Tyra, We Were All Rooting for You
America's Next Top Model was only ever about one woman being on top
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is out today on Netflix. It’s been hotly awaited since the trailer was released a few months ago. During the pandemic, there was an ANTM resurgance. This documentary might lead you to believe a bunch of bored, too woke millennials and zoomers suddenly decided to pick on poor Tyra Banks. There is a central lie Reality Check needs you to believe: Tyra and her co-producer, Ken Mok, simply didn’t know any better. This is just how it was when the show debuted in 2003. We only know better because it’s 2026.
Most of the first episode is spent trying to convince you that this is absolute fact in order to absolve production and Tyra. Or maybe it’s because it’s the only answer Tyra offers. She’s rarely asked follow-up questions. She isn’t pushed when she refuses to answer a question. It’s all she gave them to work with and it is true that this was the wild wild west of reality TV. There were no real “rules.”
ANTM debuted before The Swan made on-camera surgery a clear step too far. It was even three years before Black. White., a quickly cancelled 2006 show where a white family was made black and a black family was made white with prosthetics and make-up. The first ANTM race swap episode was in 2005. It’s easy to say “They didn’t know it was an issue, they didn’t see the backlash to Black.White.” But, the second race swap episode was in 2009, well after people had made their issues with both shows known. If ANTM had come out later, would it really be all that different?
I don’t think it would. Reality Check shows a Tyra Banks who swears she just didn’t get it right at a time when no one knew better. I would argue she and Ken knew they weren’t getting it right because they did not want to. The only real rule of reality TV during this era was that ratings ruled. Tyra can say she didn’t know about colorism or the intrusive nature of the show in 2003, but critics in the media called these issues to her attention almost immediately. She read their reviews. We learn Tyra and Jay spent just as much time in the ANTM AOL chatrooms as we did. They knew what got people talking and happily found girls to sacrifice for a season renewal.
The narrative the documentary presents is that Tyra wanted to create a real modeling show that would bust open doors for women the industry ignored. But, sadly, due to network pressures outside of Tyra’s control, the show turned into a monster. This is a pretty kind read on the situation for Tyra. Despite internet rumors that Banks has a production credit, she doesn’t. Why the documentary chooses to treat her with kid gloves is a mystery. The truth is that Tyra and Ken were always monsters, pulling vulnerable girls into a show that would harm their careers more than help.
So What Was 2003 Really Like?
The documentary starts with Ebony Haith, cycle 1’s beautiful, black, bald lesbian. Producers know she’s gay and confirm she’s comfortable with this being used on the show. They also know they’ve cast Robbyne Manning, a Tennessee Jesus freak who does not hide her judgement of Ebony. If ANTM is going to use Ebony’s sexuality as a plot point, they certainly weren’t going to make it easy for her.
While cameras told a story of simmering tension between the two, Ebony said the truth was that everything was pretty respectful and she had no issue holding her own against Manning’s bible verse tirades. In 2003, she did an interview with the Windy City Times. She said, “The girls came in to meet my girlfriend, and their whole attitude changed. They all came and introduced themselves, Robinn too. Robinn even wanted to play cards.” Ebony’s excellent handling of the situation wasn’t the story producers decided on, however. Instead she was portrayed as the typical “angry black woman.” They made her seem mean and difficult to work with.
The documentary says we only now see that this stereotype is wrong so how was Tyra supposed to know this was an offensive story to force onto Ebony? Well, because Ebony said it back then. In that same 2003 interview she says:
The almost 25-year-old model from the Bronx said she’s not as mean as TV viewers believe. “Why was I portrayed this way? Sometimes African American women, especially in my style, African American women have a tendency to be portrayed as angry or very forceful. I even noticed on the show when they were trying to buff me up. My mother was saying ‘Girl, where are those muscles coming from?’
