Are We Prepared to Welcome America’s Next Top Model Cycle 25 on Our Screens?
By Elizabeth Paige Richardson | February 18, 2026 | Best TV Shows
Pictured: Tyra Banks (Credit: Aaron Epstein/THE CW)
America’s Next Top Model was about more than just runway challenges and who did best at the last inexplicably animal-themed photoshoot. It was about drama, the thing that most fans of reality television crave the most out of any show they choose to give their time of day.
On screen, the drama between the girls in the house was all just part of the process of eliminating the losers to get to the next top model—who did better than whom and who was being “unprofessional” on set—but off camera, those words and tense environment had some long-lasting effects.
Exactly what those effects were and how the show allowed, or even encouraged, it to fester was put on full display in Netflix’s newest doc, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.
Watching a 2026 Tyra Banks, who is more careful and considerate than she was back when the show started airing in 2003, is a surreal experience; she is more than aware of the problems that plagued her groundbreaking show: eating disorders, microaggressions, and the age-old beauty-is-pain mantra (who can forget those intense hair transformations?). But at the same time, she seems to explain away some of the very visible problems showcased on each cycle of the show. While it’s nice to have someone acknowledge the wrongdoings that occurred, especially someone with the power that Banks had during production, it still feels like accountability is not the top priority.
In response to the infamous ethnicity-switch photoshoot in cycle four, Banks explained to the cameras that “this was my way of showing the world that brown and Black is beautiful” but also understands that “through the 2020 lens, it’s an issue, and I understand 100% why.”
While there are plenty of people now coming around to the behind-the-scenes drama, there were plenty of questionable and outright distasteful moments that were broadcast right all over the nation. One that comes to mind is the judges panel ripping into contestant (and future Chicago Med actress) Yaya DaCosta’s outfit choice, telling her that she “looked like she was about to ride a giraffe” and was trying to prove her “African-ness.”
Of course there were times when the models pushed back, but those moments usually ended with them being labeled as difficult to work with and not receptive to feedback. Does anyone need to be reminded of the “I was rooting for you” speech?
With moments like this making it on-screen and viewers at home eating it up, there’s little doubt in my mind that America’s Next Top Model is a good case study on how toxic good reality TV can get; there should be no rush to bring it back. The documentary left a lot of questions in the air: How do we prevent this kind of culture from hurting aspiring young girls again when it was never stopped when it was out in the open? How many girls do we allow to get hurt before we learn these lessons a second time?
The documentary drove home the fact that for those in the producer’s chair, like Banks, hindsight is 20/20. Is there a way to put up effective guardrails to protect the girls that the show is designed to platform?
Besides, with platforms like Instagram giving more “average” women access to the modeling industry and the ability to be discovered on their own terms with a dedicated following, I’m hard-pressed to think that America’s Next Top Model will capture our attention like it did back in the 2000s. All anyone needs is a TikTok account to really air their grievances and give fans drama in real time.
So even though Banks said, “You have no idea what we have planned for cycle 25,” I think this captivating three-part Netflix documentary is all the drama that we need from America’s Next Top Model. Maybe it’s time to leave this show in the past.
