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A new Netflix docuseries looks back at the cultural force that was America’s Next Top Model in the early aughts. In Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, creator and host Tyra Banks sits down to face the reality show’s most controversial moments, from sexual assault to poor labour practices to photoshoots in Black and brown face.
Today on Commotion, culture critics Amil Niazi, Chris Murphy and Bee Quammie join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about the legacy of America’s Next Top Model and how Banks reacts to the criticisms of the show.
We’ve included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today’s episode on YouTube:
Elamin: The docuseries itself opens with Tyra being like, “It’s time for me to respond to all the criticism that ANTM has gotten over the years.” And it does end with Tyra saying, “Wait until you see what we have in store for you for cycle 25.” If this docuseries is ostensibly about taking accountability, Amil, how do you think that lands? Do you walk away from these three episodes going, yeah, I feel pretty satisfied that Tyra knows which he should be accountable for?
Amil: No, I think Tyra Banks is doing what she does best, she’s constructing a reality that suits her narrative and she is presenting an option for herself to carry forward. I will be very interested to see how a younger generation responds to this because I think there’s a nostalgia element for people like us who’ve been watching since day one originally.
Tyra mentions the pandemic and how it introduced the show to a new generation of viewers. Those viewers have a very different relationship with things like consent, with things like the way we treat people on a show like this. So I’ll be very curious to see if this really watery mea culpa that she’s offered resonates with a new generation. And she needs that generation in order to actually move forward. So it didn’t land for me, I’ll be curious to know if it lands for Gen Zs.
Elamin: Chris, one of the smart things that this docuseries does is the opening is cut with a lot of TikToks of younger people, mostly Gen Z, watching ANTM with horror, with being like, what? They did what? They said what? And you see their reaction and then you cut to Tyra. And so it makes it seem like she’s trying to address and talk directly to those criticisms and the ways that some of the choices that she made 20 years ago are being received now. What’s your impression of this? Do you walk away from this doc going like, I feel like some things were accounted for, there’s some accountability that was taken?
Chris: I would say less than 20 per cent, for sure. There was some acknowledgement that mistakes were made, but again, there was a lot of finger pointing and a lot of “it was a sign of the times,” a lot of blaming the culture writ large. But you’re sort of in charge of the culture, you’re creating the culture, you are Tyra Banks, you’re a supermodel. It’s top-down, like if you’re not creating the culture, then who is?
There was one clip in the documentary where it’s right before Tyra — they click the clacker and they’re like, “You’re on,” you can see her turn on and sort of smile, get her camera face on. And it really haunted me because there’s a performance even in the documentary of performing accountability without really taking accountability that I think has to be called out.
Elamin: Bee, in terms of the sense of accountability that you got from Tyra and crew, what did you take away from it?
Bee: I think the ending really clarifies where I stand on it. Because right before Tyra does this whole cliffhanger about, “Wait till you see what we do for cycle 25,” she basically puts it back on everybody else. And she kind of says, “I’ve been out here, taking what I gotta take. I’ve been taking my criticisms and I hope all you out there are open to taking your criticisms when it’s your time because your time’s going to come.” I’m like, why are you threatening me? I’m just tuned in. I don’t know why you’re threatening me.
And she says this whole spiel and it cuts and it goes immediately to Dani [Evans, who won ANTM cycle 6] who’s like, “Girl, that’s ridiculous. Like, you don’t think we need to just end it? We need her to wrap this up.” And I was like, you know what? Exactly. There’s definitely a performance like Chris said, Tyra has never been the strongest actress, so I don’t think that really played out the way she might have desired.
You can listen to the full discussion from today’s show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.
