One of the most controversial shows, 'America's Next Top Model' is streaming as a documentary on Netflix. Here are some controversial moments from the show.
The popular reality show America’s Next Top Model was one of the most-watched TV shows, airing from 2003 to 2018. The show featured many controversial and critical moments that have shocked viewers over the years of its airing. With episodes showcasing racism, body shaming, and physical and mental torture, the series toxicity reached its peak.
Now Netflix’s three-part documentary, Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, which started streaming on February 16, 2026, revisits the show’s flaws. It highlights the problems and agony the models went through during the early seasons or ‘cycles’ as they are called. Now that the documentary is streaming, let us look at some of the most controversial moments from America’s Next Top Model.
The top model, Winnie Harlow, began her modelling career after appearing on America’s Next Top Model and competed on the show under her birth name, Chantelle. The model who appeared in episode 13 of the first season has a skin condition called Vitiligo. She has white patches on some parts of her body. In the episode, Harlow confronted photo consultant Yu Tsai, who called her a ‘panda’ and ‘cow’ during a photoshoot, claiming that it could bother people suffering from the skin disease.
Still considered as one of the most shocking moments of ANTM is when models were asked to switch their ethnicities using makeup, which views contemn as ‘black face’. The concept was first explored in Cycle 4 of ANTM, which aired in 2005, but it was actually repeated nine cycles later, in 2009. Creative director Jay Manuel was very uncomfortable with the shoot and was asked to be excused from the shoot, but was denied the same. Jay also stated that the models, too, were very uncomfortable with the concept of switching their races.
The show literally checked people’s emotional strength as it featured some of the most disturbing photo shoots. In Cycle 4, contestant Kahlen Rondot was asked to pose in a grave just hours after learning her childhood friend had died in a car accident. The photoshoot was themed around the seven deadly sins, and Rondot was assigned to portray wrath and pose inside a coffin buried eight feet underground.
Not only this, cycle 8 saw contestant Dionne Walters going through an extremely difficult time when she was tasked with posing as a corpse for a shoot. Walters had told the production previously that her mom had been shot when she was a child. But during cycle 8, the model was assigned the disturbing shoot where the concept depicted her as a victim of a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
Throughout the seasons, many models were criticised for their weight. During Cycle 4, a contestant named Keenyah Hill faced constant criticism over her weight, with judges repeatedly telling her to lose weight while referring to her as ‘piggy’. During the seven deadly sins photoshoot, the model was assigned to portray the sin of gluttony. But when she was asked to pose as an elephant, she realised it was ‘intentional.’
Another model, Whitney Thompson, who won Cycle 10 of ANTM, also faced unpleasant episodes of body shaming. She was repeatedly humiliated during filming because she was a size 10, and not a ‘size 00’.
Apart from mental torture, the show also hogged the limelight for the s**ual assault that models had to undergo. In Cycle 2, model Shandi Sullivan faced one of the most traumatising moments of her life when she became the victim of a s**ual assault. Shandi was 21 when she competed on ANTM, and during one of the shoots, she ended up getting drunk while a man had s*x with her.
She had blacked out after the drinks that she couldn’t remember what happened to her, but was shocked to know that it was all filmed. Amid the controversy on the show, Shandi found herself in the middle of a storyline on cheating as the production filmed her confessing about her abuse to her boyfriend, who called her a stupid bitch.
Another incident of sexual abuse happened when model Keenyah Hill and three male models posed together for a photoshoot. Keenyah stopped the photoshoot in the middle as she was groped by a male model. While she complained about the same, the judges criticised her, and Tyra Banks advised Keenyah to use her ‘feminine wiles’ to shut down unwanted advances. The episode was highly criticised by the viewers.
Each season on ANTM has a makeover episode, in which Tyra tells the contestants the changes they need to make to their hair and bodies to survive in the industry. The extreme makeovers included painful dental procedures. A contestant, Joanie Sprague, eventually went for a snaggletooth removal but ended up getting four of her teeth removed. In Cycle 6, Dani Evans was pressured to close the gap between her teeth to stay relevant in the competition. The contestant recalled Tyra’s comment that her smile was not ‘marketable’. However, in Cycle 15, Tyra had another model’s teeth gap widened.
Another challenge on the show was when models were required to walk on risky runways. In one episode of Cycle 14, models had to walk down a runway with a large pendulum swinging back and forth, and model Alexandra Underwood was knocked over twice. Not just this, in cycle 7, model CariDee developed hypothermia after being shot in freezing water.
What do you think about the controversial moments in America’s Next Top Model?
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