If Tyra and crew were reviewing every single public comment made by cast and crew to see if they broke NDAs, it’s hard to believe they didn’t see what Ebony said at the time. Tyra wasn’t unaware of the angry black woman stereotype, she wanted to use that stereotype for the show’s benefit. We had an understanding of this in 2003. We had these words and the very person impacted by this choice was using them as soon as the show hit UPN. Colorism and the angry black woman stereotype weren’t born in 2020 from COVID-19 fever dreams. Ebony advocated for herself and was ignored by a show that couldn’t care less because it worked.
Ok, you’re going to say: Ashley, that’s just one article. Who cares if Faren D’Abell from the brilliant, liberal city of Chicago knew what was happening in their lil’ queer paper? Fair enough! But by 2006, three years into the show’s run, even national media was starting to notice that there was just something fucking weird about Tyra Banks and her relationship with black women.
J.E. Dahl at Salon published the piece “Is Tyra Banks Racist” in May 2006. Yeah. Before Obama was president. Before white people started using “woke.” Before all of that, people were saying, hey, Tyra says she loves black women but…she kind of doesn’t?
Since UPN’s programming caters to a black audience, it makes sense that Tyra, the first black woman to grace the cover of Sports illustrated swimsuit issue, is at the helm. But lately, the supermodel has seemed disapproving of the trappings of black American culture. Thoguh she illustrates her allegiance to the sisterhood by making loving references to her booty, for the past few cycles Tyra has been discouraging any behavior that could be considered “too black.”
-”Is Tyra Banks Racist” by J.E. Dahl
Tyra knew the discrimination these women would face in the industry and used it against them. Even after a contestant won, Tyra would still to try to force them to fit an image, turning them into what she thought a “proper” version of them was. Danielle Evans is the most heartbreaking example of this. Dani was my absolute favorite contestant of all time. I was ecstatic when she won. But when she was announced as the winner, Tyra’s first comment was “We’re gonna get you some voice lessons, girl!”
Not because Danielle had issues with pronunciation or anything, she just had a southern accent. The other judges said it was charming like another contestant’s Nigerian accent. But Tyra said there’s an acceptable black Southern accent and one that is “too black.” Danielle’s was too black. The judges defaulted to Tyra.
Danielle also had a gorgeous gap in her teeth. Again, other judges said it made her stand out. Tyra said it made her country. In the same 2006 Salon piece Dahl even compares Danielle to Lauren Hutton, a white model famous for her tooth gap, and complained about Danielle being forced to change hers. Four years later during cycle 15, Tyra would widen the gap in Chelsey Hersley’s teeth, specifically namedropping Lauren Hutton as the inspiration behind the look. Hersley was white, on her a gap wasn’t “country.”
No one suddenly looked back decades later and thought that was an odd double standard, Tyra was called out on at the time. Did she face it head on like she claims to do in the documentary? Not at all. Like the race-swapping challenge, she just found a way to milk the controversy again in a later cycle.
This isn’t to say the media landscape was a beautiful liberal landscape of empathy and understanding when the show debuted. There were more publications who shared Tyra’s views. Episode 2 of the documentary gets into the sexual assault of Shandi Sullivan. Watching today, it is incredibly clear she cannot consent. There are no mainstream articles or reviews that highlight this from 2004. There are a few commenters in archived forums who point out she didn’t seem to know what was happening, but it’s never a full defense. The show tells us she cheated on her boyfriend.
Stereogum, a media publication on the left side of things, called Shandi, “America’s Next Top Airhead.” The episode got additional attention because it aired after the Janet Jackson Super Bowl boob flash. Tyra and production leaked reports that the episode was “raunchy” and had to be heavily edited to chase Janet’s clout. Tyra did an interview confirming her girls “did the nasty” before the episode aired. By the time it came on, they’d created an environment encouraging viewers to slut shame her.
After the episode aired, D. Parvaz at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said of Shandi’s call with her boyfriend, “This has to be one of the most intrusive, raw moments in reality television.” Banks and Mok knew they’d captured something they weren’t supposed to. It felt intrusive. It felt wrong.
