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The legacy — and controversy — surrounding America’s Next Top Model is at the center of Netflix and E!’s documentaries, but how do the specials compare?
America’s Next Top Model, which ran from 2003 to 2018, followed aspiring models as they competed to receive a modeling contract, a fashion spread, a cover in a major magazine and a cosmetics campaign.
After Hulu made episodes available in 2020, America’s Next Top Model received backlash for its insensitive modeling challenges that featured concepts such as race-swapping, murder and eating disorders.
“I didn’t think it was controversial. I was in my own little bubble in my head,” Tyra Banks said in a rare comment for Netflix’s Reality Check docuseries, which premiered in February 2026. “Looking at the show now through the 2020 lens, it is an issue and I understood 100 percent why.”
Banks hinted at ANTM returning after she addressed the controversy.
“Looking at that show through the lens of today, it’s like, ‘Why did you do that?’ I thank you for that. That is the only way you change. That is the only way you get better is by somebody calling you out on your s***,” Banks said. “It is important. I want to let you know that I want you guys to be just as open as I am now by getting called on my s*** by when somebody calls you out on yours. Because that day will come and continue to evolve. Because that’s what we’re all doing.”
E’s Dirty Rotten Scandals, meanwhile, premiered one month later with different former contestants and participants. Keep scrolling to see how Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model and Dirty Rotten Scandals are similar — and how they differ:
Who Participated in Each Docuseries
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model premiered in February 2026 with contestants who opened up about their experiences behind the scenes, which included discrimination, sexual assault and more shocking claims. Whitney Thompson, Giselle Samson, Shannon Stewart, Shandi Sullivan, Danielle Evans and Keenyah Hill were some of the alums who weighed in on their experience.
Dirty Scandals, meanwhile, featured Lisa D’Amato, Jaslene Gonzalez, Sarah Hartshorne, Brittany Brower and Angelea Preston.
Cycle 4 finalist Keenyah Hill sat down to speak with both Netflix and E! for their respective docs.
Netflix’s America’s Next Top Model docuseries revealed where Tyra Banks stands with many former contestants after they offered their unfiltered opinions of the show. Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, streaming now, features interviews from alums Whitney Thompson, Giselle Samson, Shannon Stewart, Shandi Sullivan, Danielle Evans and Keenyah Hill. New confessionals with executive producer […]
Tyra Banks’ Side of the Story
Andre Leon Talley and Tyra Banks on “America’s Next Top Model” Eric Liebowitz / The CW / Courtesy Everett Collection
Reality Check incorporated Tyra Banks’ perspective alongside fellow executive producer Ken Mok and former judges Jay Manuel, Miss J. Alexander and Nigel Barker.
“I wanted to fight against the fashion industry. One day, this idea just hit me. What if I created a show where you saw what it took to become a model,” Banks explained. “And for this show to represent not all white, not all skinny and to just show all the differences and all the different types of beauties. I had a feeling that I was gonna change the beauty world.”
Banks wasn’t interviewed for Dirty Rotten Scandals — neither was Mok.
Incorporating the Judges Into the Narrative
Andre Leon Talley, Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker, Jay Maneul Martina Monica Tolot / The CW / Courtesy Everett Collection
Speaking of former judges, Jay Manuel, Miss J. Alexander and Nigel Barker sat down for individual interviews for Netflix’s version. Dirty Rotten Scandals, meanwhile, featured insight from judge Janice Dickinson — who was only mentioned in Reality Check.
Director Daniel Sivan told Tudum in February 2026 that he wanted to interview Dickinson, but she had commitments to a different documentary.
