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Netflix’s Reality Check Reexamines Top Model With Assault Allegation and Claims of Exploitation

First-person testimony by alumni plus key figures revives questions of accountability for harmful production choices.

Overview

  • The three-part Netflix series, now streaming, features Tyra Banks, producer Ken Mok, former judges Jay Manuel, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker, and numerous former contestants recounting on- and off-camera experiences.
  • Season 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan alleges she was sexually assaulted in Milan while intoxicated as cameras rolled and that producers failed to intervene, with the event later presented on TV as infidelity.
  • Season 6 models Danielle Evans and Joanie Sprague describe feeling pressured into irreversible dental procedures and say they could not consult family or friends without risking elimination.
  • The film revisits race-swapping photo shoots and a crime-scene shoot tied to gun violence; Banks acknowledges going too far at times, while Mok expresses regret over glorifying violence but not the race-swapping concept.
  • Jay Manuel criticizes editing that he says skewed narratives and recalls Banks being escorted off set after the Tiffany Richardson outburst, as J. Alexander discloses a 2022 stroke and a prolonged recovery.