Netflix’s tell-all doco about America’s Next Top Model dropped this week and now multiple former contestants have come forward to speak about against the show and recount their experiences.
The three-part series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, hears from producers, castmates and judges from the infamous competition show, including Tyra Banks, to uncover the many controversies it endured throughout its 24-season run.
From *that* viral monologue to controversial race-swapping shoots and fat-shaming accusations, the doco leaves no stone unturned — with some of those implicated now coming forward with their own reactions as the bombshells continue to make waves.
Here’s every former ANTM contestant who has spoken out in the wake of Netflix’s Reality Check.
Adrianne Curry
ANTM’s inaugural winner, Adrianne Curry, has had a lot to say since Reality Check dropped. The former model, who appeared on season one in 2003, first shared bombshell accusations about being left hungry and sleepless on set due to the show’s gruelling filming schedule — describing it as “psychological warfare”.
“I think they knew that the more sleep deprived and hungry and fucked up we were, the better television would be,” Curry told the Daily Mail earlier this week.
She then doubled-down in a video on social media, slamming ANTM’s Tyra for her perceived lack of accountability in the doco. “That bitch is not effing sorry,” Adrianne said of Tyra’s interviews on the doco. “She won’t bend the knee”. Yikes!
Tiffany Richardson
You might remember Tiffany Richardson as the recipient of Tyra’s infamous season four monologue about how everyone was “rooting for you!” The notorious meltdown came up in the doco when Tyra admitted she “went too far” in accosting Tiffany, but it seems the damage had already been done.
“You are one lying ass bitch,” Tiffany wrote of Tyra on Instagram. “You know how you treated me the whole time off and on camera, YOU WAS A BULLY!!! You treated me like shit and said the nastiest things about me and my son.”
Continuing the spray, Tiffany claimed the meltdown we saw on ANTM was “not how the argument went” and said producers “edited it to make it look like [Tyra] cared”.
Tiffany’s implication that things happened in the scene that never made it to air was also mentioned in the doco. ANTM producer Kevin Mok said in an interview that “there was a lot more that was really said and some of the things that were said were really not well-intentioned.”
“I will probably never repeat the lines that were said in the room that day,” Ken added.
Lisa D’Amato
Lisa D’Amato, who was portrayed as villain during her season five ANTM stint, had some choice words after watching the doco. “Watched the Netflix docuseries on ANTM and I still think it is sugar coated. It was way worse for so so many of us,” Lisa wrote on IG.
She went on to plug E!’s separate ANTM doco Dirty Rotten Scandal, saying “even deeper torture” will be exposed when that drops next month. It’s hard to imagine how things could’ve been worse, but I’m well and truly sat nonetheless.
Shandi Sullivan
The story of season two model Shandi Sullivan is central in the doco, unpacking the horrific incident in which her alleged sexual assault was filmed and partially shown on TV.
Sullivan appeared in Reality Check to tell her side of the story, and she reflected on why she signed on for the doco on social media. “After all of the years, the Top Model girls and what we went through were never forgotten,” she wrote. “Knowing that Tyra didn’t have control over my narrative, that the director and producers here had my back… that’s why I did it.”
In the doco, Sullivan rightfully said her ordeal should never have happened. “I think [producers] should have been like, ‘alright this has gone too far, we got to pull her out of this’,” Sullivan said.
Whitney Thompson
The doco also looks into the culture of disordered eating and fat-shaming fostered on ANTM, with first-hand experience from season ten castmate Whitney Thompson. She alleges in an interview that she was denied clothes in her size during her time on the show, and she elaborated on that claim in a statement to PEOPLE earlier this month.
“I would go to the set, and they would have nothing that would fit me. It just makes you feel like shit to not be the right size. It was just demeaning,” Whitney said. She also claimed that a plus-sized contestant, Toccara Jones, was eliminated from the show when she voiced similar concerns in season three.
“I just pretended like it didn’t bother me,” Whitney continued. “I would cry in the shower every day because the shower is the only place that the cameramen couldn’t come.”
Eva Marcille
While Eva Marcille wasn’t featured in the doco, she was mentioned by Tyra when she discussed the cultural impact of Eva’s ANTM stint as the first-ever Black winner in season three. Eva, also a Real Housewives star, later reacted to the doco during an appearance on CBS Mornings, saying she was part of the ANTM “club” but was unaware of other castmates’ experiences.
“I watched it, and after I watched it, I was gobsmacked. I was in awe…My mouth was wide open. To be a part of a club, and not know what’s going on in the club is crazy,” Eva said.
Lauren Utter
Season 10 model Lauren Utter took to social media to share a “souvenir” from her time on the show — in the form of a contract stipulating that ANTM wasn’t responsible in the event that she died while filming. Yep!
“I was on ANTM and I didn’t [die],” Utter wrote. “Apparently Netflix is dropping a doc soon so I just wanted to share some souvenirs. Did you know if we died on the show they assume no responsibility? Cool right?”
I’m sensing some sarcasm?
Brittany Corinne Hatch
In a statement provided to Front Page, season eight contestant Brittany Corinne Hatch described ANTM castmates as “survivors”.
“We were young, naive women who were promised a dream, lured into a trap, psychologically gutted for entertainment, and then spit out with scars that took years of therapy to heal,” Hatch said. She has spoken out about the show before, alleging in 2023 that she was intentionally sleep deprived “to keep people emotionally volatile”.
Victoria Henley
One of the more recent contestants, season 19’s Victoria Henley, wrote in a blog post that she was glad to see the ANTM revelations come to light in the doco. “[It’s] validating to see the show-runners finally own up and fess up to perhaps even a fraction of what they actually put us contestants through… because it was a lot.”
That’s all reactions from former ANTM contestants we’ve spotted so far, but at the Netflix doco continues to dominate headlines, we’ll be sure to include any other responses. In the meantime, you can watch Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model on Netflix now.
Lead images: UPN and TikTok
