America's Next Top Model Was Way More Cringe Than You Remember

Wanna be on top? It's been seven years since the last season of "America's Next Top Model" graced our screens until it's 2018 cancellation. The reality competition series, helmed by legendary supermodel Tyra Banks, pitted aspiring young models against one another to discover who could make it in the modeling world. And though it originally debuted in 2003, it may as well be an entirely different universe. 

The show's biggest scandals include instances of brutal insensitivity, racism, fat shaming, and more, and over the years, dozens of moments have resurfaced and faced serious backlash. In 2020, Banks herself had to take to Twitter to respond to the outrage. On her since-deleted account, CNN reported that Banks wrote, "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."

While Banks didn't specifically address one single incident in her tweet, there are plenty to choose from. We're rounding them up here. 

In May 2020, model Slick Woods posted a controversial clip from "America's Next Top Model" on her Instagram, which depicts Tyra Banks asking Cycle 6 contestant Danielle Evans, "Do you really think you can have a Cover Girl contract with a gap in your mouth?" When Evans replies, "Yes, why not?" Banks goes on to put her fingers on her teeth and mock the idea of gapped teeth, and tells her that the gap is "not marketable." In response to Banks' comments, Evans agrees to go back to the dentist, telling the judges, "Just a little bit is okay, but I don't want to completely close it." 

With all attention on Banks' treatment of Evans, the model took to Instagram to set the record straight. Evans explained, "I was not going to allow something that was physical on my face to stop me from getting out to make a better life for myself... It wasn't about coping out. It was about understanding what holds weight and value in my life and teeth was not one of them."

Despite the insensitive approach, listening to Banks was the right move for Evans. She ultimately won that season. 

While Tyra Banks certainly did something progressive in casting the show's first transgender contestant, Isis King, for Cycle 11, the other contestants' treatment of King is downright shocking. The season debuted in 2008, years before transgenderism started to become prevalent in mainstream media.

In scenes from an episode, fellow model Clark Gilmer is outspoken about her thoughts on King. She tells another contestant, "It freaks me out that she got something else different down there than me." In a later confessional, Gilmer adds, "Growing up in the south, you don't exactly run into a he-she every day. Isis has no place in this competition." Another scene shows contestant Sharaun Brown telling the cameras, "America's Next Top Model is not going to be a drag queen. I'm sorry, it's just not." 

In 2025, King spoke to Entertainment Weekly about her time on the show, revealing she's happy with the overall experience. "Was ANTM perfect? No. Would I have had the same success story without bearing my heart for the world to see, hoping the opportunity redirected me from poverty, and allowed me to travel the world following my dreams as an actress, model, and artist? Probably not."

Episode one of Cycle 6 of "America's Next Top Model" features a hopeful contestant spouting hatred that would never be on television today. The contestant, who only goes by Dani, unleashes her opinions in her audition tape, stating, "I am the most uber conservative Republican hardcore Baptist you could ever imagine in your whole life. I don't like gay people. I don't like Muslims. I don't like abortions. I don't like anything liberal."

Later, at a dinner with her fellow contestants, Dani launches into another rant, telling the table, "I don't believe in affirmative action. Like, the biggest load of crap I've ever heard in my whole life." When challenged about this belief by nearly everyone at the table, she doubles down and shouts, "I know how I feel, and you don't. So you can't tell me I'm racist when I know I'm not." 

Unsurprisingly, she didn't make the cut to be one of the show's 13 contestants that year. 

Ever seen a rapper push a model into the pool? While that kind of disrespect wouldn't fly on television today, back in 2007, rapper 50 Cent grew so annoyed at Cycle 8's Jael Strauss that he pushed her fully clothed right into the pool. The bizarre incident happened after Strauss kept bothering the rapper at a party hosted by Tyra Banks' manager, Benny Medina. 

In 2023, fellow Cycle 8 contestant Brittany Hatch spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the encounter, revealing that it wasn't as nefarious as it seemed. "He kept asking Jael to come over to him, and then telling her to go away, and she kind of got aggravated with him, so she dumped water on his head, and he responded by throwing her in the pool, which Jael thought was hilarious," Hatch shared. 

After her time on the show, Strauss sadly passed away in December 2019 at just 34 years old, two months after sharing that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. 

Cycle 7's Caridee English was a memorable "America's Next Top Model" winner, but one cringeworthy moment stands out the most. While doing a photoshoot in a pool, English was visibly freezing. Banks heckled her from the sidelines, shouting, "Caridee, you're from Fargo, come on. This is real, real modeling, you guys, being cold as heck." The photoshoot eventually had to be stopped after she started convulsing.

