September 23, 2025 • 49 mins
Cycle 1 was messy, low-rent, and groundbreaking. It was also the blueprint for everything ANTM would become. It introduced us to the larger-than-life personalities that became synonymous with the show. Cycle 1 also laid the groundwork for the body shaming, humiliation, and on-screen drama that made ANTM iconic. From the beginning, ANTM loved a Cinderella story. While Cycle 1 winner Adrianne Curry may have gotten the crown, she didn’t get her happily ever after.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Would Adrian and Shannon come in please.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's July eighth, two thousand and three, and America's next
Top Model is about to crown its first ever winner.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The judges have reached a decision. One of you is
about to be a star.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
After weeks of watching ten, then nine, then eight, and
finally the last two women be transformed into POI supermodels.
The most deserving young woman was about to have all
her dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Let me remind you what's at stake. A contract with Revlin,
a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine, and representation by
top modeling agency Wilhelminas.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The two finalists, Adrian Curry and Shannon Stewart, were standing
there because they desperately wanted to become top models. They were,
of course both tall, thin and pretty. But Shannon, with
her blue eyes, blonde hair, and tan skin, had a
more obvious beauty that gave all American supermodel Adrian, with
her pale skin and dark hair, had a more gothic look.
(01:00):
It's been like our early two thousands Angelina Jolie minus Phillips.
Shannon and Adrian were both so young eighteen and twenty.
Shannon had never traveled without her family before, and for Adrian,
this opportunity was her ticket out of a small dead
in town.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
The winner's picture is hanging behind me, and when the
cloth is dropped, it will reveal who will be America's
next Top Model.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
They had no idea the show they had just spent
nine weeks filming would launch a global phenomenon.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
The decision is made, America's next Top Model is.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Adrian.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, congratulation, But after the cameras went down, Adrian would
become the first contestant to fall victim to the Curse
of America's Next Top Model. She thought when she stepped
off that set she was stepping into a career as
a top model, with a beauty contract and agency representation
to give her a head start. But those prizes never materialized,
(02:09):
and neither did her modeling career. You want to beyond
some Welcome to the Curse of America's Next Top Model.
I'm Bridget Armstrong. For a lot of A and TM fans,
(02:31):
Cycle one was just address for her as well. They
say the show didn't really get good until season two,
but cycle one was the blueprint for what A and
TM eventually became. So on this episode, we're going back
to the origins to explore how this low budget Tyra
Banks passion project became a cultural phenomenon. We'll talk about
how the season came together and explore how from the
(02:54):
very beginning the show's popularity overshadowed the body shaming, manipulation
and false promise. Is A ANDTM was built on. Adrian's
win in cycle one helped launch the top model machine
that grew into a global franchise. The problem is it
didn't produce a top model and these days, Adrian has
(03:14):
been very candid about the show failing to live up
to its promises. Here she is talking from an interview
with in Touch Weekly in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
It's certainly not a show that anyone in the fashion
industry wants to touch you if you bet on it
and season one, you don't know that that we knew
as much as Kelly Clarkson knew going into American Idol.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
But unlike Kelly Clarkson, Adrian didn't become a superstar. She
didn't sell eighty seven million records or win three Grammys.
She certainly doesn't have a talk show. Adrian's an avon
lady living in rural Montana, and according to her, she
never got that Revlin deal and the Wilhelmina contract was
an empty promise. She says the agents completely ignored her.
(03:58):
In fact, she left the show she discovered that no
one in the modeling world took her seriously. When it
came to fashion. America's Next Top Model wasn't a leg up.
It was a black mark. From the beginning. The show
seemed to prioritize making great TV, not great models. But
(04:19):
that may not have been Tyra's goal at first. So
let's pick back up where we left Tyra before she
even had a team or models to disappoint. Once America's
Next Top Model was greenlit, upn wanted to start production
almost immediately, and for the first season they gave them
a tight budget of five hundred thousand dollars per episode.
(04:41):
Now that might sound like a lot of money, but
Top Model is an expensive show to make. There are
at least ten models who have to be housed, an
international trip, ten on location photo shoots, and ten challenges
that all have to be paid for, as well as
a full production crew, makeup artists and stylists, a panel
of judges and ex and Tyra Banks herself, who all
(05:02):
have to be paid to put it into context. By
cycle ten, the episode budget was well over one million dollars.
To make cycle one work, they had to find a
cast and crew quickly, so Tyra called in some favors
people who would do the show not for a big paycheck,
but for Tyra. She was friends with former model and
(05:23):
Babyfat director Komorley Simmons, so she got her to be
a judge on cycle one. Also joining the panel of
judges was Boquillian, who at the time was the fashion
editor at Marie Claire, the magazine that would give the
winner a spread. And of course, rounding out the panel
was supermodel excuse me, the first supermodel, Janis Dickinson, and
(05:45):
that's literally how they introduced her on the first episode.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Janis became one of the world's first supermodels in the
nineteen seventies and her face was featured everywhere and.
Speaker 7 (05:54):
Been in this industry for quite a long time, making
me probably the most opinionated person on the panel.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
All right, next we have bo Jannis, became known for
her less than gracious opinions, but according to her, she
was just doing her job. Here she is in twenty
twenty two talking about her role on the show.
Speaker 7 (06:11):
When I was hired to do America's Next Top Model,
Tyra hired me to be.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Like a female Simon Cowell.
Speaker 7 (06:16):
To be feeding in a negative fashion things about the girls.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And as we know, Jannis did her job well, maybe
too well.
Speaker 7 (06:25):
There's so many teeth in her mouth. I mean it's
like maybe she should have a few removed. It'll work
on the side that the booty thing your ass was going,
you know, wigglewock and wigg walk escathing, vitriolic judge check.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Next, they needed some fashion experts to transform these scrownny
confused teenagers into supermodels, so Tyra brought in somebody who
trained her when she was a squaranny teenager.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
I have the one and the only top runway trainer.
I have known him since I was seventeen years old.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
His name is Jay Alexander. Come on, Jay Alexander or
Miss Jay was well known in the industry is the
go to person to teach young models how to slay
the runway. In two thousand and three, it was a
big deal to feature a queer black man who went
by miss on a mainstream show, and from the beginning,
Miss j was his authentic, fabulous self. On episode two,
(07:17):
he taught the girls how to walk while wearing nothing
but a black shirt, drawls, and heels.
Speaker 8 (07:22):
Jay walked out a little black like underwear something a
hind heels.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Jay's legs look a lot better than mine. New So yeah,
my motto is walk like it's for sale and the
rent is due tonight.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Next there was Jay Manuel or mister j. He eventually
became a judge in the show's creative director, but on
cycle one he first appeared as the makeup artist on
the makeover episode. Here he is wiping away a lot
of dramatic tears.
Speaker 9 (07:47):
Don't look so sad.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Models are canvases.
Speaker 10 (07:50):
Yeah, they're canvas and they're also chameleons.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Wow. This was before Jay's iconic silver hair. He was
still a brunette here. So they had their judges, they
had their j's, and now they needed their models. They
began a nationwide search, and despite not knowing what this
was going to be, young women showed up and sent
in their audition tape. At least one contestant was cast
(08:16):
the Fairytale Way literally at Disneyland. Jazelle Sampson was working
as a dancer at Disney, where her coworker approached her.
