"Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model doesn't begin in 2003, when America's Next Top Model premiered and took television by storm. It doesn't begin in the 1990s, when eventual host Tyra Banks rose to superstardom in the modeling industry. Instead, it begins in 2020, when the pandemic led a new generation to binge early-aughts reality TV, this time watching with a modern lens-and, naturally, tearing it to shreds on TikTok."
"What viewers casually did on TikTok in 2020, Reality Check does with finesse. It dissects the surface-level controversies fans already know about, from body shaming to the show's infamous race-swapping photoshoot (and its oft-forgotten sequel four years later). It also brings new revelations that cast the series in an even darker light, like Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan alleging that she was sexually assaulted on camera, with production doing nothing to step in or help her."
"Instead, the docuseries details Top Model portraying the incident as Sullivan cheating on her boyfriend, even filming her tearful call home to break the news to him. Through it all, Banks dodges accountability, even teasing that the show could come back for a 25th cycle. Reality Check is the latest entry in a trend of exposé documentaries around TV that many young adults watched in their childhoods, cashing in on nostalgia by peddling its opposite."
Reality Check retraces America's Next Top Model from a 2020 TikTok-driven reevaluation back through pre-production, 24 cycles, and into its contemporary legacy. The series includes interviews with contestants, producers, judges, and Tyra Banks. The series examines well-known controversies such as body shaming and the race-swapping photoshoot, and uncovers additional revelations like Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan's allegation of sexual assault on camera and production's failure to intervene. The series documents producers framing Sullivan's experience as cheating and filming her tearful phone call home. The series situates Top Model within a broader wave of exposé documentaries reexamining nostalgic television.
Read at Fast Company
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