In an interview, English explained, "There's a point where my body literally takes over. I feel like my skin and everything is just pins and needles. But when the camera got on me, I tried to shake those shivers away and not let it show on my face." Photoshoot director Jay Manuel told cameras after the fact, "As a model, you need to tell people when you're past your limit ... She had reached a moment of hypothermia." 

The most cringe-inducing part? Banks went on to lecture her after the fact for becoming hypothermic, telling her, "You have to listen to your body. You have to tell us, okay? Because all we know is go, go, go. But you have to tell us no." No wonder former "America's Next Top Model" contestants can't stand Tyra Banks.

Next up? Perhaps the most controversial photoshoot in "America's Next Top Model" history was the "Got Milk" photoshoot that saw the models switching ethnicities during Cycle 4. The wild premise, often referred to as the blackface photoshoot, saw photoshoot director Jay Manuel relaying the bizarre concept to the ladies, explaining, "We are actually going to switch your ethnicities." 

Despite the shock and horror this photoshoot inspires under a present-day lens, many of the models weren't disturbed by the photos. In 2023, former contestants spoke to Entertainment Weekly about it. Tiffany Richardson, who was transformed into a Native American, shared, "I don't remember us raising concern about it, because we didn't think too much into it, it was just a photo shoot... It reads differently to me [today] because I've grown and I understand how people could be offended by it, but I still don't really give a s—. It's not that deep for me." 

Keenyah Hill, who was tasked with appearing as a Korean, told the outlet that no one made a "serious fuss" because it happened before "the sensitivity era" of the current times. Hill insisted the reason behind the transformations was "artistic" and not malicious, explaining, "If there's a [non-Black] who goes out on Halloween, painting their skin brown and making a mockery of it, then it's blackface, and making a mockery of [Black people.] Those are two different things; look at the context."

Tyra Banks launched a thousand memes during Cycle 4 of "America's Next Top Model," but if you revisit the original episode, "The Girl Who Pushes Tyra Over the Edge," you'll see a cringeworthy sequence of events. Banks yells at contestant Tiffany Richardson, whom she believes isn't taking her elimination seriously enough after being sent home, infamously shouting, "Be quiet! Stop it! I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this. When my mother yells like this, it's because she loves me. I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you! How dare you!"

Banks would later speak of the viral moment with Buzzfeed News in 2021, revealing, "I wouldn't have done it... Actually, maybe I wouldn't have aired it. It was such an emotional, visceral moment for me ... I had so much love for this girl."

Richardson spoke to Buzzfeed in 2016, revealing the fight was "1,000 times worse," and claimed that Banks also yelled, "You can go back to your house and sleep on your mattress on the floor with your baby." Richardson ultimately has no regrets about her time on the show, sharing, "I can't regret that, because it made me who I am right now. And I needed all of that." Imagine Tyra Banks behind the scenes ...

If you feel like indulging in some secondhand embarrassment, look no further than the disastrous runway performance of poor "America's Next Top Model" Cycle 14 contestant Alexandra Underwood. The models were tasked with strutting down a runway with swinging pendulums primed to knock them right off — and that's exactly what happened to Underwood. After already taking a fall on her way down the stairs to the catwalk, the model then tackled the complicated runway and was knocked completely off. 

Despite the falls, Underwood triumphantly climbed back up to finish her walk. Underwood would later discuss the episode in a 2022 YouTube interview on "Get In the Mix With Twist," explaining, "I wasn't hurt. I was just upset because I thought I was for sure going to go home for it." She shared that she later started crying, but has a fond memory of the moment, revealing, "They let me sit by myself, but all of the girls came up to me and hugged me, and that was very sweet and genuine." 

When "America's Next Top Model: College Edition," better known as Cycle 19, debuted, it was only natural that the cast would skew a little younger. But contestant Victoria Henley brought a whole new meaning to the concept of a "mommy's girl," often tearing up while just talking about her mom. While the sentiment at first seemed sweet, it quickly turned cringey when the contestant would say things like she wanted to live with her mom "forever" and sob when talking to her on the phone. 

When a male model from a photoshoot eventually showed interest in Henley, not only was the 18-year-old model uncomfortable, but she seemed offended. "Stroking the hand, that's a little bit much," she said of the model's flirting. "Having a boyfriend? That was never a priority for me. Losing my virginity would just feel like I was invading my own personal boundaries. If it got to the point where he was too forward, I would just whack him upside the head." Yikes!

It wasn't just the photoshoots on "America's Next Top Model" that could be controversial. During Cycle 3, a seemingly innocent styling challenge turned into much more for contestant Yaya DaCosta (one of the ANTM contestants who made it big). DaCosta chose a cowboy hat, and judges seemed to take issue with the fact that the model didn't choose the traditional African hat. Judge Nole Marin even says, "Yaya, I feel you're half African, half cowgirl. It looks like you're about to ride a giraffe." 

