Netflix to unpack problematic legacy of America’s Next Top Model in new docuseries
Netflix is set to launch a three-part insider documentary on the once wildly popular reality modelling show America’s Next Top Model, revisiting the series that dominated early 2000s television — and is now largely looked back on with discomfort.
Titled Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, the documentary will release on February 16 and dig into the realities behind the show, which, at its peak, reached more than 100 million viewers worldwide. The series features Tyra Banks, ANTM’s host and creator, who appears ready to spill the tea from the talked-about show.
“I haven’t really said much, but now it’s time,” Banks says in the trailer.
In the trailer, she was also seen admitting that she went too far on the show at times.
“I knew I went too far… it was very intense, but you guys were demanding it.”
According to Netflix, the docuseries examines the show’s problematic elements and pulls back the curtain on how ANTM functioned behind the scenes. It includes appearances by producers, former contestants and winners, as well as judges Jay Alexander, Nigel Barker and Jay Manuel, who will respond directly to social media commentary scrutinising controversial moments from the show.
In the trailer, Barker reflected, “It was wrong, and for some reason no one seemed to see it … we felt betrayed.” Manuel added, “I realised Tyra would do anything for the success of her show.”
The ANTM series was infamous both for its harsh critiques on contestants’ appearance as well as its outlandish stunt photoshoots and compulsory cosmetic transformations, including drastic haircuts and invasive dental surgeries, as also seen in the trailer.
The series has already drawn criticism ahead of its release. Adrianne Curry, winner of the show’s first season, revealed in a social media post that she declined to participate after being approached by the makers, calling the project “absurd”.
“I think people psychoanalysing it over 20 years later with a woke lens is absurd,” she wrote, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The three-part documentary is directed by Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, who previously worked on American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden.











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