‘Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model’ Exposes The ‘Monster’ Created By Tyra Banks

The forthcoming docuseries will revisit memorable and frequently commented on aspects of ANTM.

Netflix is dropping Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, and the snippets are showing the dark side of the Tyra Banks creation.

The three-part documentary, peeling back the layers of the show, will premiere Feb. 16, giving an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the long-running model competition series America’s Next Top Model, which is drama- and tear-filled.

Netflix dropped a sneak peek trailer to promote the upcoming documentary. The exposé features interviews with key characters from the original show, including the creator and host of ANTM, Tyra Banks, and judges Jay Manuel, Miss J Alexander, and Nigel Barker. Additionally, former contestants are speaking up to share the horrors they endured on their quest to be the best.

The production aims to explore both the show’s cultural impact and its controversial moments from its 24-season run. Banks said her goal was to “fight against the fashion industry,” though it seems in many instances she acknowledges she’d “gone too far.”

Netflix describes Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model as an in-depth look at a program that became a global phenomenon with millions of viewers. The show was the first of its kind and shaped reality television history.

The forthcoming docuseries will revisit memorable and frequently commented-on aspects of ANTM. While visibility for unseen models was guaranteed, visibility for other, now frowned-upon, subjects, such as body-shaming, was also brought into the spotlight. The promotion of models maintaining a thin, nearly unhealthy aesthetic, as well as ethnic insensitivity, are only a few of the topics being broached. Contestants also spoke about on-the-fly medical procedures.

America’s Next Top Model originally aired from 2003 to 2018 and helped launch modeling careers while also drawing scrutiny for its competitive format and provocative challenges. The new Netflix docuseries is positioned as part of the streamer’s slate of documentary projects that revisit influential media properties with a fresh perspective.