It came up to me.
Speaker 11 (08:24):
He was like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You should be modeling, And then he said something that
would change Jazelle's life forever.
Speaker 11 (08:32):
My ex girlfriend she wasn't casting, and there's the show
called Supermodels. Originally it was called Supermodels, or maybe that
was the alias that they were using.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
She gave her coworker her head shot. He passed it
along to his ex who was working and casting for
a and m Gazelle didn't hear anything for a while.
Then a few months later she got a call about
that Supermodel show.
Speaker 11 (08:53):
And I got the phone call on New Year's Eve Eve,
December thirtieth of two thousand and two. They were like, hey,
can you come in right now and meet with our producers.
I literally changed, got in my car, went to CBS
Studios in office and I walked in and I was just,
you know, thinking I was just going to meet a
(09:14):
couple of producers, and then there was Tyra Banks sitting
right there in front of my face.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
As I've heard over and over on the first seasons,
Tyra was extremely involved in every aspect of production, including casting.
Dezelle remembers Tyra asking her to lift up her shirt
to show her stomach. She wanted her to do a
runway walk right there in between the cubicles. The idea
terrified her.
Speaker 11 (09:40):
I freaked out. I freaked out, and I was like,
I'm gonna lose the opportunity. I started crying. She was like,
oh my god, that's probably what got me the oh.
I started crying because I was so self conscious because
I have s curve scoliosis, and so I had a
total breakdown. And she was like, oh my gosh, girl,
we all were tall, we all have that. Don't worry
about it. And I was like, okay, cool. So she
(10:02):
boosted my confidence at the time, and so I did
my thing.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You know what. Gazelle might have a point about her
breakdown getting her cast. Her entire storyline was focused on
her supposed lack of confidence in her callback. Tyra asked
Azil one more thing, how she would feel if she
became famous.
Speaker 11 (10:23):
I lost my shit again, and I just started crying
because I could just I got this overwhelming like sense
of like this is my time, this is a sign,
like I'm going to be famous now, like this is it.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Gazelle, like many women, I've talked to. Thought this was
her big break that she had been discovered. The next day,
casting director Michelle Mock, no relation to ep Kinmock called Gazil.
They wanted her to come back in for a meeting
with the network Exis. She was like, I'm going to
drive you, so I got in her car.
Speaker 11 (10:57):
I was like, oh my gosh, Cassid doctors, I mean,
and her Mercedes Mattens and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
The meeting didn't take long, and afterwards Michelle.
Speaker 11 (11:06):
Mok came up to her and said, I'm so sorry,
but you're gonna have to figure out how to get
warm clothes because you're going to New York in four days.
And within twenty four hours, I got the gig.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Jess want to point out Dazelle made it onto the
show because she knew a guy who knew a guy.
In later seasons, thousands of people would show up to
casting calls and wait in lines for hours for a
small possibility of just being seen. Jazelle's casting happened so
fast she wasn't even prepared. She didn't have a passport,
a requirement in case she stayed on the show long
(11:40):
enough for the international trip. She and her mother had
to rush to get her one. She didn't even have
winter clothes. Her entire wardrobe on the show was borrowed
from a friend. Getting on the plane, Jazelle barely knew
what the show's format was going to be. Here's what
she was told.
Speaker 11 (11:54):
They said, you're gonna have cameras on you twenty four
to seven. They'll go down when you guys go to bed,
and they'll be up when you guys get up.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
But that's all I knew.
Speaker 11 (12:04):
And then we were going to go do some modeling things,
and then we were going to be judged on that
and hopefully make it to the next round.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
But there wasn't really much said. Gazelle quit her job
and took us aemester off college. But before she could
officially join the cast, there was one teeny tiny piece
of business. She was handed a stack of papers and
told to sign.
Speaker 11 (12:26):
I was seventeen years old, just five months before I
got this competition show, and they threw legalities at me.
You know, you need to sign this, you know the
releases and everything. And I was so excited to be
on the show. I didn't know what I was signing,
and I didn't even have time to like, have my
parents look over it, have a lawyer look over at nothing.
I just was like, Oh, I'm so excited, and their
(12:47):
dangling fame and fortune and television and you know, being
a star right in front of my face. I'm going
to sign anything, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So she signed those papers and was cast on the
very first season of Tyra Banks's new modeling show.
Speaker 9 (13:02):
UPN Tomorrow, ten women go head to head for the
ultimate prize, a modeling contract with Revlon Meet Youaselle.
Speaker 12 (13:08):
I hate to be bothered, seriously, when people were like
you need to do this or you need to wear this,
I just I'm like, will.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
You meet them alone? Spoiler alert. Cycle one did not
make Gizella star, but it did make America's Next Top
Model a hit with a replun.
Speaker 9 (13:22):
Contract at stayed America's Next Top thottle O Breniers Tonight
after Buffy on ups Kenny.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
We'll get into that after the break. America's Next Top
Model premiered on May twentieth, two thousand and three, to
an audience of nearly three million. It quickly became one
of the most successful shows on UPN. And there are
a lot of reasons for that. I wanted to call
(13:50):
up someone who could explain the pop culture climate back
in two thousand and three, someone with insight on what
made A and TM and shows like it such a hit.
Speaker 10 (13:58):
I am the the original influencer. In fact, that word
didn't even exist when I began back in two thousand
and four.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That's Perez Hilton. He made his name terrorizing anyone who
had the misfortune of being famous in the early two
thousands and back then.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
People weren't really talking about celebrities online. The websites for
the magazines People dot com, Usweekly dot com.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
They were just placeholders.
Speaker 10 (14:29):
Go to our website to sign up for a subscription
to the magazine. Nobody was breaking news on the internet.
And then I come along and that's all that I'm
doing every day.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Back in the day, Perez was messy. Honestly, messy is
an understatement. He was accused of outing Lance Bath, Neil
Patrick Harris, and Jodie Foster. He constantly mocked celebrities appearances
and wait by featuring unflattering paparazzi photos. In one of
this posts, he linked to a po possible upskirt photo
of an underaged Miley Cyrus.
Speaker 10 (15:03):
The Insider did a segment on Hollywood's Most Hated Websites,
and they reached out to me and said.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
What if we made you number one?
Speaker 10 (15:12):
Then for the longest time. For years after that, I
called myself Perez Hilton dot com Hollywood's most hated website.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Besides being an expert on early two thousands culture, Perez
was a guest judge on A ANDTM in its later seasons.
So before I talked to him about the early adds,
I wanted to know what he thinks about all the
contestants who've been trashing Tyra in the show.
Speaker 10 (15:37):
I encourage everybody to speak up and share their story,
and I don't have to agree with it. If you
hated it that much, you could have quit, you could
have stopped.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I might not agree with Perez on this one, but
I'll say this about him. As a person who made
his career out of embarrassing celebrities, he knows what audiences
really want. At least our most base.
Speaker 10 (16:00):
Nature viewers enjoy watching others be humiliated and tortured and
going through difficult things. That's why shows like Survivor and
The Amazing Race and America's Next Top Model were popular.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
A and TM certainly got the humiliation part right, and
viewers loved it. Bres has a theory about the early
two thousands being ripe for reality TV, especially the kind
where people made fools of themselves like Top Model. He
thinks it was a reaction to the very real and
very scary things happening in the world.
