There’s something weirdly addicting about watching episodes of America’s Next Top Model. It’s not like this is prestige TV or anything; obviously, this is the equivalent of junk food. But when you’re in the mood for junky TV, nothing hits the spot quite like a binge-watching session of this popular reality series.
However, the more you watch America’s Next Top Model, the more you’ll notice moments that make your jaw drop to the floor. We’re not talking about impressive moments; instead, we’re talking about the times the show makes your entire body cringe in pure, secondhand embarrassment. Care to relive these wild moments? Or maybe you want to discover the craziness for the first time? Either way, keep reading to discover the most cringeworthy scandals on America’s Next Top Model!
Throwing death in contestants’ faces
For contestants on America’s Next Top Model, the show could sometimes feel like a prison. That’s because they are in their own little world when filming the show, and they are often prevented from contacting their loved ones. However, that doesn’t keep reality from sometimes colliding with reality TV, and the results are never pretty. For example, the show ended up throwing the deaths of loved ones into contestants’ faces on multiple occasions!
The first time this happened was in 2007, when contestant Jael Strauss was told she would be modeling in a photoshoot with a special theme: death. That might not sound so bad, but she had recently learned that one of her friends had died of overdose. The shoot made her re-enact violent murder scenes, effectively traumatizing her all over again. If that’s not bad enough, she was even criticized for acting too emotional when her pictures were taken!
Weirdly enough, this happened again, but to a different contestant. Kahlen had recently learned that a close friend had died, and she had to do a photoshoot where she got into a coffin and was lowered into the ground. The macabre scene made her think about her dead friend, and America’s Next Top Model even featured a sad scene of Kahlen emotionally breaking down at the idea of completing the shoot.
The blackout sex scandal
It’s an open secret that reality TV shows encourage sloppy behavior among participants. Therefore, it wasn’t much of a surprise when the show put Sandy Sullivan and a few fellow America’s Next Top Model contestants into a hot tub with a bevy of even hotter Italian men. Throw in some drinks and you have a recipe for some harmless, flirty fun…right? As it turns out, though, this incident was anything but harmless!
Sullivan reported that she got blackout drunk and could hardly remember anything after getting into the hot tub. One thing she does remember is waking up with a man having sex with her. She was understandably shocked: he was violating her without getting her consent, and she thought the show’s producers would never let things go so far. Sullivan blamed America’s Next Top Model for what happened next, including negative tabloid headlines and a messy breakup with her boyfriend back home.
Using makeup to change someone’s ethnicity
These days, everyone understands how problematic and downright racist Blackface is. However, the producers of America’s Next Top Model seemingly never got that memo. In 2005, the show featured multiple white contestants getting makeup that made their skin look significantly darker. One of them even called the show out, noting how she now looked like “a Black woman with a nose job.”
In 2009, as part of a biracial photoshoot, contestants were required to represent multiple ethnicities via their clothes and makeup. Accordingly, some contestants used makeup to darken their skin color, helping them represent ethnicities other than their own. Years later, newer fans called the show out for what appeared to be blatant Blackface, and multiple producers have since apologized for the offensive content.
Tyra Banks is the whole problem
Here’s an open secret: when it comes to generating cringeworthy scandals on America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks is an absolute menace. For example, in one infamous scene, she yelled at a failed contestant (Tiffany Richardson) who wasn’t taking the show as seriously as Banks thought she should. “I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you! How dare you?” she screamed. “Learn something from this! When you go to bed at night, you lay there, and you take responsibility for yourself. Because nobody’s going to take responsibility for you. You rolling your eyes … It’s because you’ve heard it all before.”
Later, Banks bluntly suggested that lesbian contestant Kim Stolz tone down her sexuality. “I think there’s a certain thing of being proud. Like, I’m Black and proud, you know what I mean?” Banks said. “But I’m not walking down the red carpet: ‘I’m Black. I’m Black.'”
Sometimes, Tyra Banks would even contradict herself in hilariously weird ways. For example, she encouraged future show winner Danielle Evans to close the gap in her teeth to make herself more “marketable.” Later, she told contestant Chelsey to widen her teeth, which caused critics to call Banks a hypocrite. Making matters worse, Chelsey is white and Evans is Black, so Banks’ advice seemed like she was leaning into a racial stereotype: namely, that gap teeth are more acceptable on white women than women of color.