“We live in an era in which everybody’s history is narrowed down to two lines in someone’s aggressive [internet] comments,” Sivan tells Vanity Fair. “People tweet about you and it’s just remembering them as the worst thing they ever did. And Tyra did want to come and say, hey, there’s more to me than just, ‘I was rooting for you.’”
Created by Banks and developed by TV producer Ken Mok (who also appears in the doc), as well as Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, America’s Next Top Model ran on various networks for 24 seasons—or “cycles,” as they were called on the show—from 2003 to 2018. Each cycle followed a new crop of aspiring models from across the US who lived together, competed in outlandish challenges, and faced a weekly elimination based on their performance and physical appearance. The eventual winner was named “America’s Next Top Model” and awarded a spread in a fashion magazine, plus contracts with a major brand and a modeling agency.
Contestants were mentored by creative director Jay Manuel, runway coach J. Alexander (Miss J), and fashion photographer Nigel Barker, alongside a rotating panel of fellow judges that included everyone from the late former Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley, to former model Janice Dickinson. “Janice, to our huge regret,” says Sivan, “has been interviewed for another documentary, so we couldn’t have talked to her, but she’s a great character.” In 2012, Manuel, Alexander, and Barker’s contracts expired, and the trio were not brought back to the show. Reality Check explores their exits and brings the former costars together for an emotional reunion. “I shed tears with them,” says Loushy.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model reunited former judges Nigel Barker, Miss J and Jay Manuel.Courtesy of Netflix
Since ANTM ended in 2018, both longtime fans and new viewers—fueled partially by pandemic-era binge-watching—have revisited the show on social media to reconsider its place in the culture. Viewers embraced terms like “smize” (smiling only with one’s eyes), but many internalized the show’s problematic attitudes about body image. While its casting was diverse, ANTM regularly included controversial photo shoots—twice during the series’ run, models were asked to present as an ethnicity other than their own.
In the docuseries, Banks, Mok, and former judges and contestants grapple with the show’s rocky standing. If so many ANTM contestants didn’t find lasting industry success, and those who did, like Winnie Harlow, have said it was in spite of the show, what are we to make of its legacy? Loushy spent a month watching all 24 seasons of the show (that’s more than 300 episodes in 30 days) in an attempt to find out. “It outraged me and it made me laugh,” she says. Then one day, “I told Daniel, ‘Okay, I’m ready to ask questions.’”
