Criticism
Yahoo!'s Shine lifestyle website said the show contained cruelty and elements of humiliation, and that some critiques from the judges are "really cruel and cringe-inducing", claiming that the show "humiliates and degrades young women." The site created the list "10 reasons why 'America's Next Top Model' is bad for women, humans", citing such things as giving the contestants and women viewers unrealistic visions of life as a model, and "always espousing empowerment and female strength and then forcing the contestants into embarrassing scenarios far outside the realm of real-life modeling". One such scenario highlighted was when cycle 12's final two contestants "were made to wear bikinis so skimpy that the producers had to blur out Allison Harvard's butt cheeks", and performed a "creepily sexual mud fight," after which contestant and winner Teyona Anderson was "commended for taking her weave in her hand and whipping it around on the runway like a sexy feather boa."
Allure magazine criticized the show in its October 2006 issue, saying that ANTM "hasn't exactly produced any actual supermodels."
Ken Mok and Banks noticed that most of cycle 8's contestants were unusually heavy smokers. "Tyra and I understand the influence 'Top Model' has on a generation of young people, and we want to make sure we get the right message to our audience," Mok said, which then prompted the "green" theme of cycle 9.
The winner of cycle 9, Saleisha Stowers, was discovered to have been in a Wendy's commercial, on a catwalk in the cycle 6 show and an episode of Tyra Banks Show prior to her participation. The rules of the competition stated that a contestant must not have appeared as a model in a national campaign during the five years prior to the production of the cycle in which they participate. The CW network said she had revealed her role in the Wendy's commercial, and "after reviewing the commercial, it was determined that her appearance did not amount to 'modeling' experience, and therefore did not exclude her from participating in the show."
After filming cycle 10, the producers of America's Next Top Model were served with a lawsuit from Michael Marvisi, the owner of the loft used as the Top Model house. The lawsuit claimed that the contestants as well as the production crew caused an estimated $500,000 in damages to the loft. Marvisi claims the contestants engaged in food fights, made holes in the walls, caused water damage to the bathroom, damaged a $15,000 chandelier beyond repair, and caused $90,000 worth of damage to an electrical store. Also, the production crew was accused of damaging the flooring and making holes in the ceiling for lighting equipment.
In February 2026, Netflix released a three-part documentary series, Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, which revisits the show's history and controversies through new interviews with former contestants, judges and producers, including Tyra Banks, Jay Manuel, J. Alexander, Nigel Barker and executive producer Ken Mok. The filmmakers have said that Banks participated as an interview subject but did not have editorial control over the final cut.
The series revisits a number of storylines that had already attracted criticism during the show's run. These include crime-scene themed photo shoots in which contestants posed as murder victims, "race-swap" shoots that darkened or lightened models' skin tones to portray different ethnicities, and challenges in which contestants were styled as people experiencing homelessness or eating disorders. Former contestants also recount being criticised for their weight, and some say they restricted their eating or felt pressure to change their appearance, while the documentary highlights footage of judges and producers commenting on contestants' bodies and suggesting cosmetic dental work.
A major focus of Reality Check is a storyline from the show's second cycle involving contestant Shandi Sullivan. On the original programme, her night out in Milan with a male model was framed as infidelity and led to an episode titled "The Girl Who Cheated". In the documentary, Sullivan says she had been drinking heavily, recalls only fragments of events in a hot tub, shower and bed, and describes herself as having been "blacked out", stating that she now believes she was unable to consent while cameras continued to film. In the same segment, Mok says the production approached the show as a documentary and describes the incident as a "story point", while Banks is shown discussing how the scene was edited for broadcast.
The docuseries also addresses other incidents discussed by former contestants, including Keenyah Hill's account of being groped by a male model during a shoot and of being repeatedly criticised for her weight, and Dionne Walters' claim that she was cast as a shooting victim in a crime-scene shoot despite the production being aware that her mother had been shot and paralysed when Walters was a child. Mok says in the series that using Walters in that way was "a mistake" and that he takes responsibility for it. These segments appear alongside discussions of other shoots and judging decisions from across the series.
Several interviewees in Reality Check say that appearing on the show did not translate into long-term modelling careers and that some agencies were reluctant to work with reality television contestants. One segment contrasts reported contestant pay and working conditions with estimates of Banks' earnings from the franchise. Other former contestants and former panelist Kelly Cutrone have publicly defended Banks in the wake of the documentary, emphasising the opportunities they gained from the show and expressing opposition to calls for her to be "cancelled".
Reviews of the series have noted both its exploration of early-2000s reality television and differing views on how far it goes in assigning responsibility for past harms. The Guardian described Reality Check as "a gripping, queasy watch" that shows Banks "confronting her legacy without quite reckoning with it", while ABC News wrote that the docuseries "feigns accountability" by foregrounding contestants' accounts but allowing Banks and producers to frame controversial decisions as products of their time. A Time magazine essay argued that the handling of Sullivan's storyline is the documentary's "most powerful indictment of reality TV" because of the way responsibility for her treatment remains diffuse two decades later.
Trade publications reported that the documentary was also commercially successful. Variety wrote that Reality Check recorded about 14.2 million views globally in its first week on Netflix and ranked as the platform's most-watched series worldwide during that period.
