Tyra Banks is aware of the criticism surrounding her long-running reality show America’s Next Top Model, but she refuses to tarnish its legacy.
While accepting the first-ever Luminary Spotlight honor at the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards on Thursday, February 27, Banks, 51, addressed ANTM and its early push for diversity on screen amid reports about toxicity on set.
“Over 20 years ago, I created a television show called America’s Next Top Model,” Banks began. “And you guys have no idea how hard we fought to bring the diversity to that television show at a time when it didn’t exist; to show different beauties at a time when the world was like, ‘What? You casting that? And what? Was it that?’ A time when people in the fashion industry were telling me, ‘You putting the girls from the hood on your show?’ I was like, ‘Why can the girl from the trailer park become a supermodel but the girl that’s chillin’ in the park in the hood can’t?’ And we fought and we struggled and we made it happen.”
She continued: “Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb s—, but I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the Internet when there were 24 cycles of changing the world. We all evolve. We all get better together. And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow.”
Banks, who created the model competition show in 2003 and hosted all but one cycle until its end in 2018, also seemingly addressed the show’s visibility for plus-size models.
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“And now my 51-year-old, dimpled, cellulite-covered bigger tummy and 10 million times bigger titties is walking through that door that I opened with all of us behind us on that runway saying, ‘Baby, it’s just the beginning,’ “ she concluded to rapturous applause.
Banks’ speech comes as resurfaced clips from ANTM continue to make the rounds on social media. In 2020, controversial moments from the show began to pop up on TikTok and beyond, prompting a wave of negative feedback directed at both Banks and the show’s creative team.
In one of the clips that circulated online, Banks criticized cycle 6 winner Dani Evans for not closing the gap in her teeth.
“So, Danielle, you went to the dentist but you refused to have your gap closed,” Banks said in the video. “Do you really think you can have a CoverGirl contract with a gap in your mouth?” (One of the ANTM prizes was a $100,000 contract with the cosmetics brand.)
Evans, now 39, responded, “Yes, why not?” to which Banks replied, “This is all people see. It’s easy, breezy, beautiful CoverGirl. It’s not marketable.”
Evans did get her gap partially closed during the show and was later crowned the winner of the season.
In another clip contestants had their skin darkened for a “biracial-themed” photo shoot in cycle 13 and in cycle 4, contestant Kahlen Rondot was asked to pose in a coffin in a graveyard one day after her friend died.
Banks later accepted the call-outs, posting via X in May 2020, “Been seeing the posts about the insensitivity of some past ANTM moments and I agree with you. Looking back, those were some really off choices. Appreciate your honest feedback and am sending so much love and virtual hugs.”
Molly O’Connell Compares ‘ANTM’ to ‘Southern Charm’: ‘Psychological Torture’
During a January 2025 interview on “The Viall Files” podcast, ANTM cycle 16 runner-up and current Southern Charm star Molly O’Connell called the modeling series “a bit of psychological torture.”
O’Connell, 37, alleged that the production team would “purposely mess with us” and heighten everyone’s emotions with “really late” interviews.
“I would get low blood sugar attacks and need food and they would dangle a sandwich in front of me. ‘Just a few more questions Molly and then we’ll feed you,’” she told host Nick Viall of her time filming back in 2010. “It was so toxic.”
She added to Viall’s wife, Natalie Joy, that there was a skewed perspective on the model’s sizes on ANTM. “The people who they would be like, ‘You’re plus size. You’re the biggest girl here.’ They’re smaller than I am now,” O’Connell said.
Even with the bad, however, O’Connell said ANTM was “very fun” and she had “a lot of amazing experiences” that helped her career.
“I would still do it again,” she insisted. “It wasn’t so horrible that I wouldn’t do that experience all over again.”
