Credit: Netflix

The most highly anticipated documentary of the month, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, hit the Netflix shelves earlier on Monday, and the Internet hasn’t stopped talking about it since.

The Netflix documentary, which chronicles the rise and fall of the smash-hit series, set in the world of modelling, turns the cultural cornerstone of reality TV into a battlefield of catastrophe, marked by controversies that still refuse to die down surrounding the show and its oft-apologetic coaches and producers, including Tyra Banks.

The three-part docu-series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, is packed with standout moments from the show that ran for 24 seasons, and it’s safe to say that they haven’t aged well.

But if you still haven’t had time to catch up on the documentary and are on the lookout for a lowdown, here are the five most explosive revelations from Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.

Five shocking revelations from Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model

The fat-shaming debate

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model finally addresses the psychological and physical pressure models faced in the show to stay thin while simultaneously acknowledging Tyra Banks’ sometimes successful attempts to try and introduce more shapes, styles, and ethnicities into mainstream modelling.

“When we started filming, I was a size six, I was 5’10” and weighed 115 pounds. I thought I looked good, but then you go on TV, and you’re like, ‘Oh shit, maybe not,’” says cycle 10 contestant Whitney Thompson, recounting her time on America’s Next Top Model. “It was a big juxtaposition to go into the fashion world where people are like, ‘You’re such a fat cow… it was just demeaning.’”

Thompson also alleged that the show denied giving her clothes for shoots that were in her size. Meanwhile, another model was of the opinion that “there was a lot of body shaming, but you have to remember it was 25 years ago and we were different back then.”

The gap controversy

While America’s Next Top Model came with its fair share of controversies, the Netflix documentary opens up about one involving cycle 6 winner Dani Evans. According to the docu-series, Banks and the production team were hell-bent to send Evans to a dentist to fill in her tooth gap, and the pressure was so high that it was that or face elimination.

Photographer Nigel Barker spoke of it now, saying, “I myself was like, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. I thought she looked great with the gap.” But then again, just a few instalments later, Banks had another model surgically widen her gap.

“I’ve actually apologised for the issue with Dani, and it happened because there were agents that would tell me ‘she will not work with those teeth, it’s not going to happen,’” Bank explained. However, Evans countered, saying, “Bull-fucking-shit. Me getting my gap closed is not opening any doors for me. You were making good for TV at my expense.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Evans further shared that she came to learn that models eventually began facing industrial discrimination for appearing on the show. “Years later, Tyra [told me], ‘I knew there were certain doors you couldn’t even get into because you did Top Model and I did nothing about it.’”

Jay Manuel on Tyra Banks

America’s Next Top Model’s creative director shares that he sent Tyra Banks a courteous email after the eighth instalment informing her that he was intending to move on from the show. “I didn’t like what the show was becoming; it was chipping away at my soul,” Jay Manuel explains in the tell-all Netflix documentary.

After three days, Banks finally replied to the mail, which simply read, “I am disappointed.” Following this, pressure from the network’s business affairs team surfaced, forcing Manuel to stay. However, to carry forward with Banks was no longer a cakewalk. “It was clear I was not allowed to speak with her outside [being on camera]. It was like psychological torture, I felt broken,” he added.

Inside Tyra Banks’ infamous meltdown

In cycle four of the hit reality TV series, Tyra Banks infamously screamed at contestant Tiffany Richardson as she seemed to give up on herself. “I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you! How dare you!” she said on camera back then. Now, looking back at the clip, she explains, “I just saw all that [work] going down the drain. I saw her just not believing in herself and giving up, and not just giving up on a modelling competition, but deeper… I went too far. You know, I lost it. It was probably bigger than her… That’s some Black girl stuff that goes real deep inside of me.”

However, according to Manuel, the situation was far worse than what was shown on the series, and another insider revealed that Banks was reportedly even escorted off the set. In fact, all the lawyers were present the next week. “There was a lot more that was really said, and some of the things that were said were not really well-intentioned. I will probably never repeat the lines that were said in the room that day,” says Manuel.

Tyra Banks never visited Miss J after the latter’s stroke

Miss J, who served as the runway coach for America’s Next Top Model for 18 seasons, reveals in the Netflix docu-series that he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2022, which left him comatose for five weeks. “I miss being the queen of the runaway. I’m the person who taught models how to walk, and now I can’t walk,” says Miss J at one point in the documentary.

Although Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker both visited Miss J during her tough hours at the hospital, upon being asked whether Tyra Banks ever paid a visit, he said, “No, not yet. Never came and visited.” But just when the producers pulled up with the question, Miss J checked his phone only to find Banks’ text saying she wanted to visit him.