Pictures courtesy of Mimi Wilcox, Austin Flack, and Stefanie Maridueña / Netflix
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is, as editor Stefanie Maridueña puts it, like opening a time capsule. From directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, the three-part documentary about the reality series raises questions around the competition series, its impact on culture and vice versa. Through the lens of what was once one of the biggest reality TV shows on air, editors Mimi Wilcox, Austin Flack, and Stefanie Maridueña examine the past as well as today.
With the Netflix docuseries, the three editors tell a responsible story about irresponsible storytelling. They strived for balance, allowing both former contestants to tell their stories and producers Tyra Banks, Ken Mok, and the judges to share theirs. The three editors walk fine lines in revisiting America’s Top Model, which they recently spoke with What’s On Netflix about as Emmy voters decide on Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program.
What were some themes in your minds you were really shaping the story around?
Mimi: The journey it took from the intentions at the beginning of the show to where it wound up. Having grown up a fan of the show wasn’t totally clear to me at the time. Revisiting it, in episode one, it really got into the origin story and Tyra’s whole story that led to her being motivated to create this show. She was motivated by the idea of having more diversity in the modeling industry and creating more opportunities. To see this show begin in that place and then see how it started to actually perpetuate some of those very problems that it set out to fight against was heartbreaking. It was also fascinating to dive into all our different character stories.
Stefanie: I was thinking about the impact of the show. As someone that viewed the show when I was young, what resonated is how much of it I had internalized as a viewer – knowing that a whole generation of women and other people that watch the show also internalize those same feelings. Getting to look back at this through an adult lens, I remember being horrified at what I had been exposed to at the age of like 12, 13, and how much of that messaging really I internalized as a young girl, not thinking to question it because I was so moldable at that age, right? Revisiting the past was the theme for me.
It’s like opening a time capsule at the same time, right? Top Model wasn’t all bad. It was also very fun. It also had some great elements to it, introducing queer characters to television and giving them a spotlight at a time when it was controversial and taboo. So it was interesting just to look at that nuance of looking back. Generally, this whole show really explores that nuance.
Everything is not so black and white. Tyra, she doesn’t deserve flowers in some ways. Mimi was saying, at the beginning, she had very good intentions . At the same time, we get to see just how these things got muddled and impacting not only the contestants and their livelihoods, but then the people that were watching and internalizing these damaging messaging around beauty standards and what it takes to be a model.
Austin: As we got into the edit, a big sort of theme that we explored is kind of who gets to who gets to be heard and who gets to tell the story. And obviously, in the original telling of the show and in the edit and the production, we saw some very different perspectives from the perspective of the show on situations. To be able to give the models a voice, and to unpack the behind-the-scenes and the impact in their own lives.
Unfortunately, there was a moment where we didn’t get the model. Tiffany didn’t sit for an interview with us. It would have been wonderful. But the most famous moment of the series I got to work on, which is, “We were rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!” And it is a fun scene to edit. There’s a lot of memes and comedy around it. But something Jay Manuel says is, “People have made that out to be really funny. It’s not funny.”
The truth is, it’s absolutely not funny. When it’s shortened down to one little thing, it’s kind of amusing, but even in the actual episode, it’s pretty bizarre and goes on for a long time. But then to hear behind the scenes, there was a lot more going on. It went a lot longer. Some ugly things were said.
Even though Tiffany wasn’t there, we had an archival interview of her later. Even if she didn’t sit with us, I really wanted to help the audience to see beyond the memes and the giggles and say, “Look at what was really happening. Why was this happening? What was happening to a person who was vulnerable and had previously been on the series and left and was in tears?” It was a strange event, and I wanted to unpack it beyond the surface-level reaction.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
There is so much responsibility on your shoulders about how to tell this story. What to show, maybe what not to recount out of respect for women who competed on the show. How’d you edit with the former contestants in mind?