Sullivan is in the Netflix documentary. She reveals that she still refuses to watch the scene. Of course, that didn’t later stop Tyra from playing the clip during a reunion after Shandi told her she wouldn’t look at it. While we hear her ex call her a bitch, Shandi sits with her eyes shut tight. When it ends, Tyra looks at her shocked and goes, “I noticed you didn’t watch, was that tough for you?” Well yes, Tyra. You knew that. That’s exactly why you did it.
There’s also the case of Isis, ANTM’s first transgender contestant. She’s missing from the Netflix documentary, but Tyra briefly mentions her as an example of success and progress. If they had shown Isis’ season, you would’ve seen clips of her being relentlessly bullied and a ton of transphobia. Sure, Tyra knew this was a “progressive” casting choice, but like Ebony, she provided Isis with no protection and cast transphobes to live with her. It was hard to watch in 2008. Gina Carbone at Seacoastonline talked about how bullied Isis was as the season started. How Isis was treated felt wrong even then.
Just like when she made a girl pose as a corpse who’d been shot in the head after she told producers her mom had been shot. Or the girl who was forced to model in a coffin after her friend died. Or the girl who was realized it wasn’t a coincidence she was told to model as an elephant and gluttony: These were all strategic choices made to get Tyra the highest ratings possible.
Once you reject Reality Check’s thesis that Ken Mok and Tyra Banks were simple innocent lil’ unread babies who never knew anything until TikTok was shoved into their hands in 2020, you can really start to understand how heinous their actions were.
Ok, So Tyra Did Shitty Things For Ratings
Yeah! Like I said, ANTM came out around the same time as some truly bat shit insane shows like The Swan and KidNation. But…that wasn’t how all reality TV was at the time. Project Runway is considered ANTM’s upper-class counterpart. The show had judges who were harsh and contestants had beef, but the show took pride in its contestants. Unless someone made themselves really look like a jerk, being on Project Runway wouldn’t torpedo your career. Contestants made connections and learned skills that helped many of them succeed beyond their 15 minutes of fame.
Tyra says she was inspired by 2002’s American Idol. Obviously, they had Simon Cowell, but they also showed empathy for their contestants in both their storytelling and judging. Beyond the audition episodes, the people they cast weren’t caricatures. Once the actual competition started, it was understood everyone was on an even playing field when it came to being selected. Even those who lost could feel good knowing they’d made it that far on their talent.
On ANTM, you might be there because of your talent or because Tyra has decided a plus-sized model will get ratings this year. They won’t have clothes your size all season and the agency you win a contract with won’t have a plus-sized division, but you’re supposed to believe everyone is there with equal consideration. But, you probably weren’t brought there to win. You’re there to be one of the “firsts” Tyra pats herself on the back for introducing to the world. Don’t expect much after that though.
It’s not like ANTM couldn’t have copied some of the nicer aspects of those other reality shows. They certainly copied a lot of their evil stuff! When it was announced Janice Dickinson would be on ANTM, immediate comparisons to American Idol’s Simon Cowell were made. “Watch out, Simon Cowell. There’s a challenger for your title as the toughest-talking judge in reality TV,” said Scott Pierce at the Deseret News. When André Leon Talley joined ANTM, many said it was to give the show the cutthroat fashion takes seen on Project Runway.
Did they consider copying any of those shows more supporitve ways? No. In fact, ANTM was known for being particularly sadistic. People saw it as doing more than other shows from the first cycle. After the premiere, Heather Havrilesky at Salon described Tyra’s mentorship as “borderline-sadistic.” She celebrates them hiring some of the “most elitest, outrageously bitchy fashion industry types she could find to torture the girls.” About the challenges she writes, “Continuing in the same sadistic vein, each week the group was forced to pose in increasingly harsh conditions that ranged from uncomfortable to excruciating: on freezing cold rooftops in bikinis when it was 8 degrees outside.” Reality Check presents this as the way things were, but no one on American Idol or Project Runway had to endure hypothermia.
