Netflix’s ‘Reality Check’ Documentary Exposes the Dark Side of ‘America’s Next Top Model’

Summary:

• The reality TV accountability documentary era arrives for America’s Next Top Model, revealing unsettling revelations from former contestants and judges.

• Disturbing revelations include contestant Shandi Sullivan’s altered Milan incident and Miss J’s stroke reveal; the documentary also revisits controversial photoshoots.

• Tyra Banks faces backlash from contestants like Tiffany Richardson, highlighting mistreatment and the show’s treatment of Black contestants.

The era of the reality TV accountability documentary has arrived for America’s Next Top Model. Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, which premiered on Feb. 16, peels back the curtain on the CW competition series that ran for 24 cycles from 2003 to 2018, and the revelations are as unsettling as they are overdue.

Directed by Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, the three-part series features interviews from former contestants, judges Jay Manuel, Nigel Barker, and J. Alexander (Miss J), executive producer Ken Mok, and host Tyra Banks herself, who notably does not hold a producer credit on the documentary.

One of the most disturbing revelations in the docuseries comes from Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan, who was 21 years old when she appeared on the show. Longtime ANTM viewers may remember Sullivan’s storyline in Milan, which the show framed as a cheating scandal — Sullivan allegedly slept with a local man while her boyfriend waited back home.

In Reality Check, Sullivan tells a very different story. She describes being intoxicated to the point of blacking out after a day of go-sees, during which contestants were chauffeured around by young Italian men on Vespas. Production then invited the men back to the models’ residence, where drinking continued. Sullivan says she has only fragments of memory from that night.

Sullivan has said she wished the crew had stepped in rather than continuing to film while she was incapacitated. Instead, the show documented the encounter and its aftermath — including a tearful phone call with her boyfriend that was filmed without her full consent. The footage was then edited into a narrative about infidelity.

“I taught models how to walk. And now I can’t walk.”

Miss J Alexander reveals he suffered a stroke a few years ago — but is determined to walk again.

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is now on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/WoQbcL7pPT

— Netflix (@netflix) February 16, 2026

Executive producer Mok defended the production’s approach in the documentary, explaining that the show operated under a documentary-style format and contestants were informed on day one that cameras would be rolling around the clock.

Sullivan also revealed that when she later appeared on The Tyra Banks Show, she asked Banks not to air the Milan footage. According to Sullivan, Banks played it anyway.

Tyra Banks Addresses the Tiffany Richardson Blowup

Banks’ infamous Cycle 4 confrontation with contestant Tiffany Richardson — the viral “we were all rooting for you” moment — also gets a long-overdue reexamination. In the documentary, Banks watches the footage back and acknowledges she went too far.

But the documentary also surfaces what viewers didn’t see. According to reporting from BuzzFeed, portions of Banks’ tirade were cut from the episode, with Jay Manuel noting there were things said that he wouldn’t repeat. Richardson has said on social media that Banks told her far more vicious things off-camera than what aired.

Tiffany Richardson reacts to Tyra Banks’ ‘America’s Next Top Model’ documentary:

“Tyra Banks let’s keep it cute.. you are 1 lying a** tied a** bi***.. 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… pic.twitter.com/LImuI6cc9K

— Pop Base (@PopBase) February 17, 2026

Richardson responded to the documentary’s release on social media, calling Banks a bully and accusing her of mistreatment both on and off camera throughout her time on the show.

Reality Check also examines how the show treated its Black contestants. While ANTM was initially praised for casting diverse talent, the documentary highlights the contradictions behind that message. Former contestants, including Danielle “Dani” Evans, the Cycle 6 winner, share their experiences navigating a show that simultaneously championed and undermined Black beauty.

Evans revealed she was pressured to close the gap in her teeth during the show’s makeover segment, facing the threat of elimination if she refused. Several cycles later, Banks had another contestant’s tooth gap widened — a move Evans found deeply hypocritical.

The documentary also revisits some of the show’s most controversial photoshoots, including race-swapping challenges that resulted in blackface, as well as shoots themed around homelessness and crime scenes.

Perhaps the documentary’s most emotional revelation is that J. Alexander, the show’s beloved runway coach known as Miss J, suffered a debilitating stroke in December 2022. He spent five weeks in a coma and was hospitalized for a year and a half afterward. He had to relearn how to speak, and as of February 2026, he still cannot walk.

The documentary saves this reveal for its final act, when viewers see Alexander in a wheelchair for the first time. His reaction to his condition is characteristically defiant — he insists the situation is temporary and has expressed determination to walk again.

What drew perhaps the most public reaction, however, was Alexander’s revelation that Banks never visited him during his recovery. When asked by producers whether Banks had come to see him, Alexander confirmed she had not. He then checked his phone and found a text from Banks saying she wanted to visit — sent three years after his stroke, during the documentary’s production.

Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker, who were fired alongside Alexander in 2012, both visited him during his recovery. All three serve as consultants on Reality Check.

Banks opens the documentary by saying she hasn’t spoken much about the show’s controversies, but that it’s now time. Throughout the series, she offers reflections that range from regretful to defensive. She distances herself from production decisions involving Sullivan’s storyline. She acknowledges that the Tiffany Richardson confrontation was excessive. She references the show’s problematic photoshoots.

But multiple sources have noted that her accountability has limits. NPR’s review observed that the documentary’s directors deliberately contrast Banks’ apologies with the perspectives of former contestants and colleagues who challenge her version of events. And in the series’ final moments, Banks pivots from reflection to promotion, teasing plans for a potential Cycle 25 of ANTM — a beat that the filmmakers undercut by immediately cutting to Evans’ skeptical reaction.

The documentary has ignited conversation across social media, with viewers expressing a mix of nostalgia, outrage, and sympathy. Miss J’s health update has particularly moved audiences, while Sullivan’s reframed story has prompted a broader reckoning with how early reality TV handled issues of consent and duty of care.

Richardson’s unfiltered social media response has also fueled discussion, with many fans taking her side and revisiting the now-iconic confrontation through a more critical lens.

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is streaming now on Netflix.