Speaker 10 (16:40):
We were coming out of nine to eleven, we were
coming out of American troops at war, and that's real life.
So when you translate wanting to see celebrities being real,
flaws and all, once again, for me, it's escapeism, you know,
(17:01):
easily digestible escape ism.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
People must have really needed that escape because, compared to
the other big reality shows at the time, A and
TM was low budget. Survivor had almost quadruped with a budget,
and they flew an entire cast and crew to a
remote country for weeks. The Amazing Race flew teams of
people all over the world. Tyra, on the other hand,
was trying to figure out how to get enough bed
(17:27):
sheets in the model's rooms. Here she is in twenty
eighteen reminiscing about cycle one. What do you remember most
from when that show just.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Started a cheap budget, like not being happy with how
the beds looked, and me going to linens and things
in bed, bath and beyond and shopping on my own
credit cards to fill out the rooms.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
The girls on the first poster have my clothes on.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
Yes, these Victoria's secret little like bandeau tops and skirts.
Those were my clothes that I put in a trash
bag for the airplane because I didn't want to put
it in a suit cases and I'd have to check
it and I was scared that if would get lost
and then we'd have no clothes for the post room chat.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
These people were broke. And remember the iconic judging panel. Well,
on cycle one.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
The judging room was actually blew drape all around the rooms,
but that was a hotel room where we moved a
bed and stuffed out.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
There was a hotel room the.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
First judging room.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know what, that makes sense because Tyra and the
panel were squeezed in at that table like the models
on cycle five during that phone booth photo shoot. In fact,
Giselle told me that the so called penthouse was just
a bunch of regular hotel rooms.
Speaker 11 (18:34):
What they did is they took the top floor and
they took all of the rooms, and they like took
the doors off, and then they combined it. There was
no penthouse or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Ken Mark struck a deal with the hotel to house
the models and crew in exchange for promotion on the show.
That's why there are so many shots at the hotel
signage in this season. And we're not talking about the
rents here. It was a small, low key New York
hotel that's now out of business. I'm telling you. These
people were making it wan a hope and a prayer.
Speaker 11 (19:04):
Using bread bag, you know, those little ties to like
hold curtains together. And I guess we were, you know,
the guinea pigs. So it was more of like a
free for all and let's figure it out as we
go sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Facle One didn't have the budget for the over the
top photo shoots and stunts that became synonymous with A
and TM in later seasons. Instead, the models did runway walks,
a bikini photoshoot on a cold rooftop, They went to
casting calls, did a mock commercial, worked with pr people,
and did a magazine interview. The most shocking things they
did were a mostly nude photo shoot where Robin uttered
(19:40):
these iconic words last week. It was brawn panties. I
probably would never do that. This week it's two strands
of ribbon and ms all, what is it gonna be
next week? And they did a beauty shot with a snake.
From the beginning, antm loved an animal prop. I wonder
if had a deal with an exotic animal agency or something.
(20:03):
But my point is, in the absence of death defying
photoshoots and ridiculous challenges, they had to use what they had,
the judges, experts, and of course the models. When Gazelle
was brought onto the show, she and another contestant named
Tessa were their last to join the cast. The other
girls were already in New York at the hotel, and
they used Gazelle and Tessa's entrance to stir up some
(20:25):
conflict on the very first episode.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
You guys, you know, are eight finalists, but I like
very round numbers.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So what I did is I did a nationwide search
for two more.
Speaker 13 (20:35):
Oh my, I was like what I had literally just
said a minute before, girls, I'm glad to see.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Eight of us, So come on in here.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
Tessa and Gizelle.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Noticed checking me, like from up and down. You know,
just I don't know if I like this girl.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
There were already two girls in the house who kind
of resembled Tessa and Gazelle, which automatically put them at odds.
Jazelle and her doppel ganger, Katie both had long, dark hair,
and I can't quite place your ethnicity kind of looks.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Katie and I are very very similar. So I mean,
if they're looking for.
Speaker 11 (21:08):
That exotic type look, there's a major competition between us.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
But that's okay.
Speaker 12 (21:12):
I think she's beautiful. I know that she's older than me,
so that's okay.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Did you catch that shade? This unexpected twist of bringing
in new cast mates is something we see over and
over again in reality TV. The Traders does it RuPaul's
Drag Race has done multiple seasons where there are two
casts who initially know nothing about each other. America's Next
Top Model didn't invent this trick, but they were one
of the first to do it in this way, and
(21:37):
while not sinister, it was clearly done to throw off
the original eight and pit them against the newbies. Rewatching
Cycle one made me feel older than any of the others,
not just because it happened the longest ago, but because
the drama feels so dated I couldn't believe these are
the things that riveted me. In two thousand and three,
(21:58):
there was the bikini wax on episode. I felt extremely
uncomfortable with the bikini wax.
Speaker 14 (22:04):
Now, it's only two people that's been out there but
myself and my guy of colleges, and I give him crap.
Speaker 12 (22:10):
I told everybody in my whole life, I said, I
will never get a bikini wax.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I was too young for bikini wax in two thousand
and three. But this must not have been a widespread
thing back then, because these models freaked out. The waxing
scene was even the clip they showed on Tyra's Late
Night appearance with Conan O'Brian when she was promoting the show.
That's something that a model has to do his new.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
Models are always told by their agencies that they have
to show up at a shoot clean hair, clean face,
and clean shaven, and a lot of models don't really
understand what that is. They think, okay, clean shaven, clean shaven,
and then they get to the shoot and it's like,
you know, they forgot a spot, so haha.
Speaker 10 (23:01):
But this is something that I don't think's ever been
seen on TV.
Speaker 11 (23:03):
And I was looking at the clip.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Today never seen before on TV is wild. Of course,
from the beginning, the makeover episodes were a built in
day of drama, although compared to later seasons, these were
pretty reasonable. Most of the girls just got two thousands
highlights and elevated versions of the hair they already had.
But that didn't stop the tears. Giselle cried, Giselle wine.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Giselle moaned, Giselle.
Speaker 12 (23:29):
Grown, I'm just a way I had my hair, so
I'm kind of concerned about the link Robin's finfrushir was
her whole hair situation.
Speaker 14 (23:39):
I don't feel that this color is right for me,
so it's kind of like just having like hair color
from ag double Hockeysticks.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
The one person they did wrong Ebony Haye. Ebony was
this gorgeous, striking black woman with very short, almost no
hair except for a bit at the top. There wasn't
much to change about her look, so Tyra decided to
cut that off.
Speaker 8 (24:03):
It was really just frustrating when people did not have
the correct clippers.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Everybody basically sat and they didn't know what to do.
While it may seem like a simple task, the hairstylists
were these white women who were honestly looking at their hair,
like they never touched a black woman's hair before. They
had the wrong clippers. They were making jokes and shaving
in the wrong direction set, leaving a little top. I
ain't like the way the woman was cutting my hair
or the way they were have a conversation in front
of him.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
Street Writer.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
As a woman who also has very short hair, who
recently let her boyfriend cut it and ended up bald.
