There were a few reality shows I watched in the early 2000s and unfortunately one of them was ANTM along with The Biggest Loser and later DWTS. It took me longer to ditch ANTM because like any good U.S. citizen, I ate up what the major networks wanted us to eat up like it was going out of style. As with everything, viewers don’t know the bad things that happened behind the scenes or at least, should’ve recognized what was happening. All we see is young women trying to better their lives by being popular in a contest full of chance, ambition, luck, and a little bit of talent. Viewers didn’t know or really care what happened to the contestants after they were voted off or how filming certain episodes damaged their psyche and altered their lives forever. Controversial topics, model shoots, and pressured body alterations including painful dental extractions.
I find it interesting how Tyra Banks went into ANTM wanting to promote diversity and change in the model industry, only to reinforce the long-standing grip on the fashion/model industry. While I don’t place all the blame on Tyra Banks for the mishaps on ANTM, she had more control that she let on during the episodes. Her later treatment of Jay Manuel and Miss J and even Nigel Barker was solely on her personal selfish wants. While the show opened doors for some of the contestants, many of those who won the season were shut out of the model industry no matter what they did. If Tyra Banks really did know this would be the case and still went through with it, I find this one of the more egregious abuses of her greed. She profited off the winners knowing they would be shunned by model agencies. Sure, many of the episodes do not stand the test of time but when the earlier seasons aired, there was enough substance for me to keep watching. However, as I noted above, it lost the original flavor and quit watching it. Hearing the contestants speak of their experiences (many of them bad) hopefully gave them a little more closure although some found nothing but more heartache in revisiting their time on ANTM. I suppose Tyra Banks sleeps just fine at night.
I rate Reality Check: Inside ANTM FOUR FINGERS at 90%.
Pisaries Creator 
Leave a comment