Stefanie: One good example of that is Shandi’s storyline where we made a conscious decision. We wanted to minimize how much of the footage that America’s Next Top Model aired when she was having that encounter with the male model, especially knowing Shandi’s stories and how, after all these years, she was still so deeply impacted by what had happened. It’s palpable that not only she’s still affected, but she’s still wrestling with what happened.
The show shaped the whole storyline around her cheating, but not around was this a violation of consent. Shandi had been so rooted in this cheating scandal that was told to her when she was 22, when she was on the show, that she didn’t really think about what happened that night. And so, we knew to handle this very carefully. We were very gentle. From production, our director, Mor Loushy, who interviewed Shandi, and she was very gentle with her, let her take her time, and gave her space.
How did you want to give her similar space in the edit?
Stefanie: Similarly, we all shared the same sentiment for Shandi to be very careful around her, very protective. Knowing that she’s going to watch this again, making sure that she has a voice. Also, giving her an opportunity to empower herself and take control of this narrative now. One thing that was also great with that is that once the show aired, our director reached out to me and said that Shandi was very pleased with how we told her story. So, that was such a relief because especially as women, we encounter a lot of similar situations. It’s a very vulnerable, private place to go and to talk about all these things that happened to a woman, like staying with Keenyah and her sexual harassment during the shoot. Knowing that we’re doing right by the participants in our show is very gratifying to make sure that we’re telling their stories and that they’re satisfied with how we’re telling their stories.
Mimi: With Shandi’s story, we also almost had a model for how this can be re-traumatizing in that she then has an experience on the Tyra Show where she’s forced to reconfront that footage when she had asked not to. She didn’t think that she would have to do that and that that was its own really damaging experience for her. And so, right there, we had such an example of exactly what we didn’t want to perpetuate with this show.
With this documentary, you are asking a lot of these women to revisit experiences that were challenging for them. And so, that was something we were constantly checking in with ourselves about, as we cut, is to make sure that we weren’t doing exactly what the show had done, what the Tyra Show had done, what so many of these endeavors can fall short by doing.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Dionne Walters in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
As editors, you can all see where the strings were pulled on America’s Top Model, what cuts and transitions might’ve been irresponsible or nefarious storytelling. Were you making notes of those moments or did they stand out to the three of you?
Austin: What was interesting to me about it is more than either of these two women who’ve had more interesting careers than me, probably, I spent a fair amount of time working in reality television early in my career. The manipulations were not subtle in many situations. It wasn’t like the shows I worked on – Catfish, Top Chef, and a whole bunch of shows. It wasn’t like we weren’t storytelling and crafting and sort of building narratives and finding conflict and whatever. But we wanted to construct these narratives in ways that felt a lot more natural.
In Top Model, based on its era, reality TV was new. The audience wasn’t as sophisticated. We haven’t gotten sort of so conversant in the tropes and the devices of reality TV. And there was an innocence to the viewership. Some tricks were working then that now seem like pretty blunt instruments that you’re sort of like, “Really? This is the choice that we’re making as a series?”
Stefanie: Really, it’s shocking to see how manipulated it was. Back to the Kenya storyline, they made her into an elephant for this African photo shoot out of all the – and all the other women were like a gazelle, a giraffe, all these slender animals, right? And then they purposely gave her the elephant. And in the edit, there’s shots of her. They’re honing in on her stomach and trying to make her look worse. And then the one shot that they hone in at the stomach, I noticed as an editor now, which I know I didn’t notice when I was little, but I noticed that they had this effect, this amplifying effect on her stomach that made it look like she was breathing, but it was actually an effect that you can really clearly tell that they manipulated the footage to make her look fatter.
It’s so insane how toxic that was, and very disappointing that it happened.
What’s great about our series is that we’re able to kind of put them on the spot and give some accountability for these moments. Hopefully, now a new audience that’s watching this is thinking back about that time and questioning a lot of what was happening then. Funny enough, it’s a very weird time right now too, right? We have filters. We have social media aesthetics that are giving you this perception of what people’s lives are like. We have a resurgence of weight pills, right? I hope that maybe with the show, some of these conversations are like, “Okay, is this healthy what we’re doing?”