I feel her pain. But despite being made the butt
of the stylish jokes and getting a terrible haircut, she
later had to fix herself. Ebanie reacted to the whole
thing very well, better than I would have. I don't
(24:50):
know if it was intentional, but this botched haircut mirrors
the dynamic Tyra encountered in her early career showing up
on set and there's no one there who can style
black hair.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
You know, the white girls and the Asian girls and
the Latina girls. They would come to set just put
their little purse empty handed.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Child. I came with a suitcase.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
I had to have the pressing comb, and sometimes the
pressing comb and the hot plate. If the pressing comb
that plugged in wasn't working, I had to have my
Vita point grease, I had to have my edge.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Toothbrush to come down my edges.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Supermodels, Ducky thought Jordan Dunn in Anakia I have all
talked about this. Maybe the show was trying to give
Ebany a taste of what she'd experience in the real world,
but giving a contestant a bad haircut and a competition
that's all about looks seems unfair. Overall, though, the makeovers
on this cycle were pretty tame, but the drama in
(25:46):
the house was a little more spicy. America was a
lot more religious twenty years ago, and antim really played
into the conflict between Team I'm a Christian, I et
Robin Shannon and Kizzie versus Team Atheist, whose sole member
was eleass.
Speaker 6 (26:02):
You believe it at least an atheist.
Speaker 12 (26:07):
When I found out at Last was an atheist, I
had extreme reservations about her.
Speaker 13 (26:13):
I really fansor for Robin, of course, qualifies every seaman
with I'm not saying that you're going.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
To hell, but you're going to Hell.
Speaker 13 (26:19):
Robin actually showed me this Bible verse foolish is the
man who says there is no God?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Like when I read it, it made me think of you, So, Robin,
Elise might as well have been an alien. I genuinely
think she'd never met an atheist before. But the Christianity
conflict didn't end there. Ebony, the one who got the
bad haircut, was queer and one night, wanted her girlfriend
to come visit the hotel. When she asked the other
(26:46):
girls if they were cool with it, the Christians Robin
and Shannon were not feeling it. You know, if it's
okay if my girlfriend come over for about an hour
or two. Today, Ebney's a lesbian and I found this
offensive my.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
Voice on him six Sha, I think that definitely it
is wrong, as in the Bible, that it's an abomination
to the Lord.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But instead of making this moment about these two models
and their bigoted beliefs, producers pivoted and focused on Ebane's
visit with her girlfriend. They hugged and talked about Ebone's
new haircut. Ebone braided her girlfriend's hair. It was sweet.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
The girls were very nice, you know. They came and
introduced themselves.
Speaker 14 (27:27):
Sorry, this is.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Introduce yourself, Harry, Everyone except Robin and Shannon, of course.
You know, you really let me know that she's okay,
and she's she's in this for the long one For
everything A and TM did wrong, this one moment on
cycle one, they got right. This was two thousand and three.
Same sex marriage was still illegal, and for a lot
(27:48):
of viewers this was probably their first time seeing a
loving black queer relationship on cable. Ebony ended up getting
eliminated on episode four, Justice for Ebony. Today, she's a
fitness instructor in Brooklyn. I found her on Instagram and
it seems like she and Ka are still in each
other's lives as friends. Religion and sexuality weren't this season's
(28:11):
only source of drama. Let's go back to Elise, the
self proclaimed atheist. Her whole persona was about how smart
she was. She wanted to be a doctor, and she
really struggled with being on a show with people she
thought were dumb. Perhaps her most memorable moment was her
confessional crash.
Speaker 13 (28:31):
Out, Adrian, stop interrupting me, stop quoting Jane, silent Bob
right next to my ear. I've had enough of you, Jay,
you offended me today. I know what the medical school
it is hard work. How could I possibly not be
aware of that? Kate, I don't believe a word that
comes out of your mouth. You're the most insincere person
I've ever met.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Giselle, you worthless.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
You're so wasteful, bitchy, stupid, You're worthless.
Speaker 12 (29:01):
Your parents must be shamed of you.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Damn, that's harsh, even by today's standards. Alif made it
to the final three, which might have something to do
with the fact that she was a source of drama.
Gazelle told me that around the time of Elitha's rant,
the show started to feel different. It became what Tyra
and Ken Mott called a dramality.
Speaker 9 (29:21):
This show, this is a this is a reality show
that you're doing.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
Drumality.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
What was that a dramality?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
My co executive producer says, dramality.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Okay, it's drama reality, it's dramality. Yes, here's Jazelle.
Speaker 11 (29:33):
We all got along at first. Then I started realizing
that when we would sit down and do our one
on ones with the producers, the interview format started to change.
First it was very like, well, how do you think
the photo shoot went, what did you learn, what's your
experience like? Then later it started becoming more like, well,
(29:55):
how do you feel about that girl? And did you
know that this girl said something about that one, and
did you hear that these girls are saying all of
this about this one? That's kind of like where the
shift happens. And then you know, she called me a
cunt and that my parents should be ashamed of me.
(30:15):
And I was like, Okay, this is a whole different
ballgame here.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Gazelle's right, this was a whole different ballgame. It certainly
wasn't the modeling competition she signed up for. More after
the break, I wanted to spend the whole episode dissecting
cycle one because it's the blueprint, the bare bones image
of Tyra's initial vision, and from the beginning, Tyra talked
(30:41):
about size inclusivity.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
All collars, all shapes, and all sizes.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Before we go on, I want to flag for listeners
that were going to discuss eating disorders and body dysmorphia
in the next section. Before Tyra filmed the first episode
of A and TM, she was a nineties runway model
at the height of the heroine era. Tyra said in
interviews that she was repeatedly told she was too big
for runway.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I was told that I wasn't good enough. They said,
your but is getting too big.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
The Kate Moss body standard simply wasn't possible for Tyra,
so she made her own. Lane, found clientele who appreciated
her curves, and she worked it. Tyra knew what it
was like to be told you don't have the right body,
so she decided to embrace different body types on America's
Next Top Model. From cycle one until the end of
(31:34):
the show, she always included at least one, and for
a long time only one plus sized or curvy model.
But despite featuring plus sized models, ANTM still trafficked in
dangerous body standards. Contestants and fans have talked about how
the body shaming they heard on the show made them
feel bad about themselves and caused dysmorphia in eating disorders,
(31:59):
and that body shaming was a part of the show
from the very beginning. Alise was five ten and one
hundred and fourteen pounds. We know this because in the
first cycles of the show they weighed the contestants on
screen and read the number out loud. We were living
in some dark times, y'all. Alise wait the least of
all the girls, and rumors of her eating disorder started
(32:22):
when the other girl said they noticed how little she
ate in her frequent trips to the bathroom. Now we
have to say this. Alise vehemently denied having an eating
disorder on the show and after, but whether she did
or didn't, it was a huge part of her storyline.
Here are some of the girls speculating about her after
a dinner with j Manuel and Tyra.
Speaker 12 (32:44):
That's kind of an issue right now, whether Elise has
some eating disorders or not.
Speaker 8 (32:47):
But we're kind of confused.
Speaker 12 (32:48):
We don't know what's really going on with her.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
I'm really worried about Realise.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
She's a smart, smart girl, but she's not fooling anybody
and even misstire season.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Alise ate like a whole plate of stuff.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
She mentioned to somebody that it was because power was there.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And when asked during a judging panel which of their
fellow models should be eliminated, more than one girl said Elise.
