Top 10 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets About America's Next Top Model

“America’s Next Top Model” had been on the air for 17 seasons when the show saw a pretty serious drop in viewership. They allegedly lost 1 million viewers between season 17 and season 18, which was one of the reasons that producers opted to let go of fan favorites Jay Manuel, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker and sub in a new slate of faces. They hired Rob Evans, plus sized model Ashley Graham and Johnny Wujek as their replacements, and the show has been significantly changed ever since.

Like on most reality shows, it’s safe to assume that the judges aren’t seeing every single person who comes out to audition. You think Tyra has time for that? Just like on shows like “American Idol”, most of the work in the audition process falls to the producers. While we do get to see some auditions on the show, the vast majority of people never get to meet Tyra – or any other famous faces. The audition process has definitely changed over the years, but this fact remains the same.

On any TV show, there have to be edits, and on a reality show where they’re filming for many hours each day, you have to edit a lot. One thing in particular that loses a lot of screen time is the photoshoots. When we see it, it is cut down to just a few minutes, but in reality, they are often shooting for an entire day. So while you may feel bad for the models when it seems like they haven’t had nearly enough time to get a good shot, keep in mind that there is a ton that the viewer never gets to see.

You’d think that after participating in a high profile reality show like “America's Next Top Model”, the contestants would keep in touch with producers or have resources to help them out back in the real world. In fact though, several past contestants have come out saying that they were very disappointed in the level of service they received once their time on the show was done. Some have attributed this to being one of the reasons that so few of the participants have found much success in the industry.

Of course, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes of a show like this one that viewers don’t witness, but we would never expect something like this. Angelea Preston won cycle 17 of the show, but was later stripped of her title after being involved in sex work before being cast . She has since spoken out, condemning many of the show’s practices, including leaving the girls sequestered in rooms for many hours without food or water and not letting them speak. Preston said that she used to admire Tyra, but after her experience on the show, she no longer feels the same way.

It turns out that the speech that launched a thousand memes had even more to it than we could have known. Tyra’s famous “we were rooting for you” tyrade has become internet famous because of her dramatic statements and tone. But according to insiders, the speech was much longer in reality – and more intense. Tiffany Richardson, the contestant being yelled at, said in an interview later that Tyra said some very inappropriate additional comments to her, including things like “You can go back to your house and sleep on your mattress on the floor with your baby.”

Janice Dickinson, often credited with being the first ever supermodel, was a judge on “America's Next Top Model” for four seasons in the early years. She had a strong and fiery personality, and often clashed with Tyra, on camera and off. When she left the show, the drama only heated up, with Dickinson making many claims about how Tyra treated her while she was
working on the show. She has flip flopped over the years and retracted some damning statements, but it seems pretty obvious how she really feels.

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We already talked a little bit about the audition process, but in addition to all the girls who audition, the producers and judges can scout their own models who get to skip all those first steps in the competition. There have been accusations of the system being rigged when girls who were handpicked seem to inevitably go far in the competition. Also, there are rules in place preventing any models who have had a certain level of experience from competing, but even these tend to be flouted sometimes.

According to Tiffany Richardson, yes the same Tiffany Richardson who Tyra so famously yelled at, cameras are rolling at almost every hour of the day. In an interview with Buzzfeed where she talked about everything that happened after the infamous “rooting for you” incident, she detailed how the models would be woken up at six am each day and subsequently filmed for 20 to 22 hours. So if you’ve ever wondered how one of the contestants could say or do something so insane, it might just be because they were coping with being filmed for hours and hours on end without a break!

America’s Next Top Model has been on since 2003, and it turns out that only a few years into the show’s run, Tyra considered calling it quits. In season eight, Banks cited stress as one of the reasons that she decided to relinquish control of ANTM to someone else. Ultimately of course, she was convinced to stay in the game. In cycle 23, Tyra stepped down as the host of the show, handing over the reigns to Rita Ora, but fans were happy when she was back to her usual antics for cycle 24. It looks like there will still be plenty of Tyra to come!