June 29, 2026

Reality Bites? The Tyra Banks Edition

By Emily Poler

If you weren’t alive in the 00s or have chosen to blank out some of the era’s cultural lowlights, America’s Next Top Model was a reality competition series that debuted in 2003. Breezily abbreviated as “ANTM,” the show was a huge hit that ran until 2018 and, according to creator, executive producer, and former model Tyra Banks, revolutionized the modeling industry by broadening the scope of who could be a model. A real change agent for female empowerment, to be sure. Except there was apparently a fair bit of darkness behind the glittering scrim: Models were asked to portray other races or ethnicities in photoshoots, the judges’ criticism sometimes crossed over into bullying, and contestants faced challenges that put their physical and mental well-being at risk. 

Earlier this year, Netflix released a documentary called Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model that, among other revelations, included an interview with a former contestant — Shandi Sullivan — who claimed she was sexually assaulted during filming and that the production team did nothing to stop it. Since I’m writing this, you know what that means: litigation! 

Tyra Banks has filed a lawsuit against Netflix and the documentary’s producers. In the lawsuit, she claims, among other things, that the documentary is defamatory because it creates the false implication that Banks knew, but forgot about Sullivan’s allegations of sexual assault. Banks also alleges that the documentary made her appear “evasive and dishonest” by contrasting her statement that she was not involved in production, and thus powerless to ensure contestants were not put in danger, with her on-screen title of creator and executive producer. All told, Banks is alleging false light, defamation by implication, breach of contract, and false endorsement under the Lanham Act.

One of her key complaints is that when asked, “You remember the story with Shandi?” Banks nods and replies, “I do remember her story,” then says, “um” and looks upward. The documentary producers edited the answer so that in response to the question, Banks just says “um” and looks up. Cut to black. The complaint says “Defendants edited the Netflix series to make it appear that Ms. Banks knew she was being asked about a sexual assault and was intentionally trying to evade the topic.” 

Ok, so that could, theoretically, be a legit complaint. 

With that said. Banks has a heavy burden here. To prevail on her claim of defamation by implication, she will have to show that the documentary created an implication that Banks knew about the sexual assault but had forgotten about it, and they knew that the implication was false, but created the narrative anyway. That’s not going to be easy. Moreover, it seems like discovery about the exact nature of her role in ANTM and its problems might be something that Banks would want to avoid, as it’s probably going to revive interest in ANTM and not in a good way.

Regardless of how this particular lawsuit turns out, as we’ve seen over the past few years (and I’ve written about on this blog), Netflix has had chronic problems with litigation like this. They should probably have someone vet their shows before they air to make sure they’re not obviously baiting people to sue them for defamation, as often seems to be the case.