Project Runway and American Idol couldn’t lean on misogyny as much as ANTM. They didn’t have all-female casts that could get ratings with catfights. Maybe they would’ve if they could’ve. But, ANTM pitting girls against each other, making that a feature of the show, made it difficult to feel like there was any support or solidarity once your cycle ended. You were forgotten for the latest and greatest, you weren’t seen as a real model with a real portfolio. There’s no collection or performance you can point to. There’s just a bunch of pictures Tyra chose that probably make you look bad. In the documentary, they admit to choosing bad pictures on purpose if it would help another girl’s narrative. The world may not have even seen your real talent or skill.
ANTM had a lack of respect for its models that was necessary for them to have real careers after the show. When a girl left, there was no talk of what she’d created, her talent or where she might try to go next. It’s much harder to keep modeling in a personal capacity than it is to sew or sing. No, it was expected that the losing models would end up back at Burger King or Walgreens. They will fade away, meant to be forgotten by viewers and the other girls.
Even the winners weren’t sacred to Tyra. Neither were her friends. By cycle 15, ANTM was considered, “the toughest reality show of them all.” In 2010, before the show’s 10-year anniversary, Irin Carmon at Jezebel wrote about “The Exquisite Sadism of America’s Next Top Model.” Tyra saw this as a reputation to maintain, not something to learn from.
There Is One Sacred Cow
Reality Check: America’s Next Top Model touches on some of the stuff above, but leaves out a lot. It’s far from a complete picture. To the producers’ credit, they do try to ask Tyra Banks direct questions. They want to hold her accountable. She’s asked about Dani, Shandi, Kenya, and her fall out with Nigel and the Jays. Most of the time, she refuses to answer. That’s actually better than when she does answer and just provides a word salad of non-answers, though. Tyra acts like it’s our fault. We gave her the views. It’s what we wanted. We kept tuning in.
So let’s look at what happened after the cameras stopped. When the ratings dropped and no one cared anymore, did her behavior change? When the curtain fell and no one could ignore the fact that winners and runner-ups rarely made it big and were “future nobodies in the making” was it revealed Tyra was putting on an act and she’s really supportive, loyal and encouraging?
Nope! In fact, her abandonment of the very people she used might be her worst mistake. Reality Check wants you to think Tyra yelling at a girl is the worst thing she did. They talk about it like it’s on the same level as sexual assault or encouraging eating disorders. Tyra’s disappointment in one girl is far from the worst thing in the show’s history. She let Miss Jay get fired 5 days after sending him flowers for his birthday. She forced Jay to stay on the show after he sent an email trying to leave only to then fire him without warning. Nigel was blindsided. These were some of her oldest friends and she decided she’d rather go down with the ship than stand with them.
That might make sense if ANTM has been the institution Tyra wanted us to believe it was. If she’d created an important ladder for minorities in modeling to succeed, it’d be honorable to stay behind and help more. But winners of ANTM weren’t getting actual work from their agencies. From the first season, Ken and Tyra knew that being on the show actually hindered careers more than it helped and admit this in the doc. The winners were either seen as “just reality tv stars” or they’d be shut out of the industry for the very quirk that got them into the competition. By cycle 2, they were casting girls knowing that this was a dead end for their careers. The only success stories were girls who distanced themselves from the ANTM brand.
There are girls who’d probably have bigger modeling careers if they’d never gone on the show. Most people understand reality TV is not a guaranteed positive. It’s always a risk. The girls in the documentary acknowledge this. But even winners were left to fend for themselves in an industry that refused to acknowledge them. It would have been easy for Tyra to do something about this. If the show hadn’t introduced the cast as a joke, maybe the industry would’ve been more understanding. What Tyra claimed was a “ladder” was more like a menagerie that kept them captive to the ANTM phase of their career; their worst moments on display in syndication.
Danielle Evans is, again, an example of this. In the documentary she says after she won, she went to the agency she got a contract with. They treated her like an outsider. She lived in model housing, but didn’t book anything like her roommates. She lived with legitimate models who told her their agent looked down on her for being from ANTM. She was a girl with an incredible personality, on-camera charm and modeling skills but she was nowhere to be found in magazines or on TV. Eventually, years after her season, she reached out to Tyra and told her how she’d basically been left to drown and given no support. She asked for help.
