With the release of the new Netflix docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, former America’s Next Top Model contestant Shandi Sullivan says she no longer wants to stay silent about the traumatic experience she says she endured during the show.
Sullivan recalled that at just 19 years old, she joined the competition hoping it would transform her life and help her move beyond her job in Kansas City. Hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks, the reality series quickly became a major television success after premiering in 2004 and remained a cultural phenomenon for years. The new documentary revisits the show’s legacy through interviews with creators and judges such as J. Alexander, Nigel Barker, and Jay Manuel, while also focusing on the personal experiences of former contestants. Former competitor Winnie Harlow does not appear in the project.
According to Sullivan, the filming environment often felt emotionally intense and shaped heavily by production decisions. She describes one of the most painful moments of her life occurring during a trip to Milan, where exhaustion, alcohol, and pressure contributed to an incident she only partially remembers. She says cameras continued filming while she was visibly distressed, and the situation was later framed as a storyline about infidelity rather than her emotional wellbeing. In her view, production should have intervened instead of allowing events to continue for the sake of dramatic television.
In the documentary, executive producer Ken Mok defends many production choices, describing the show as a documentary-style format meant to capture events as they happened. Banks also states that production decisions were outside her direct responsibility. Sullivan, however, says she felt her boundaries were ignored, especially when footage she had asked not to be shown was aired again during later appearances.
Now 43, Sullivan says speaking openly about the experience remains emotionally difficult, but doing so has helped her release years of guilt and shame. Although she does not plan to watch the documentary herself, she says she has moved forward in her life — while still feeling that an apology and greater accountability from the show’s leadership would matter to her.
