danielle Evans. During her season, Banks confronted Evans about not getting a gap in her teeth closed during a visit to the dentist. "Do you really think you can have a CoverGirl contract with a gap in your mouth?" Banks asked.

A clip of the scene in question routinely makes the rounds on social media, leading Evans herself to chime in about why she eventually agreed to partially close the gap. "Nothing or no one was going to stand in my way," she said in a 2020 Instagram video responding to the clip's virality. "And it wasn't about copping out, it was about understanding what really carries weight and holds value in my life — and teeth wasn't one of them."

Banks herself acknowledged the "insensitivity of some past *ANTM* moments" in a social media post following the clip's resurfacing. "Looking back, those were some really off choices," she said.**

During an interview featured in the trailer for *Reality Check*, Evans can be seen getting emotional, calling elements of her journey "so f---ed up." She adds, "It's a TV show to you guys, but this is my life."

Medical procedures weren't off the table when it came to the makeovers the show mandated of its contestants, and Evans' experience is likely to be at the center of that conversation in the series.**

Keenyah Hill alleges sexual harassment during a photo shoot

Tyra Banks on 'America's Next Top Model'.

Eric Liebowitz / The CW

*Reality Check* will also revisit the cycle 4 moment when model Keenyah Hill stopped a photo shoot due to claims of sexual harassment. The 19-year-old contestant became uncomfortable while posing with three male models, one of whom she alleges was aroused and touching her inappropriately.

"There is a line I feel was crossed," she says in the trailer. "He's grabbing my legs."

"It was wrong," adds former judge Barker. "For some reason, no one really seemed to see it."**

Speaking with EW in 2023, Hill said that she was already uneasy coming into the shoot, as the model had flirted with her aggressively when she was in hair and makeup.

"You've got to understand I'm 19 years old, this is the first time this has ever happened to me, I've never been on photo shoots with male models, all I know is that I feel uncomfortable," Hill told EW. "Now, when you watch it, it's super cringey, because that could've been shut down at the shoot."

Later in the episode, while being judged at the panel, Banks told Hill to use her "feminine wiles" in situations such as that. "You [push back] in a fun way, where he knows to back the heck up, but it doesn't really put static in the air, because then it makes you uncomfortable," Banks said in the episode.

Looking back, Hill disagreed. "That should've been squashed there on set, and the focus at panel should've been my photo, and not that moment."**

The exits of Jay Manuel, Nigel Barker, and Miss J. Alexander

(Left to right) Twiggy, Miss J. Alexander, Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker and Roy Campbell in 'America's Next Top Model' cycle 6.

Manuel, Alexander, and Barker are, aside from Banks, the personalities most closely associated with *ANTM*. In 2012, all three were dismissed from the show following the cycle 18 premiere.

In the trailer, Manuel and Barker both appear to address their departure. "You wanna talk about being slapped across the face and then slapped right back," says Manuel, adding, "I realized Tyra would do anything for the success of her show."

Barker, meanwhile, talks about feeling "betrayed."

The photographer and former *ANTM *judge told E! Online in 2012 that he had no hard feelings, saying his departure was a "network thing," not a "Tyra thing." He added, "It wasn't a shock. I'm friends with Tyra and the producers… There had been a discussion that ratings were down and that something like this would happen. There had been previous years where discussions about me being eliminated from the show had happened and I had actually survived the chopping block before."

Manuel, meanwhile, published a novel in 2020 called *The Wig, The Bitch & The Meltdown,* which is described as "a satirical look behind the scenes of the fictional reality model competition show *Model Muse*"* *and how its central character works to "hold the fledgling production together [as] he juggles his duties to his 'BFF,' the ruthless and vulnerable antihero Keisha Kash, his supermodel boss and to his soul." (As you might imagine, fans have a lot of theories about who Keisha Kash is based on.)**

When does *Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model *come out?

Nigel Barker in 'Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model'.

All three episodes of *Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model* premiere Feb. 16.**

Where can I watch Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model?

*Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model *will be available to stream on Netflix.

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Published: January 28, 2026 at 06:57AM on Source: RED MAG

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