Speaker 8 (33:11):
I think this time she's struggling through unhealthy eating habits
and that can harm her in the future.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
I don't want to be the one to judge Elise
because I'm very worried about her health.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And here they are speculating again at another dinner.
Speaker 8 (33:26):
All of the girls are concerned about Elise when we
were eating at He's the place she got oatme.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
She doesn't really eat as much as I would care.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
For her too.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Keep in mind, anorexia has the highest mortality rate of
any mental illness. Yes, it's classified as the eating disorder
and mental illness, But the closest the judges ever came
to addressing it was this moment when they asked Elise.
Speaker 13 (33:52):
Or Naturally about banners that something can work towards No,
I'm naturally the spin I love it.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I'm not so against thin.
Speaker 10 (33:59):
If it's well you have, you have nobody hat on you,
so there's no insulation.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
It's a little bit of tend for me.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
While Alice denied having an eating disorder on the show,
other contestants from cycle one say they're eating disorder started
after the competition ended.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
I like Cizelle because it just seems like she wants this,
but I think.
Speaker 11 (34:17):
She needs a tight enough.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
It's kind of wide. Here's Gazil who's asked. Tyra just
called wide on national television.
Speaker 11 (34:26):
I saw it on the show, which is like a
shock to me, which means now you're putting it into
everybody's head all across America.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
That I have a white ass.
Speaker 11 (34:37):
So clearly I'm not good enough.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Clearly I can't be a model. So how do I
get rid of this white ass?
Speaker 12 (34:48):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Maybe I should stop eating?
Speaker 11 (34:51):
And then when I eat too much in one setting
because I get so hungry, Oh, now I feel guilty.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
How about to go throw that up now? I walked
into that show with a lot.
Speaker 11 (35:05):
Of confidence and then I ended up having an orexia
issues after that, bolimia issues after that. Have never overcome
my own body of shame that I have.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
And it wasn't just Gazelle. Robin, the only Curby model
on Cycle one, got it the worst. Now I have
to pause and say this. I'm sure I thought Robin
was beautiful when the show first aired, but rewatching, Oh,
I was gagged. Robin is a baddie. She has the
type of body people go get a BBL to have.
(35:40):
And this is how the judges talked about her.
Speaker 7 (35:43):
Robin's doubt.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
As far as I'm concerned about being a supermodel.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
Because I think of the next America's Top model is
not a plus sized model, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
That's that's of course, Janis Dickinson, who was especially outspoken
about Robin's body, but she wasn't the only one.
Speaker 7 (36:03):
Now are we shooting for the large size category?
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yes, Robin would represent a plus sized model. One problem
that I do have with Robin I think, on the top,
she's not plus sizing.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
On the bottom, she is.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Robin, first of all, is too old to be starting.
Speaker 12 (36:17):
She's huge.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
She's not going to be a top model.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Her car toppling company?
Speaker 2 (36:22):
I think, did she say a car toppling company? What
does that even mean? Imagine being invited to a show
where you've been told your body type is welcome and
even celebrated as a representation of real women, and then
going home and hearing the judges say this nonsense. While
(36:44):
there may have been questions about Elisa's size, she was
rarely talked about as negatively as Robin. In fact, Elisa
is actually praised for having the most high fashioned looks.
Speaker 12 (36:54):
When I look at Elise, I think, and the body
is right for quoth She's just a real fan.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I love at least I thought had a really good
look for the runway, very thin and very pale.
Speaker 7 (37:05):
Irving penn Avedon would love her.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
We don't know if producers actually thought she had an
eating disorder, or if they kept the questions about her
eating habits and the edit for a dramatic effect, and
I don't know which one is more disturbing. What we
do know is that it was such a topic of
conversation it made us believe that she was struggling with eating.
Some of those clips you heard earlier are from an
(37:28):
episode titled the Girl who Everyone thinks is killing herself?
What message does it send that the girl we've been
led to believe has an eating disorder is also the
girl who's most ready for high fashion, the girl with
the best body, a girl who made it to the
top three. While we were told that there was no
(37:50):
place in the competition or industry for plus size model Robin,
I don't have a market here for Robin. You know
there's no markets or precizes in front. I know A
and TM didn't invent these standards. A lot of what
we heard on the show about bodies and weight were
a reflection of the actual modeling world, and that's been
Tyra's defense against the criticism.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
We were trying to be as realistic in the modeling industry,
not trying to embarrass anybody.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
It's just what it's done. So we're pulling back the curtain.
Tyra said she wanted to challenge the rigid beauty standards
of her industry. That's why someone like Robin was even
on the show. But it doesn't seem like much of
a challenge if the judge has spent the entire season
calling Robin fat and then justifying it by saying they're
just being realistic, And why even cast and keep a
(38:40):
girl with an alleged eating disorder until the end if
you're not going to really address it. Tyra did come
to the model's hotel to have a heart to heart
about insecurities, to use that as an opportunity to talk
about eating disorders, and occasionally Tyra would counter Janus's insults.
But if Tyra really wanted to make the learning experience,
(39:01):
why didn't she bring in an expert to talk about
healthy eating and body image. Remember this is a season
that brought in a guest acting coach, a guest stylist,
and a guest trainer to weigh the girls on camera.
We could almost forgive A and TM for degrading women's
bodies on national TV to an audience of young women
if they would have learned the lesson and changed after
(39:23):
the first season, but we all know the body sham
and continued for a long time after that. When it
was all said and done, cycle one ended with Adrian
Curry wearing the crown. After passing all the tests production
through at her, Adrian became the show's first ever winner.
(39:45):
The very first episode of America's Next Top Model was
titled The Girl Wants It So Bad. As Tyra laid
out in the first thirty seconds of the premiere, she
was looking for someone who wasn't an obvious winner.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
I want to make a top model an eighth weetes.
I want to take someone from obscurity to fame, a.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Person she could transform into a top model. She wanted
a diamond in the rough. Some of these girls you
would not look at twice in the streets.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
But I'll know when I can make them into South Oh,
you've coming to La.
Speaker 6 (40:16):
This is the once in a lifetime opportunity, a life
changing opportunity.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
What I'm looking for is a star, that's all.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
And that star turned out to be Adrian Curry. She
was the embodiment of everything Tier was looking for. She
was different and edgy, a self proclaimed tomboy with a
history of teenage drug use. She had a habit of
quoting the movie Jay and Silent Bob, a perfect candidate
for Tyer to showcase her ability to find and make
a star. And Adrian took on the competition with a
(40:45):
self assured but laid back attitude.
Speaker 6 (40:48):
I'm funny, I'm pretty, I got perfect too.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
What do you think makes you special? I'm like a
really big time boy.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
I mean, she genuinely brought into the dream the show
was selling. She took the competition, and seriously, there was
a time she got food poisoning and was threatened with
elimination if she didn't leave the hospital to make it
to the judging panel.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
I would never cut Adrian for being sick, but unfortunately,
the judges came to the decision that if she was
not present during the judging, she would be eliminated because
it wouldn't be fair to the other girls that would
be present.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
The doctor told me it was a severe case of
food poisoning.
Speaker 5 (41:26):
I faked being better to get out of the hospital.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
I'm not gonna miss this elimination.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
There's no way.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
The one time I had food poisoning, I could barely
lift my head, let alone put on a bunch of makeup.
