Giselle Samson talks about how excited she was to be a contestant on Top Model’s first cycle, which is understandable. Echoing this sentiment are most of the interviewees in Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. This includes Cycle 6’s Dani Evans, who saw the show as her ticket out of Little Rock, Arkansas. But both women, as well as most of the interviewees, are here to expose the show’s secrets. Most of the interviewees here are former contestants and are Black or people of racialized backgrounds. One example is Cycle 1’s Ebony Haith, the receiving end of bullying because she is Black and gay.

Another interviewee in Reality Check is C4’s Keenyah Hill, a target of both sexual harassment and fat shaming (spoiler alert – she’s of ‘regular’ size, whatever that means). Modeling is a dog eat dog world but these women had no support after exiting the show. The documentary series’ other interviewees include the crew behind the controversial show that helped defined the 2000s. Some of the documentary series’ big gets are big gets like Nigel Barker and the two Jays, the show’s supposed spine. I write ‘supposed’ because after 18 Cycles, producer Ken Mok and host Tyra Banks fired the three.

To answer to that and other things, Reality Check puts both Banks and Mok under viewers’ scrutiny. For this piece about ANTM I want to preface or reiterate something about that time, and reductive statement alert but there were two kinds of people in the 2000s. Some watched Lost and others watched ANTM – I belonged to the latter group. This show got me to fashion which got me to message boards and back to film. In other words, this ‘stupid show’ is why I write movie reviews about art cinema. And in other other words, blame or thank Tyra for whatever you think about me and my writing,

Enough about me, Reality Check is a ‘we live in a society’ kind of docu-series. Sure, Banks and Mok are the docu-series half contrite villains, but they’re not alone. The first episode even puts fan favourites in a bad light including Janice Dickinson who gets a bad edit. Two of those other fan favourites featured were Cycle 1’s Elyse Sewell and Cycle 4’s Kahlen Rondot – the show gave them the ‘smart girl’ arc but Sewell makes fun of Haith for being ‘greasy’. Reality Check also shows clips of Rondot calling Heath for her ‘lack of progress’ weight-wise. All three have things to answer for in a documentary series that needed them in interview chairs.

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026

But thankfully, Reality Check has bigger dragons in their mind that they want to slay with their swords. The documentary series is already going viral as they’re using and appropriately framing Shandi Sullivan from Cycle 2. It applies the same framing when a South African model uses a shoot to inappropriately touch Keenyah. The show punishes Keenyah for calling out the harassment instead of giving her the support she needs. This documentary series is an emotional roller coaster ride, even as it makes viewers feel happy seeing fan favourites like Sullivan back on screen. Then, it reminds viewers of what she and the others endured during the show.

And then Reality Check‘s viewers feel sad, and the worst part is that either mental gymnastics or reality checks come. Because not only is female sexual exploitation normal then, it was normal for the fashion industry. What Reality Check is doing, arguably incorrectly, is separating ANTM from the 2000s fashion world. Remember Miranda Priestly’s cerulean speech – that speech applies for the show’s modus operandi too. The controversial unhoused photo was inadvertently a trickle down from a past Dior Couture collection. But understandably, the documentary series’ directors probably didn’t want to go into unwieldy rabbit holes.

It also doesn’t have all the big gets but at least the get to interview Tyra Banks, who does talk like that, but despite her front, there are some things that she answers for. Reality Check reveals a few more things than even former die hard fans don’t know. Or in other words, some of the reveals work because I and many others checked out of the show. And back to me, I’m a grown man but being Asian and gay I have body issues as well, but one probably doesn’t need to be a fan to relate to the reality show’s former contestants. Imagine being an 18 year old and someone telling you that your body’s too fat for certain industries. Or, imagine real top models of that time – underage girls – hearing things like that.

Netflix is the only platform to stream Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Also, if you or someone you know is enduring an eating disorder, please visit https://www.wannatalkaboutit.com/.