Tyra Banks sues Netflix over America’s Next Top Model documentary, alleging defamation

Former supermodel Tyra Banks is suing Netflix for defamation, alleging its docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model used hours of her interview footage to construct a false narrative.

The three-part series was released in February, and promised to pull back the curtain on some of the more controversial parts of the America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) reality series, which ran from 2003 to 2018. 

The docuseries tackled some of the show’s controversies — including its most extreme makeovers, which featured photoshoots in Blackface and brownface — and allegations of sexual assault by a Season 2 contestant.

But writer Amil Niazi told CBC Radio’s Commotion it offered little more than a “watery mea culpa.” 

Now, Banks, who was the creator and host of the reality show, is arguing through her lawsuit that she offered more accountability than the docuseries revealed.

Court documents obtained by CBC News allege Banks was interviewed for three and half hours, but her words were edited down to 16 minutes and manipulated “to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.”

Shandi Sullivan’s story

The lawsuit specifically makes reference to contestant Shandi Sullivan, a cast member on ANTM Season 2. During that season, she was seen getting into bed with a model in Milan, then later calling her boyfriend to confess her infidelity.

However in an interview with Reality Check, Sullivan said she was “blackout drunk” and described the incident as a sexual assault. She said ANTM’s production team framed it as her cheating on her boyfriend.

The lawsuit claims Banks had never heard about Sullivan’s sexual assault allegation before — but says that in one instance, Reality Check’s producers asked her, “You remember the story with Shandi?” without specifically referencing the assault allegation.

The episode shows only Banks respond by saying “Um,” before the screen cuts to black. The lawsuit claims Banks did remember Sullivan’s time on the show, and told the interviewer as much.

“The implication is devastating and deliberate: that Tyra Banks cannot even remember the story of the woman who was assaulted on her show,” the lawsuit says.

Lawsuit says Banks does not want to escape scrutiny

The lawsuit also says Banks “came to the interview prepared to engage with ANTM’s legacy, including its shortcomings — and she did, for three and a half hours,” but that the accountability she took “ended up on the cutting room floor.”

Reality Check was supposed to be a documentary, says the lawsuit, and “viewers of a documentary do not expect manufactured drama or constructed narratives. They expect facts.”

At the peak of ANTM’s success, millions of viewers were tuning in for its reality TV drama — the more sordid the better.

Variety magazine reports Reality Check got 14.2 million views in its first seven days on Netflix. 

Banks is seeking an unspecified amount of damages in her lawsuit. She’s also seeking an injunction barring the use of her image in connection with the docuseries’ soundtrack, which was released as an album earlier this year.

Netflix and representatives for the defendants have not responded to CBC News’s request for comment.