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Between contestant Ren Vokes’ notable clash with competitor Alasia Ballard and a (literally) hair-raising photo shoot<\/a> that saw the models shading one another from the sidelines, America’s Next Top Model<\/em><\/a> cycle 14 was one of the most dramatic in the reality competition’s history. Now, contestant Alexandra Underwood<\/a> tells Entertainment Weekly<\/em> that she witnessed a few off-camera moments of tension between producer-host Tyra Banks<\/a> and executive producer Ken Mok.<\/p>\n “I remember when we’d tape eliminations, there was a lot of back-and-forth between Tyra and Ken Mok,” Underwood recalls to EW in a new interview, 16 years after she first competed on ANTM<\/em> in 2010.<\/p>\n Underwood says that “they argued a lot” during panel deliberations, which she also alleges included “predetermined” eliminations \u2014 a sentiment echoed by former creative director Jay Manuel<\/a> in the new Reality Check<\/em><\/a> docuseries, in which he alleged that production would purposely select bad photos for models they wanted to eliminate<\/a>.<\/p>\n Courtesy Alexandra Underwood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Underwood tells EW that Mok and Banks “argued a lot,” because, in her estimation, “it didn’t seem like they were on the same page of how they wanted things to be shown” in the final edit.<\/p>\n When EW presses Underwood, who tied with Angelea Preston for third place on cycle 14, for example, she says she can’t remember, and suggests that a non-disclosure agreement might be holding her back.<\/p>\n “I don’t even know what I’m still allowed to talk about anymore,” she admits.<\/p>\n Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our\u00a0EW Dispatch newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Despite working with members of production she feels positively about \u2014 including the late producer David St. John, who died in 2025 \u2014 Underwood tells EW, “I remember the moment I realized this wasn’t what I signed up for,”\u00a0before recalling what she says happened on the set of the aforementioned shoot that tasked models with posing in gowns made of human hair.<\/p>\n “When one of our opponents is up there modeling, they wanted us to jeer and put them down,” she alleges. When EW viewed the episode, the models are shown breaking off into teams led by hairstylists Weaven Steven and Derek J \u2014 the latter of whom is later shown telling models to “yell,” “holler,” and “scream” at the other contestants as they pose, which they are eventually shown doing.<\/p>\n “You can actually see in my photo, when I’m up there, I’m holding back tears, I’m crying,” recalls Underwood. “In my photo that they chose [to show at panel], I’m crying, because I was like, this isn’t what I signed up for. To me, being mean to each other was not supposed to be part of it. It was very low.”<\/p>\n Netflix; UPN<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Underwood’s EW interview comes after\u00a0many contestants and judges<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 including\u00a0show alums\u00a0interviewed for\u00a0Reality Check<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 have\u00a0alleged problematic experiences during production<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>
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