Special guest that episode, Rebecca Weinberg, a celebrity stylist, alleges, "You have this intensity to prove your sort of 'African-ness' and I think that sometimes it's overbearing. It's just too much." DaCosta takes issue with that opinion, replying, "In response to trying to prove myself, as an African, that's just where I come from. It's very natural to me. I did not choose that hat for the very specific reason that it's very cliche."

"America's Next Top Model" featured not one, but two photoshoots where models portrayed alternate ethnicities. The second happened in Cycle 13. Photoshoot director Jay Manuel explained it was a celebration of Hawaii's immigrant history, but contestants like Jennifer An weren't thrilled with the idea. An was tasked with portraying Motswana and Polynesian, and later told Entertainment Weekly in 2023, "As I'm watching them paint my skin, I'm like, 'Oh my God, that's really dark.'" An recalls, "I looked around and I'm like, 'Guys, but I'm in blackface right now.' And they were like, 'Yeah, yeah, it's fine.' ... I just remember feeling super uncomfortable about it."

For that same Entertainment Weekly feature, a representative for Banks shared a statement that read in part, "I want to be very clear: I, in no way, put my 'Top Models' in blackface. I'm a Black woman. I am proud. I love my people and the struggle that we have gone through continues, and the last thing that I would ever do is be a part of something that degraded my race."

On Cycle 4 of "America's Next Top Model," contestant Michelle Deighton was concerned about sores developing all over her face. The timing wasn't great, as the girls were tasked with a makeup challenge, but Deighton insisted, "My face is falling off!" as she battled the sores that were getting worse and spreading. 

The show actually arranged for Deighton to see a dermatologist, but before she was given an official diagnosis, fellow contestant Noelle Staggers started spreading a nasty rumor. While speaking to her mom on the phone, Staggers announces, "Did I tell you one of the girls got a flesh-eating bacteria on her face?" Staggers' mom tells her, "That's been all over the news. There's been some strange bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics." 

Once given this update from her mom, Staggers runs to tell the other contestants, creating a panic amongst the models. Fortunately, Deighton is later diagnosed with impetigo, not flesh-eating bacteria.

It's not every day you see a grown woman meltdown like a toddler, but Brittany Hatch served up an unforgettable tantrum during Cycle 8. That season saw the models travel to Sydney, Australia, where they were tasked with going on go-sees. When Hatch has a misunderstanding with her cab driver, she lost her temper, arrived late to the final location, and angrily threw her binder.

Fellow contestant Natasha Galkina, who was also disqualified, attempted to bring Hatch back to reality, offering a now-iconic line, "I just want to tell you that some people have war in their countries." Needless to say, that didn't calm the model down.

Hatch reminisced about this infamous outburst with Entertainment Weekly in 2023, explaining, "We'd just flown to Australia, so we're already jet-lagged, we're also sleep-deprived by production... If you look at studies on sleep deprivation, the CIA used to use it as an interrogation technique. So, they're just screwing with people's minds in order to have them in this heightened state to keep them overly reactive."

When Cycle 4 of "America's Next Top Model" debuted, fat shaming was still very much happening. Contestant Keenyah Hill was far from overweight, but she was given an unflattering assignment on a photoshoot. Photoshoot director Jay Manuel assigned each girl an animal on one shoot, selecting lanky animals like giraffes and ostriches, but told Hill she would be an elephant, after assigning her the sin of gluttony the previous week. Hill attempted to laugh it off, saying in a confessional, "I get to be the big fat elephant. Why do I keep getting stuck with these big fat characters?" 

Aside from being given unflattering assignments, Tyra Banks took things one step further by telling Hill that her photos required a lot of retouching. Hill tried to defend herself, explaining, "At home, pretty much I try to eat right. And we come here, my metabolism and everything is thrown off." Fellow judge Janice Dickinson cut her off, adding a piece of extremely rude advice by exclaiming, "Stop! If you're sporting a gut, then you turn to the side and disguise it!" Ouch. 

The biggest success story from "America's Next Top Model" actually came in sixth on her season. While you likely know her as Winnie Harlow, on Cycle 21, the model went by Chantelle Young. Harlow stood out due to her skin condition, vitiligo, which ultimately helped her find fame in the modeling world. While on the series, one of the show's photographers, Yu Tsai, openly mocked her for it, calling her "panda." Harlow didn't appreciate the nickname and stood up against Tsai in one powerful scene. 

"I don't want kids out there to see you, someone so high up in the industry, being able to call me 'panda,' and then see someone else with a skin condition and be like, 'Hey, Yu Tsai could call Chantelle panda, I can call this person a cow,'" Harlow calmly tried to explain to the photographer.