The Biggest Shocks in Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model

Shandi Sullivan Became "The Girl Who Cheated"

America's Next Top Model Cycle 2 finalist Shandi Sullivan, who had a boyfriend back home, was filmed in bed with a male model who'd been partying at the contestants' house in Milan, as seen on the March 16, 2004, episode "The Girl Who Cheated." Shandi said in the 2026 Netflix series Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model that she was drunk and blacked out—and that she thought producers should have intervened.

"I think after getting out of the hot tub and whatever happened after that," Shandi said in the series, "I think they should've f--king, like alright, this has gone too far, we've got to, like, pull her out of this."

Also on the ANTM episode: Shandi crying the next morning, calling her boyfriend to confess to cheating and contacting the model in Milan to ask him if he had any STDs.

Asked about Shandi, Tyra Banks said in Reality Check, "I do remember her story. It's a little difficult for me to talk about production because that's not my territory."

Executive producer Ken Mok said in the doc, "We treated Top Model as a documentary and we told the girls on day one, we'd go over the rules with them, there's going to be cameras on you 24/7, day in and day out, and they're going to cover everything, the good, the bad and the in-between."

Added Tyra, "I'm not head of story, that's Ken Mok. But I did become a master editor. It's important for people to know that we didn't put everything on TV."

E! News reached out to Tyra and Ken for comment but did not hear back.

Dani Evans Was Pressured to Fix Her Tooth Gap

Eventual Cycle 6 winner Danielle "Dani" Evans and runner-up Joanie Dodds were taken to a dentist as part of the show's extensive makeover process.

Joanie ended up being there all night—"That was really intense what Joanie went through," Ken acknowledged in Reality Check—and had four teeth removed. But, she said in the Netflix doc, "It was like winning the lottery, I was always really self-conscious about my teeth."

Dani, however, at first declined the dentist's offer to close the gap between her two front teeth, explaining that she loved her smile. And when Tyra asked her on ANTM if she felt she could still be a top model with her gap, she said yes.

But after talking with her mom, who told her she'd probably be sent home if she didn't follow Tyra's advice, Dani said in the doc, "I decided to play the game and I got my gap closed."

Tyra said in Reality Check that she had since apologized to Dani for encouraging her to alter her teeth, but that at the time—in 2006—she was "between a rock and a hard place."

"There were agents that would tell me, she will not work with those teeth, it's just not going to happen," Tyra said. "Again, I could have just been quiet and let them handle it. But hindsight is 20/20 for all of us."

Responding to Tyra's take in the doc, Dani said, "Bull f--king s--t. Me getting my gap closed is not opening any doors for me. You knew what you were doing for the show."

Ken Mok Regrets the Crime Scene Photo Shoot

Cycle 8 included a photo shoot in which the models were made up and posed as if they were, not just dead, but crime victims. Dionne Walters, whose mother was paralyzed from gun violence, was tasked with playing a girl who'd been shot.

"I think they wanted to see some type of mental breakdown or see me crumble," she said in Reality Check. "I'm just glad they didn't get the reaction they hoped to get."

Ken said he takes "full responsibility for that shoot," explaining in the doc, "That was a mistake. I look back now and I think, that was a celebration of violence. It was crazy. That one, I look back and I'm like, 'You are an idiot.'"

Tyra Banks Was Surprised When the Ethnicity-Swapping Shoot Was Controversial

Photo shoot director Jay Manuel said in the doc that he had "the most difficult time" with the race-swapping shoot for a Got Milk? campaign in Cycle 4, and that he asked to be excused from that particular task.

"Tyra said, 'I will handle this on camera with the girls, just go and do your job,'" Jay said in Reality Check. "I recognized that my role was starting to have limitations. That shoot was happening regardless."

Tyra admitted in the series that she didn't think it was controversial at the time. "I was in my own little bubble, in my own little head that this was my way of showing the world that brown and Black is beautiful," she explained. "Then we put it out there and the world was like, 'Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?'"

