You wanna be on top? If you were around for the early 2000s and flipping channels, you likely happened to catch at least one episode of “America’s Next Top Model,” a reality competition show where 10-16 hopeful young women fought for the chance to be America’s next supermodel. This show has been around since 2003 and ended in 2018 after 24 seasons, with possible plans for a return. 

Like most reality shows from years past, particularly the 2000s, this show has not aged well. What started as a show to expose the realities of the modeling industry quickly turned into just another exploitative reality competition show. Controversial challenges, private moments turned into content, inappropriate comments and so many other horrendous production decisions have contributed to the show aging like milk. 

Recently, Netflix released a three-episode docuseries about some of the most controversial and viral moments of the show, as well as an explanation of the thought process that contributed to its development. While this isn’t the first time contestants have spoken out, this is the first time judges Jay Manuel, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker, as well as co-creators Tyra Banks and Ken Mok have spoken out. People were hoping to see some accountability taken for certain decisions made by Banks and Mok as the producers, but for many, the docuseries wasn’t nearly enough. 

Those featured in the episodes said repeatedly that “America’s Next Top Model was “made for good TV.” Former contestants said it in a way that felt very unfairly understanding. When speaking about editing choices that were made, contestants explained how terrible they were, and that the show negatively affected their lives for decades. However, they would excuse it as “good TV.” Banks said the crazy creative decisions were made because of reality competition shows at the time. 

Some of the most controversial moments dealt with the subject of sexual assault and how the show addressed it. While Manuel seemed more apologetic and took a little accountability, Banks didn’t seem to put much thought into it. In fact, for most of the whole docuseries, Banks was “America’s Next Top Accountability Avoider.” 

There’s too much controversy to cover in one review, but something that needs to be acknowledged is how the show consistently used contestants’ trauma for their next shoot. One contestant saw her mother shot and paralyzed as a child, and was forced to do a shoot where she was a victim of gun violence. This photoshoot was the only one producer Mok said he regretted, but considering they did two race-swapping shoots and a poverty shoot, I find that incredibly shocking.

Moving on from the controversy, the docuseries itself was pretty well done. It did a good job of questioning the insane moments of the show, but they could’ve gone harder on Banks and Mok. I understand they couldn’t get interviews from every contestant, but it would’ve been nice to hear from a couple more. 

They used clips from TikTok and YouTube channels that talked about the show, but from the reactions I’ve seen, none of these social media users were approached about their content being used. Everyone seemed surprised to see themselves there.

It’s devastating to hear how some women were treated and misrepresented on the show, but luckily, this series gave them the chance to show their actual reality, not just pure entertainment and competition. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting full accountability from Banks anytime soon, and she appears to have burned bridges with the former judges. I doubt anyone is going to forgive her anytime soon, regardless of this docuseries.