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Miss J in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
The lack of accountability is a part of the drama and tragedy of this series. Whether it was [showrunner] Ken Mok, Tyra, or fellow judges, what space did you want to give to their answers or deflections?
Stefnie: We let them honestly answer as honestly as they could. This was important for us, too, to make sure that whatever they said was what we posted, right, was what we edited with and had on the show. Really, this is an opportunity for them. It’s been 20 years. They love to say things like, “Oh, that was a different time,” but that doesn’t make it excusable, right?
Yes, it was a different time, but now it’s also a different time. Some of them were willing to say things like, “Maybe we took it too far.” For some instances, they didn’t say things like that. But if they didn’t recognize it now, that’s just what it is. In terms of how we’re dealing with the footage, you just kind of let them say what they’re going to say, and that’s what it is. We can’t really change that. As documentarians, we are really just presenting what was in front of us.
Austin: And we wanted to be fair to them and hear their perspectives. There are times when their perspectives are more persuasive than others. But also, we are not the ultimate arbiters of what’s okay and what’s not okay. We’re leaving it up to the audience to decide whether they think Jay’s explanation for this event, Tyra’s explanation for this event is ultimately enough.
I do think it’s interesting the moments that some of the judges and Ken and Tyra were willing to sort of admit fault and the moments where they were more hesitant – that is revealing. There are moments where Tyra comes off very well. This was never an attempt to bury anybody. But there are moments where we’re really letting them speak, and they are persuasive.
The body image thing is so complicated because there are moments where the show does really wonderful things about body image. And that’s what makes it harder to understand the moments that it doesn’t. But Tyra was doing something on purpose, getting what’s now considered plus-sized models on DV. The network did not want that. This was not a thing that the nation was calling out for. This was a thing that Tyra cared a lot about and did, and that’s great. Also, some other things happened.
Mimi: One thing that I remember was really important to me to get in there is Tyra was also relentlessly body shamed herself. Even in her earlier career as a model, but also during the course of the show, it was really horrific. In the moments where we were disappointed by the lack of accountability, we were also trying to understand that larger context. We definitely want to call out the horrible, horrible things that this show did for a lot of people’s body image and understanding body shapes and fashion in the world. It doesn’t excuse anything, but understanding that about Tyra, it actually deepens our understanding of the issue to know that she also was a victim of this kind of vitriol.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. (L to R) Nigel Barker, Miss J and Jay Manuel in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
She says at the end, someday people will come to you and confront your “shit.” I’m paraphrasing, but she talks to the audience about accountability… then we
Running out of time shortly, but I do also want to ask who’s behind the fantastic cut, though, of Tyra saying, “One day, people come to you and deal with your shit.” It’s a very interesting response to that question… but then we get a great cut to Dani, dismissing that response. Who was behind that cut?
Stefanie: That was me with Dani [Evans]. At this point, we were at the end of the show, and that was Tyra’s messaging for that question. This is something that we all do as editors, if you are watching back your footage as an audience and trying to make sure that you are putting yourself in their shoes to see how things play out. That helps you make the decisions as you’re editing.
I remember watching that and feeling like, “I’m over this.” [Laughs] And then Dani literally says the same thing like, “All right. That’s enough BS.” It was the right way to balance out. We wanted to make sure that we were showing both sides, right? Tyra believes that everyone’s going to have their moment and accountability is coming for everybody, but at the same time, the models that went through hell are like, “Well, I’m ready for it now,” right? And if you’re not taking accountability in the way that we feel it’s deserved, then let’s move on.
Mimi: This is a very complicated edit. Lots of things came in, came out, got scrapped, got moved between episodes. So much has changed. But Stef cut that, I don’t think it ever left. That stayed right where it was. We were like, “That’s perfect.”