And thinking about it now, she added, "I understand 100 percent why" it was an issue.

How Keenyah Hill's Weight Became a Focus

In hindsight, Cycle 4 alum Keenyah Hill feels it was no coincidence that she was assigned "gluttony" in a Seven Deadly Sins-themed photo shoot, or that she was the elephant when the finalists had to pose as animals during a safari shoot in South Africa.

As seen on ANTM, fellow contestants commented during the season on how much Keenyah seemed to be snacking and the judges advised her to watch her weight.

"To see that was going to be my entire narrative," Keenyah said in Reality Check, "it just felt unfair and kind of dirty."

She pointed to a sequence that she said was edited to make it look "as if I'd eaten three different bagels, but it really was the same one."

Talking about the approach to discussing weight on ANTM, Tyra said in the doc that, while her goal was always to showcase outside-the-box beauty, "Back then the fashion industry's beauty standards were so narrow. That's the world that we lived in."

Keenyah Hill Was Criticized for Saying a Male Model Made Her Feel Uncomfortable on Set

"I wish I could say shaming my body was the end of it," Keenyah said in Reality Check, "but the production didn't stop there."

During a shoot in South Africa, one of the male models she posed with was "aggressively hitting on me," she alleged. He was wearing just a loincloth, Keenyah said, and "he was touching me, grabbing me, just taking advantage of the moment to touch me. I remember thinking to myself, What would Tyra do in this situation? Tyra would politely and professionally stop the shoot and let everyone know that she felt a little uncomfortable."

But when she did that, as seen on ANTM, nothing happened.

At the judges' table later in the episode, Tyra advised Keenyah that she needed to come up with a way to stand up for herself without causing "static."

Tyra said on Reality Check that she "was trying to empower" Keenyah at the time.

"I thought that was the best advice," the 52-year-old said, "but it should have been, 'Stop, down,' and that's what would happen today. We now all understand the protections that women need." Looking at the camera, Tyra added, " So I say to Keenyah, Booboo, I am so sorry, none of us knew, network executives didn't know. And I did the best that I could at that time, but she deserved more. She did."

Tyra Banks Says She "Went too Far" When She Yelled at Tiffany Richardson

Tyra said in Reality Check that she "lost it" in Cycle 4 when Tiffany Richardson didn't seem to be taking the task at hand—reading from a teleprompter—seriously and wanted to give up.

"I just wanted to change this woman's life," Tyra said. "I felt like she could've been a supermodel with a capital S… I saw that all going down the drain, I saw her just not believing in herself and just giving up—and not just giving up on this modeling competition, but deeper."

So commenced her "We were all rooting for you!" outburst at judges' table.

Looking back, Tyra said in the doc, "I went too far, I lost it. It was probably bigger than her…That's some Black girl stuff that goes real deep inside of me. But I knew I went too far."

Jay Manuel Says Tyra Banks Gave Him the Cold Shoulder After He Told Her He Wanted to Leave the Show

Jay said in the doc that, in response to an email he sent Tyra telling her that he felt he was ready to leave the show after Cycle 8, she wrote back, "I am disappointed."

"After that email exchange, all communication just stopped," Jay said. "It should've been the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart, but that did not happen."

Instead, Jay continued, he was asked to return for Cycle 9 and he was too afraid not to say yes.

"People talk about being blacklisted," he said. "Those words were not used, but I suspected that's what it would turn into."

When production on Cycle 9 got underway, Jay said, Tyra "wouldn't speak with me" except during filming.

"So, on camera we learned to play, laugh," Jay said, "but it was clear I was not allowed to speak with her outside of that."

Asked what happened with Jay, Tyra declined to go into it. "I should call Jay," she said. "I don't want to do this here. He's a special man."

Whitney Thompson Felt Like the Odd Model Out

Cycle 10's Whitney Thompson, who at 5-foot-10 and size 6 was the first and only "plus-size" model to finish the season on top, said in the doc that she was given clothes that were too small—"they'd have to cut open the back and clip it"—and it was "demeaning" to be reminded constantly that she wasn't the typical sample size.