In her segment, Tyra acknowledges her treatment of Danielle. She agrees and says not helping Danielle was one of her biggest regrets. she says she could’ve done more to advocate for her. It feels like Tyra used ANTM to go around the country, finding beautiful, young, promising young models so they’d never grow to outshine her.
She may be able to point to production with anything else, but her treatment of the Jays, Nigel and ANTM alumnae off screen was her choice. Eventually the show would fire her too. ANTM leaves no great influence on today’s modeling industry. Of course, the modeling world and reality TV have changed a lot since 2003. There are no “supermodels” anymore really. At its conclusion, the documentary says the show’s biggest success was making it easier for future contestants to become influencers. Working a few shifts at SUR is easier and achieves the same results. Why deal with Tyra dumping spiders on you after you told her your sister was killed by a spider just so you can get an Instagram brand deal with a vibrator brand?
Those who were on ANTM have mixed feelings about it. It’s a monument to Tyra Banks, her insecurities, and the mistakes she refuses to learn from. Despite opening a door for so many girls, she has no clear protege who came from the ranks of ANTM. There are people who say ANTM owes these girls nothing. Fair enough. Only one girl in the documentary says she owes her career to Tyra Banks. The rest seem to treat it like a poison apple. Take a bite at your own risk.
At the end of Episode 3, Tyra talks about her life post-ANTM. She hasn’t seen Miss Jay and after his stroke, she only a text. She makes it clear that the show firing her did not get her down. Nothing could stop her. She loves to pivot. She’s increasingly alone on red carpets and in photos. Her life in Australia is obviously very different than the one we see in Episode 1. The biggest difference is that it seems lonelier.
Jay, Nigel and Miss Jay come together in a beautiful moment at the end of the series. If there’s one good thing that came from the show (besides all of the money they all made), it’s the friendship they found in each other. They are the people who literally show up at each other’s hospital beds. They take pictures together.
Tyra doesn’t join them. She stays isolated during the entire production. She starts giving a speech about the “lens of today” and thanks viewers for calling her out. “That’s the only way we get better, that’s the only way we change.” She doesn’t acknowledge that she was called out back in the day too, but she didn’t change because she didn’t want to. Then Tyra says we have no idea what’s in store for cycle 25. Suddenly the real reason for this “reckoning” is clear: there’s a new season on the line; ratings at stake.
But, Tyra is cut off by my girl Danielle, who is given the last word before credits roll, “Girl that is absolutely ridiculous, perfect time to stop.” She gets up and leaves.
Hey!! I owe a huge explanation post about where I’ve been and stuff. Idk, I was taking care of a kid and family for awhile. Writing some stuff. Donated bone marrow which is an incredible thing you should sign up for but also, MY GOD IS IT MORE PAINFUL THAN ANYONE TELLS YOU. It basically became my entire end of 2025.
Then it was starting to turn into that thing where you feel more anxious to address it the longer you don’t address it, but I had some THOUGHTS about this documentary.
I’m sorry. I am back. Hello.
Also, I got super into crafting while I was away. Like I turned my entire dining room into a craft room. I make so much stuff and I’m selling it on my site to raise money for various anti-ICE orgs. Over the last two weeks, we raised $260 for CHIRLA!
There are keychains, 3d stickers, phone cases. Some of it is Anti-ICE themed, some of it is Golden Girls and Sex and the City. All proceeds, minus costs for shipping and supplies, are going to Unidos MN for the next two weeks.
Want some of this stuff? Well go here and get it.
Support a good cause. Also thanks for reading all of this if you read all of it.
So happy to get to read something from you again!
Also, I get treated with blood products made from plasma donations, so thank you for your donations/sacrifice! I wasn’t aware it was a painful process either.
Tyra seems to be under the mistaken impression that saying everything incredibly slowly makes her seem *less* villainous. The way the girls (Shandi especially) were treated is so heartbreaking.