Everybody wants to be on top until they try to tear you down.
Tyra Banks wants people to know the full story behind one of the most famous televised competitions.
Banks, co-developer and former host of “America’s Next Top Model,” is seeking unreleased interview footage from former show insiders J. Alexander, Jay Manuel, and Nigel Barker as part of her defamation lawsuit against Netflix and the producers of “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.” Banks filed the lawsuit on June 13, 2026, shortly after the documentary aired.
Banks argues that the documentary selectively edited her interview to create a misleading portrayal of her role in some of the show’s most controversial moments. She says roughly 16 minutes of her three-and-a-half-hour interview were used, leaving out portions in which she addressed her involvement and took accountability for decisions made during the series.
She believes the unseen footage could help demonstrate that the documentary omitted context that would change how viewers understood her words and actions. Her attorney has argued that “the facts are recorded” in the unaired footage. Netflix disagrees, saying Banks was given the opportunity to speak openly and that the filmmakers fairly presented her perspective. The producers have also opposed her requests for raw interviews and other materials, calling them “overly broad.”
Then there are the participants whose allegations helped fuel criticism of the show. Former contestants described body shaming, pressure surrounding eating and cosmetic procedures, and situations in which they felt production failed to protect them.
Dani Evans, for example, has described being pressured to close her signature tooth gap during Cycle 6. Banks has said she later apologized and maintained that industry expectations influenced the decision. Evans disputed that justification, saying, “You knew what you were doing for the show.” Executive producer Ken Mok defended the production’s approach by saying, “We treated ‘Top Model’ as a documentary, and we told the girls that.”
The complicated part is that the reflection did not stop with criticism of Banks. People involved with the franchise later revisited their own decisions, acknowledged mistakes, and questioned choices made by one another.
The former supermodel has admitted that she “went too far” during her infamous confrontation with Tiffany Richardson while also saying she was not the head of the story and identifying Mok in that role.
Former contestants have also reflected on their own choices and participation in moments that later became controversial. The filmmakers have said Banks was an interview subject like the other participants, without editorial control over the documentary or access to the final cut. That leaves the documentary presenting a collection of perspectives rather than one person’s version of what happened. Banks now argues that some of the context surrounding her perspective was left on the cutting-room floor.
The documentary also revisited former contestant Shandi Sullivan’s experience during a night of drinking in Milan. The original “America’s Next Top Model” episode portrayed the encounter as Sullivan cheating on her boyfriend. Years later, Sullivan said she had been heavily intoxicated, blacked out during portions of the encounter, and questioned why production continued filming rather than intervening.
The circumstances have since become part of the dispute over how Netflix presented the show’s history. Banks’ lawsuit argues that she was not told during her documentary interview that Sullivan would characterize the encounter as an assault and contends that the editing deprived Banks of an opportunity to respond to that allegation. Sullivan’s earlier accounts also described consensual kissing and sexual tension before the encounter progressed, making the sequence of events and how it was presented particularly important to the competing narratives.
Whether those recordings support her claims of defamatory editing is ultimately for the court to determine. For viewers, the lawsuit offers a reminder that reality television is built from hours of footage that audiences never see, leaving curiosity about how much context can disappear before the story is changed.