And get judged in front of a panel for hours,
But Adrian left the er and showed up at the
judging panel, which again was a curtain drape hotel room
with bread ties holding back the fabric. Here's what Jan
said to Adrian that night.
Speaker 7 (41:53):
All of the matters that you showed up is what
it takes to be a model at a supermodel well done.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
The fact that they encouraged her to leave the hospital
and celebrated it was at the very least irresponsible, But
this was just a small part of Adrian's storyline. By far,
Adrian was the girl who tried the hardest, seemed the
happiest to be there, was the most cooperative, complained the least,
and had the biggest transformation. Tyro said as much when
(42:21):
she crowned her the winner.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
Adrian, you have transformed like Cinderella. When I looked at
you in La our semi finals, I was like, I
don't even think she'll make it to the finals. Then
you got here first week, I was like, I don't
think she'll make it to the second week, and you're
standing here.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Adrian came from a working class background and her mother
had gotten scammed out of a bunch of money by
pay for play modeling agencies. She'd been trying to make
her daughter's dreams come true, but it was money the
family couldn't afford to lose. Adrian didn't just want to win,
She needed to win.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
And you could tell I don't want to leave neither
everyone and my life drastically changes and for the better,
or I lose and I fall more and more into
the whole.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
She may not have been as refined as some of
the other girls, or as runway ready as a lease,
but she did want it bad and she had the
best story. And this isn't an insult. She isn't in
denial about why she won. A few years ago, in
an interview, she said, quote, did I deserve to win?
Speaker 6 (43:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (43:28):
I just gave the producers what they wanted to make
a diamond get a show going. I say that to
point out that from the very beginning, ANTM was about
selling a Cinderella story, making a nameless but seemingly deserving
young woman's dreams come true by propelling her into supermodel stardom.
Cinderella is a happily ever after kind of story. She
(43:51):
got her prints in her castle, and we heard all
season what A and TM's winner would.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Get a contract with Revlin, a fashion spread in Marie
Claire magazine, and representation by top modeling agency Wilhelmina.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
But here's the thing. After we closed the storybook and
went to sleep, we never came back to make sure
Cinderella really got that happily ever after, because if we
found out the prince was a jerk and the castle
was a rental, the story wouldn't be a fairy tale.
That's true about all Cinderella stories. We never get to
see what happens next. And for Adrian, A and TM's
(44:29):
first winner, her fairytale story ended abruptly as soon as
the camera stopped rolling. According to her, she never got
the prize. She stated publicly in multiple places going back
to two thousand and seven that the Revlon contract turned
out to be a fifteen thousand dollars job to model
makeup in a room for some execs, and according to her,
(44:53):
she never even got the fifteen thousand dollars and the
Wilhelmina contract well. Adrian said when A AND's replaced them
with another agency, IMG Models on the next season, they
sidelined her as a retaliation. According to Adrian, When she
reached out to Tyra and the producers to get advice
about navigating her contract and getting paid by Revlin, she
(45:15):
was met with crickets. In fact, she said the only
time she ever heard anything from Top Model after her
win was when she decided to do the reality show
The Surreal Life. Then the agency reached out to let
her know Tyra and Top Model execs didn't want her
to do the reality show. She ignored them, but by
the time she spoke out to tell her truth about
(45:37):
her A ANDTM experience, we had already moved on to
new models and new drama. A ANDTM became bigger than
Tyra's original vision as the challenges got wilder and Tyra
got more eccentric. It stopped being a modeling competition designed
to give contestants authentic modeling experience, and became a Tyra
Banks circus, complete with acrobatic photo shoots and clown makeovers.
(46:01):
We weren't paying attention to what happened to last season's
Winter Cycle one was the blueprint for everything we love
and hate about A and TM. Cycle one walked so
moments like we were rooting for you in terms like
smies could run, but It's also the cycle that laid
the blueprint for body shaming, exploiting people's pain for a storyline,
(46:24):
and selling a lie to a bunch of people with
the dream while getting us the viewers to look the
other way. After cycle one, the show took off and
the America's Next Top Model machine was up and running.
There was a growing supply of new models who happily
signed up to reveal their secrets and trauma and go
through grueling, twenty hour long production days for little to
(46:45):
no money. They signed up to temporarily give up their
autonomy and have their most embarrassing and difficult moments witnessed
by us, all for the chance to be America's next
Top Models, thinking they would be the one who would
actually make it. On the next episode, you hear more
from the models. They'll tell you what they thought they
(47:06):
were getting when they find on the dotted line, and
what it turned out to be. We'll explore the A
and TM contestant contract and talk about how it enabled
one of the biggest controversies in A ANDTM history.
Speaker 15 (47:18):
I was in debt after the show. I was getting
built for the testing, I was getting built for the dresses.
So now I'm having to pay, and I'm in debt,
and I don't have a place to stay. I'm living
on a couch and everywhere I go people are wanting
my autograph, taking pictures with me, and it was a
very stressful time because Tyra owned me for that year.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
I have thought receipts, I have got names, I've thought stories.
I know more about this show than I ever willingly
wanted to. Because of my own experience and hearing other
girls experiences, I was like, this can't be real.
Speaker 14 (47:55):
Whole week or two later, somebody from the network production
called me. It was like, I want to have a
meeting with you in New York City and they basically
told me we can't air you as the winner because
you violated your contract.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Thanks for listening to the Curse of America's Next Top Model.
We really appreciate the support. We'd love for you to
really show your support by subscribing to our show on
Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a five
star rating and review. If you love the show, tell
your group, chat, your co workers, your friends, your mama
to check us out, and if you don't, maybe keep
(48:33):
that one to yourself. Thanks again to all of our
listeners the Curse of America's Next Top Model. It's a
production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group
in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced
by Nancy Glass, hosted and senior produced by me Bridget Armstrong.
Our story editor is Monique Leboard, also produced by Ben
(48:55):
Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Associate producers are Alisha Key, Kristin Melcury,
and Curry Richmond. Consulting producers are Oliver TwixT and Kate Taylor.
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Klincheck. Audio
editing and mixing by Andrew Callaway and Matt del Vecchio.
The Curse of America's Next Top Model theme music was
(49:16):
composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by mid Music
Special Thanks to everyone we interviewed for this podcast, especially
the models for sharing their stories. And for more podcasts
from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Also check out the Glass podcast
Instagram at Glass Podcasts for Curse of America's Next Top Model,
(49:40):
behind the scenes content and more.
Would Adrian and Shannon come in please.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's July eighth, two thousand and three, and America's next
Top Model is about to crown its first ever winner.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The judges have reached a decision. One of you is
about to be a star.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
After weeks of watching ten, then nine, then eight, and
finally the last two women be transformed into POI supermodels.
The most deserving young woman was about to have all
her dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Let me remind you what's at stake. A contract with Revlin,
a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine, and representation by
top modeling agency Wilhelminas.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The two finalists, Adrian Curry and Shannon Stewart, were standing
there because they desperately wanted to become top models. They were,
of course both tall, thin and pretty. But Shannon, with
her blue eyes, blonde hair, and tan skin, had a
more obvious beauty that gave all American supermodel Adrian, with
her pale skin and dark hair, had a more gothic look.
(01:00):
It's been like our early two thousands Angelina Jolie minus Phillips.
Shannon and Adrian were both so young eighteen and twenty.
