Netflix has dropped a new documentary on America’s Next Top Model, and it’s not kind to Tyra Banks. The series revisits the 24-season reality hit she created, hosted, and executive produced, and it pulls no punches on the controversies that haunted the show—body shaming, a culture of eating disorders, and the fallout behind the cameras.
Clips included in the doc show Banks critiquing contestants in ways that land hard today: calling a Black model’s skin “ashy,” telling a repeatedly fat-shamed contestant to “get a burger and take the bread off,” and urging Dani Evans to close the gap in her teeth. Evans, interviewed for the series, accused Banks of prioritizing television drama over the well-being of participants. “It’s my life, and it was toyed with… consciously,” she says. Banks acknowledges the mistakes, calling out her own intensity, but frames much of it as industry reality: “There were agents that would tell me she will not work with those teeth.”
The doc doesn’t shy away from one of the show’s most infamous moments—Banks screaming at Tiffany Richardson: “I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you! How dare you!” Former creative director Jay Manuel says Banks “really scared all of us” that day and hints the aired footage was only a fraction of what happened. Tensions extended off-camera too, with Manuel and judge J. Alexander parting ways with the show under bitter circumstances; Alexander says Banks never visited him after his 2022 stroke.
Critics have been sharp. The Cut calls Banks “not sorry enough,” arguing the show she built to challenge a white, size-zero fashion machine ended up feeding the same toxic culture. The Guardian labels her “a real piece of work,” criticizing her tendency to shift blame to viewers. NPR highlights her contradictions, noting her deflection of responsibility under the guise of “industry standards.”
Other contestants share darker memories. Shandi Sullivan, Season 2, recalls being filmed intoxicated and having sex with another model in Italy—a moment producers reportedly did not intervene in. Banks says she was unaware, and former contestants report that eating disorders were widespread on set, fueled by pressures from both judges and producers.
Despite the fallout, Banks signals she isn’t done. In the doc, she hints at a return: “I feel like my work is not done… You have no idea what we have planned for Cycle 25.” The show has been off the air since 2018, and no official reboot has been announced.
The series is a stark look back at a cultural phenomenon and its messy legacy, a reminder that the glamour of fashion TV often comes with real human costs—and that the woman at its center is as complicated and polarizing as ever.
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Last modified: February 18, 2026
