‘America’s Next Top Model’ Netflix Doc Directors Tell All on Sexual Assault, Racism and Tyra’s Fallout With the Jays

From boundary-pushing challenges and nearly unethical treatment of aspiring models-turned reality stars, “America’s Next Top Model” has been controversial ever since its original airing, and only picked up more criticism during its 2020 resurgence, when viewers looked at the show through a new lens to find it more problematic than anything else.

Recent chatter about the reality series, which ran for 24 seasons beginning in 2003, fueled an effort at Netflix to pursue a documentary centered on the sensation. The streamer had already secured participation from several key models and judges from the series, but by the time directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, who helmed Netflix’s “American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden,…