"They could have easily gotten clothes that were my size, but that was a choice that they made, and I dealt with that, as well as I could," Whitney said. "Because if they see weakness, you're gone."

Still, winning the competition "was a big deal," the Florida native added, "and then of course I got a contract with Elite and they didn't have a plus division. I really had to fight for a place, but eventually I ended up being the first plus-size model for so many massive companies."

Jay Manuel Says Story Eventually Took Precedent Over Modeling Potential

The judges didn't always select a model's best photo to display at the end, Jay said, instead picking shots they could nitpick, such as one that showed the poser's armpit hair.

Or, he said, sometimes he was told to do whatever it took to help a less strong contestant—because her storyline was that juicy—in order to make it convincing that she was still in the running.

"Because," Jay explained, "if the photos are just crappy, it'll become hard to say, 'This person deserves to stay in the competition.'"

Nigel said in the doc, "Did we always get it right? No, I don't think so. Sometimes we eliminated the wrong person, but that's the way it goes."

Tyra noted in the series, "Maybe we could've done a better job to let them know that, not everybody's going to be a star."

What Happened After a Model Was Eliminated

"What happened is," Jay explained of the post-elimination process, "you were filmed packing your bag, exiting the model apartment, and then the production assistant took you to a hotel room."

Where, according to multiple former contestants, you have to stay until the cycle is over and you can't call anyone right away, let alone tell a family member, etc., that you've been eliminated.

"I felt sorry for them," runway coach J. Alexander, aka Miss J, said in the doc, "but I just know it's a dog-eat-dog world out there. And the real world, they eat you up and spit you right out."

Once a model left the production, "as soon as you get off the plane and go back home, reality sets in," Cycle 8's Dionne, who finished in fourth place, said in the doc. "Are you going to take a shot at modeling? Are you going to try and move to New York? There is no guidance. You have to figure it out on your own."

Jay Manuel, Miss J and Nigel Barker Recall the Shock of Being Fired

Jay ended up staying on the show through 2012's Cycle 18, after which he, Miss J and Nigel were fired.

Ken and Tyra recalled in the doc hearing from higher-ups at the network that changes needed to be made.

Tyra said she was specifically told that "there are no sacred cows" and the result was she had to let go of "three of my hearts."

Nigel described getting fired as "really tough" and "somewhat mercenary," quipping that they "also got eliminated" just like the contestants. Jay said it was like being "slapped across the face," twice, because he made "so many concessions" when he agreed to stay years beforehand.

Jay said that he, Nigel and Miss J were told that the show would issue a press release in which they'd all be quoted about their decision to leave ANTM—but instead Page Six broke the news of their firing.

"That was probably the lowest point for me," Nigel said. To which Jay added, "Why would you not allow people who were part of this show since inception to move forward with grace? It was very deliberate."

Tyra said in the doc that telling the trio they were done "was the hardest news I ever had to deliver in my existence. I cried myself to sleep that night."

She also said that she still suspects that Jay, Miss J and Nigel didn't believe the order "came from above," no matter what she and Ken said.

J. Alexander Reveals He Suffered a Stroke in 2022

J. Alexander shared in Reality Check that he was in a coma for five weeks after suffering a stroke on Dec. 27, 2022, and, while he regained his ability to speak, he still needs a wheelchair.

"I taught models how to walk, and now I can't walk—not yet," the 67-year-old said in the doc. "Not yet. I'm determined to walk…I'm sure you're going to see me again, I'm sure. That's not all for me yet."

He said that Jay and Nigel visited him in the hospital—"I don't even know if he wanted me to see him in that way," Nigel recalled—and they reunited more recently while shooting the Netflix doc.

Miss J said that Tyra hadn't visited yet. She had texted him to say she wanted to, he added, "But no, not yet."