As with many reality series hailing from the late aughts, history has not looked too kindly upon cutthroat competition show America’s Next Top Model, a fact long acknowledged by host and supermodel Tyra Banks. Now, the project’s controversies are getting the exposé treatment in a new three-part Netflix docuseries, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.
Premiering Feb. 16, the show promises interviews with Banks, producer Ken Mok and leading judges Jay Manuel, J. Alexander (aka Miss J) and Nigel Barker. Former contestants and winners — like Whitney Thompson, Giselle Samson, Shannon Stewart, Shandi Sullivan, Dani Evans, and Keenyah Hill — also appear.
The teaser opens with Banks’ now-infamous clip — “I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you!” — before the present-day media personality vows to open up about what occurred on the reality competition show behind the scenes. Though the host says she wanted to “fight against the fashion industry,” the streamer’s first-look previews a flurry of some of ANTM‘s issues: the body shaming, toxic beauty standards and other improprieties — like implied sexual misconduct and racially insensitive shoots.
“I knew I went too far,” Banks says at one point, before shifting blame on audiences for “demanding” more from the series’ contestants.
At its height, the series — which first premiered on the now-defunct UPN, before shifting to its successor The CW and even later VH1 — would draw 100 million global viewers at its peak. It spanned 24 seasons, or cycles, totaling over 300 episodes from 2003 through 2016 (including one revival installment in 2018).
Last year, Banks reflected on the show and its legacy at Essence‘s 18th annual Black Women in Hollywood Awards, saying in part: “Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb shit. But I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the internet when there were 24 cycles of changing the world. And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow.”