Shannon had never traveled without her family before, and for Adrian,
this opportunity was her ticket out of a small dead
in town.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
The winner's picture is hanging behind me, and when the
cloth is dropped, it will reveal who will be America's
next Top Model.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
They had no idea the show they had just spent
nine weeks filming would launch a global phenomenon.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
The decision is made, America's next Top Model is.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Adrian.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, congratulation, But after the cameras went down, Adrian would
become the first contestant to fall victim to the Curse
of America's Next Top Model. She thought when she stepped
off that set she was stepping into a career as
a top model, with a beauty contract and agency representation
to give her a head start. But those prizes never materialized,
(02:09):
and neither did her modeling career. You want to beyond
some Welcome to the Curse of America's Next Top Model.
I'm Bridget Armstrong. For a lot of A and TM fans,
(02:31):
Cycle one was just address for her as well. They
say the show didn't really get good until season two,
but cycle one was the blueprint for what A and
TM eventually became. So on this episode, we're going back
to the origins to explore how this low budget Tyra
Banks passion project became a cultural phenomenon. We'll talk about
how the season came together and explore how from the
(02:54):
very beginning the show's popularity overshadowed the body shaming, manipulation
and false promise. Is A ANDTM was built on. Adrian's
win in cycle one helped launch the top model machine
that grew into a global franchise. The problem is it
didn't produce a top model and these days, Adrian has
(03:14):
been very candid about the show failing to live up
to its promises. Here she is talking from an interview
with in Touch Weekly in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
It's certainly not a show that anyone in the fashion
industry wants to touch you if you bet on it
and season one, you don't know that that we knew
as much as Kelly Clarkson knew going into American Idol.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
But unlike Kelly Clarkson, Adrian didn't become a superstar. She
didn't sell eighty seven million records or win three Grammys.
She certainly doesn't have a talk show. Adrian's an avon
lady living in rural Montana, and according to her, she
never got that Revlin deal and the Wilhelmina contract was
an empty promise. She says the agents completely ignored her.
(03:58):
In fact, she left the show she discovered that no
one in the modeling world took her seriously. When it
came to fashion. America's Next Top Model wasn't a leg up.
It was a black mark. From the beginning. The show
seemed to prioritize making great TV, not great models. But
(04:19):
that may not have been Tyra's goal at first. So
let's pick back up where we left Tyra before she
even had a team or models to disappoint. Once America's
Next Top Model was greenlit, upn wanted to start production
almost immediately, and for the first season they gave them
a tight budget of five hundred thousand dollars per episode.
(04:41):
Now that might sound like a lot of money, but
Top Model is an expensive show to make. There are
at least ten models who have to be housed, an
international trip, ten on location photo shoots, and ten challenges
that all have to be paid for, as well as
a full production crew, makeup artists and stylists, a panel
of judges and ex and Tyra Banks herself, who all
(05:02):
have to be paid to put it into context. By
cycle ten, the episode budget was well over one million dollars.
To make cycle one work, they had to find a
cast and crew quickly, so Tyra called in some favors
people who would do the show not for a big paycheck,
but for Tyra. She was friends with former model and
(05:23):
Babyfat director Komorley Simmons, so she got her to be
a judge on cycle one. Also joining the panel of
judges was Boquillian, who at the time was the fashion
editor at Marie Claire, the magazine that would give the
winner a spread. And of course, rounding out the panel
was supermodel excuse me, the first supermodel, Janis Dickinson, and
(05:45):
that's literally how they introduced her on the first episode.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Janis became one of the world's first supermodels in the
nineteen seventies and her face was featured everywhere and.
Speaker 7 (05:54):
Been in this industry for quite a long time, making
me probably the most opinionated person on the panel.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
All right, next we have bo Jannis, became known for
her less than gracious opinions, but according to her, she
was just doing her job. Here she is in twenty
twenty two talking about her role on the show.
Speaker 7 (06:11):
When I was hired to do America's Next Top Model,
Tyra hired me to be.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Like a female Simon Cowell.
Speaker 7 (06:16):
To be feeding in a negative fashion things about the girls.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And as we know, Jannis did her job well, maybe
too well.
Speaker 7 (06:25):
There's so many teeth in her mouth. I mean it's
like maybe she should have a few removed. It'll work
on the side that the booty thing your ass was going,
you know, wigglewock and wigg walk escathing, vitriolic judge check.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Next, they needed some fashion experts to transform these scrownny
confused teenagers into supermodels, so Tyra brought in somebody who
trained her when she was a squaranny teenager.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
I have the one and the only top runway trainer.
I have known him since I was seventeen years old.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
His name is Jay Alexander. Come on, Jay Alexander or
Miss Jay was well known in the industry is the
go to person to teach young models how to slay
the runway. In two thousand and three, it was a
big deal to feature a queer black man who went
by miss on a mainstream show, and from the beginning,
Miss j was his authentic, fabulous self. On episode two,
(07:17):
he taught the girls how to walk while wearing nothing
but a black shirt, drawls, and heels.
Speaker 8 (07:22):
Jay walked out a little black like underwear something a
hind heels.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Jay's legs look a lot better than mine. New So yeah,
my motto is walk like it's for sale and the
rent is due tonight.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Next there was Jay Manuel or mister j. He eventually
became a judge in the show's creative director, but on
cycle one he first appeared as the makeup artist on
the makeover episode. Here he is wiping away a lot
of dramatic tears.
Speaker 9 (07:47):
Don't look so sad.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Models are canvases.
Speaker 10 (07:50):
Yeah, they're canvas and they're also chameleons.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Wow. This was before Jay's iconic silver hair. He was
still a brunette here. So they had their judges, they
had their j's, and now they needed their models. They
began a nationwide search, and despite not knowing what this
was going to be, young women showed up and sent
in their audition tape. At least one contestant was cast
(08:16):
the Fairytale Way literally at Disneyland. Jazelle Sampson was working
as a dancer at Disney, where her coworker approached her.
It came up to me.
Speaker 11 (08:24):
He was like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You should be modeling, And then he said something that
would change Jazelle's life forever.
Speaker 11 (08:32):
My ex girlfriend she wasn't casting, and there's the show
called Supermodels. Originally it was called Supermodels, or maybe that
was the alias that they were using.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
She gave her coworker her head shot. He passed it
along to his ex who was working and casting for
a and m Gazelle didn't hear anything for a while.
Then a few months later she got a call about
that Supermodel show.
Speaker 11 (08:53):
And I got the phone call on New Year's Eve Eve,
December thirtieth of two thousand and two. They were like, hey,
can you come in right now and meet with our producers.
I literally changed, got in my car, went to CBS
Studios in office and I walked in and I was just,
you know, thinking I was just going to meet a
(09:14):
couple of producers, and then there was Tyra Banks sitting
right there in front of my face.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
As I've heard over and over on the first seasons,
Tyra was extremely involved in every aspect of production, including casting.
Dezelle remembers Tyra asking her to lift up her shirt
to show her stomach. She wanted her to do a
runway walk right there in between the cubicles. The idea
terrified her.
Speaker 11 (09:40):
I freaked out. I freaked out, and I was like,
I'm gonna lose the opportunity. I started crying. She was like,
oh my god, that's probably what got me the oh.
