00:00People have told me one season that she got a gap created in a girl's night.
00:05Girl, that is absolutely ridiculous.
00:07What?
00:09I've actually apologized for the issue with Danny and what happened.
00:14Netflix's new docu-series Reality Check, Inside America's Next Top Model,
00:19is pulling back the curtain on the long-running reality franchise,
00:22and the revelations are raising serious questions about what really happened behind the scenes.
00:28The three-part series revisits the cultural phenomenon that ran from 2003 to 2018,
00:34featuring interviews with creator and host Tyra Banks,
00:37executive producer Ken Mock,
00:40former judges Jay Manuel,
00:42Nigel Barker,
00:43and Miss J. Alexander,
00:45along with several former contestants.
00:47One of the biggest bombshells involves Banks' alleged clash with former Viacom president
00:51Les Moonves during casting for Cycle 1.
00:55According to Mock, the network pushed back on diversity.
00:58When producers wanted a Hispanic contestant,
01:01Moonves reportedly objected.
01:02Mock claims Banks argued so intensely it nearly became physical.
01:06I lost it, Banks recalls in the documentary.
01:09The series also revisits one of the show's most controversial storylines.
01:13Cycle 2 contestant Shandy Sullivan
01:15alleges she was too intoxicated to consent to sex while filming in Milan.
01:19The encounter was captured on camera and framed as a cheating scandal.
01:25Sullivan says she was blacked out and no one intervened.
01:28Production maintains the show operated as a documentary-style series,
01:32with cameras following contestants at all times.
01:35Banks said she wasn't involved in editing decisions,
01:38adding that not everything filmed made it to air.
01:41Another painful chapter comes from Cycle 6 winner Dani Evans.
01:44She says she was pressured to close the gap in her teeth,
01:48despite initially refusing.
01:49Banks now says she has apologized and felt caught between industry expectations
01:53and protecting the contestant.
01:55Evans rejects that explanation,
01:57saying the decision did not open doors for her career,
02:00and that the show built a multi-million dollar brand
02:02off dreams that often didn't materialize.
02:05The documentary also addresses controversial photo shoots,
02:08including race-swap concepts,
02:11where contestants posed as different ethnicities.
02:13Banks said she believed at the time she was celebrating diversity,
02:17but now understands why many viewers saw it differently.
02:20The fallout didn't stop there.
02:22In 2012, long-time judges Miss J. Alexander,
02:25J. Manuel, and Nigel Barker were abruptly fired.
02:29Banks says the decision came from network executives above her.
02:33All three say they felt blindsided.
02:35Alexander's story takes an especially emotional turn.
02:38He reveals he suffered a stroke in December 2022,
02:41spending five weeks in a coma.
02:44Once known as the queen of the runway,
02:46he is now unable to walk, yet remains determined.
02:49It's not over for me yet, he says.
02:52And two decades after one of the show's most viral moments,
02:55Cycle 4 contestant Tiffany Richardson is still speaking out.
02:59I was rooting for you!
03:00We were all rooting for you!
03:01How dare you!
03:03Learn something from this!
03:04In a now-deleted Instagram post, she calls Banks a bully,
03:08claiming their infamous on-air confrontation was worse than what viewers saw.
03:12Banks admits she went too far in that moment.
03:14Despite the controversy, Banks hints she isn't done.
03:18Now living in Australia, she teases a possible Cycle 25,
03:22though no official announcement has been made.
03:25For many former contestants, the documentary serves as both closure and reckoning,
03:29a look back at a show that defined an era of reality television,
03:32while leaving lasting consequences for those who lived it.
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