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America’s Next Top Model winner Whitney Thompson is sharing her honest review after watching Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.
“So I just finished watching Reality Check, which I don’t think is a great name, on Netflix, and I have to say I’m a little disappointed,” Thompson, 38, shared via Instagram on Tuesday, February 17. “When I signed on for it, Tyra [Banks] wasn’t even going to be on the show, so I was kind of surprised that it was more like a judge-focused show. I would want to hear more from the contestants.”
Models, judges and insiders participated in the documentary that looks back at the reality show’s complicated legacy.
Thompson, who won cycle 10, wishes the show focused more on the contestants instead of the drama surrounding Banks, 52, and the judges.
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“Shandi [Sullivan]. Oh, my God, my heart breaks. Just rewatching that is horrific,” she said in reference to a contestant who claimed that she was sexually assaulted in an onscreen moment. “And Keenyah [Hill]. There was just so much that was really interesting, and I kind of wish they focused more on I guess what I thought was interesting. Of course I’m biased because I was a contestant.”
In a separate Instagram video, Thompson appeared to defend Banks, who served as a host and executive producer of the series.
Whitney Thompson Courtesy of Whitney Thompson/Instagram“Hating Tyra is easy, right? I mean, it’s easy to blame her. But the truth is that the industry would not be what it is today if it wasn’t for her putting these things on Top Model back then,” Thompson claimed. “We would not be gasping at the craziness that she put on TV if she hadn’t done it and shifted our entire mindset. She took queer, Black, trans, different weights, different heights and she put them into the average American’s living room where everyone was together watching these shows, rooting for someone who didn’t necessarily look like them.”
The model continued, “Because of that, it shifted the whole dynamic to where people could actually use people who weren’t identical to them in advertising. That had never happened before.”
At one point in the three-part documentary, Banks defended the show’s intentions and objective.
“I wanted to fight against the fashion industry. One day, this idea just hit me. What if I created a show where you saw what it took to become a model,” she explained. “And for this show to represent not all white, not all skinny and to just show all the differences and all the different types of beauties. I had a feeling that I was gonna change the beauty world.”
Reality Checked isn’t the only documentary expected to put the spotlight on America’s Next Top Model. Thompson said she is also “excited to see” what E!’s docuseries will uncover.
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Titled Dirty Rotten Scandals, the special aims to unveil “the dark underbelly of the long-running TV series through the untold stories of former contestants.”
Firsthand interviews with the contestants cast light on behind-the-scenes secrets and the steep prices they paid for a shot at being “on top.”
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is streaming now on Netflix. Dirty Rotten Scandals: America’s Next Top Model premieres on E! Wednesday, March 11, at 9 p.m. ET.
