Netflix has released the official trailer for Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, a three-part documentary that revisits the modeling competition that helped define reality TV in the 2000s. Watch the trailer above and read on to see what’s revealed ahead of the premiere.
Reality TV giant comes under the microscope
When America’s Next Top Model launched in 2003, it arrived with a bright promise and a very simple hook. A new group of aspiring models live together, take on challenges, and face weekly eliminations, with one of them walking away with the title of “America’s Next Top Model” and a major industry contract.
It worked. The series ran for 24 cycles from 2003 to 2016 and grew into a global blockbuster, with a reported audience of over 100 million viewers at its peak. For many viewers, it was both pleasant viewing and confusion. For the contestants, the stakes weren’t just story stakes. It was their face, their body, and their future.
The high notes were real. So were the unpleasant parts.
The trailer shows that Reality Check isn’t just here for nostalgia. It directly touches on parts of ANTM that have fueled debate over the years, including extreme stunt filming, forced transformations, and judging moments that were obsessed with contestants’ appearances and bodies. Those clips have been circulating online for years, often prompting people to ask, “How the hell did this get aired?” Flashback.
This documentary leans toward that reappraisal. Since the series ended, fans and new viewers have revisited it, especially through intensive viewing in the streaming era, and subsequently questioned how the contestants were treated on social media and whether television was considered acceptable at the time.
Tyra Banks and key voices look back on how the show turned out
The trailer is built around excerpts of interviews from former contestants and key figures from the show. One contestant praised the opportunity Banks created, saying, “The only reason doors were opened for me was because of Tyra.”
Then the tone changes. Jay Manuel, creative director and one of the judges, appears in the trailer and says, “We realized that Tyra would do anything to make the show a success.”
Tyra Banks is also a central character, and the trailer doesn’t exactly soften the edges. “It was very, very intense,” she admitted at one point. But this is also the most poignant line, and it doesn’t necessarily work in her favor. “But you guys were asking for it, so we kept pushing.” So framed, the piece positions the audience as the reason the show continued to test its limits, serving more as a defense than a reflection.
Participants and release date
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top directed by Mo Rousey (Osama Bin Laden) and Daniel Sivan (The Devil Next Door) Model’ features interviews with Banks, creator Ken Mok, former judges Jay Manuel, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker, as well as former contestants and winners including Whitney Thompson, Gisele Samson, Shannon Stewart, Shandi Sullivan, Dani Evans and Keenya. Hill.
The three-part documentary will premiere on Netflix on February 16th.
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