I started crying because I was so self conscious because
I have s curve scoliosis, and so I had a
total breakdown. And she was like, oh my gosh, girl,
we all were tall, we all have that. Don't worry
about it. And I was like, okay, cool. So she
(10:02):
boosted my confidence at the time, and so I did
my thing.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You know what. Gazelle might have a point about her
breakdown getting her cast. Her entire storyline was focused on
her supposed lack of confidence in her callback. Tyra asked
Azil one more thing, how she would feel if she
became famous.
Speaker 11 (10:23):
I lost my shit again, and I just started crying
because I could just I got this overwhelming like sense
of like this is my time, this is a sign,
like I'm going to be famous now, like this is it.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Gazelle, like many women, I've talked to. Thought this was
her big break that she had been discovered. The next day,
casting director Michelle Mock, no relation to ep Kinmock called Gazil.
They wanted her to come back in for a meeting
with the network Exis. She was like, I'm going to
drive you, so I got in her car.
Speaker 11 (10:57):
I was like, oh my gosh, Cassid doctors, I mean,
and her Mercedes Mattens and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
The meeting didn't take long, and afterwards Michelle.
Speaker 11 (11:06):
Mok came up to her and said, I'm so sorry,
but you're gonna have to figure out how to get
warm clothes because you're going to New York in four days.
And within twenty four hours, I got the gig.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Jess want to point out Dazelle made it onto the
show because she knew a guy who knew a guy.
In later seasons, thousands of people would show up to
casting calls and wait in lines for hours for a
small possibility of just being seen. Jazelle's casting happened so
fast she wasn't even prepared. She didn't have a passport,
a requirement in case she stayed on the show long
(11:40):
enough for the international trip. She and her mother had
to rush to get her one. She didn't even have
winter clothes. Her entire wardrobe on the show was borrowed
from a friend. Getting on the plane, Jazelle barely knew
what the show's format was going to be. Here's what
she was told.
Speaker 11 (11:54):
They said, you're gonna have cameras on you twenty four
to seven. They'll go down when you guys go to bed,
and they'll be up when you guys get up.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
But that's all I knew.
Speaker 11 (12:04):
And then we were going to go do some modeling things,
and then we were going to be judged on that
and hopefully make it to the next round.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
But there wasn't really much said. Gazelle quit her job
and took us aemester off college. But before she could
officially join the cast, there was one teeny tiny piece
of business. She was handed a stack of papers and
told to sign.
Speaker 11 (12:26):
I was seventeen years old, just five months before I
got this competition show, and they threw legalities at me.
You know, you need to sign this, you know the
releases and everything. And I was so excited to be
on the show. I didn't know what I was signing,
and I didn't even have time to like, have my
parents look over it, have a lawyer look over at nothing.
I just was like, Oh, I'm so excited, and their
(12:47):
dangling fame and fortune and television and you know, being
a star right in front of my face. I'm going
to sign anything, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So she signed those papers and was cast on the
very first season of Tyra Banks's new modeling show.
Speaker 9 (13:02):
UPN Tomorrow, ten women go head to head for the
ultimate prize, a modeling contract with Revlon Meet Youaselle.
Speaker 12 (13:08):
I hate to be bothered, seriously, when people were like
you need to do this or you need to wear this,
I just I'm like, will.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
You meet them alone? Spoiler alert. Cycle one did not
make Gizella star, but it did make America's Next Top
Model a hit with a replun.
Speaker 9 (13:22):
Contract at stayed America's Next Top thottle O Breniers Tonight
after Buffy on ups Kenny.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
We'll get into that after the break. America's Next Top
Model premiered on May twentieth, two thousand and three, to
an audience of nearly three million. It quickly became one
of the most successful shows on UPN. And there are
a lot of reasons for that. I wanted to call
(13:50):
up someone who could explain the pop culture climate back
in two thousand and three, someone with insight on what
made A and TM and shows like it such a hit.
Speaker 10 (13:58):
I am the the original influencer. In fact, that word
didn't even exist when I began back in two thousand
and four.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That's Perez Hilton. He made his name terrorizing anyone who
had the misfortune of being famous in the early two
thousands and back then.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
People weren't really talking about celebrities online. The websites for
the magazines People dot com, Usweekly dot com.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
They were just placeholders.
Speaker 10 (14:29):
Go to our website to sign up for a subscription
to the magazine. Nobody was breaking news on the internet.
And then I come along and that's all that I'm
doing every day.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Back in the day, Perez was messy. Honestly, messy is
an understatement. He was accused of outing Lance Bath, Neil
Patrick Harris, and Jodie Foster. He constantly mocked celebrities appearances
and wait by featuring unflattering paparazzi photos. In one of
this posts, he linked to a po possible upskirt photo
of an underaged Miley Cyrus.
Speaker 10 (15:03):
The Insider did a segment on Hollywood's Most Hated Websites,
and they reached out to me and said.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
What if we made you number one?
Speaker 10 (15:12):
Then for the longest time. For years after that, I
called myself Perez Hilton dot com Hollywood's most hated website.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Besides being an expert on early two thousands culture, Perez
was a guest judge on A ANDTM in its later seasons.
So before I talked to him about the early adds,
I wanted to know what he thinks about all the
contestants who've been trashing Tyra in the show.
Speaker 10 (15:37):
I encourage everybody to speak up and share their story,
and I don't have to agree with it. If you
hated it that much, you could have quit, you could
have stopped.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I might not agree with Perez on this one, but
I'll say this about him. As a person who made
his career out of embarrassing celebrities, he knows what audiences
really want. At least our most base.
Speaker 10 (16:00):
Nature viewers enjoy watching others be humiliated and tortured and
going through difficult things. That's why shows like Survivor and
The Amazing Race and America's Next Top Model were popular.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
A and TM certainly got the humiliation part right, and
viewers loved it. Bres has a theory about the early
two thousands being ripe for reality TV, especially the kind
where people made fools of themselves like Top Model. He
thinks it was a reaction to the very real and
very scary things happening in the world.
Speaker 10 (16:40):
We were coming out of nine to eleven, we were
coming out of American troops at war, and that's real life.
So when you translate wanting to see celebrities being real,
flaws and all, once again, for me, it's escapeism, you know,
(17:01):
easily digestible escape ism.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
People must have really needed that escape because, compared to
the other big reality shows at the time, A and
TM was low budget. Survivor had almost quadruped with a budget,
and they flew an entire cast and crew to a
remote country for weeks. The Amazing Race flew teams of
people all over the world. Tyra, on the other hand,
was trying to figure out how to get enough bed
(17:27):
sheets in the model's rooms. Here she is in twenty
eighteen reminiscing about cycle one. What do you remember most
from when that show just.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Started a cheap budget, like not being happy with how
the beds looked, and me going to linens and things
in bed, bath and beyond and shopping on my own
credit cards to fill out the rooms.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
The girls on the first poster have my clothes on.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
Yes, these Victoria's secret little like bandeau tops and skirts.
Those were my clothes that I put in a trash
bag for the airplane because I didn't want to put
it in a suit cases and I'd have to check
it and I was scared that if would get lost
and then we'd have no clothes for the post room chat.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
These people were broke. And remember the iconic judging panel. Well,
on cycle one.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
The judging room was actually blew drape all around the rooms,
but that was a hotel room where we moved a
bed and stuffed out.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
There was a hotel room the.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
First judging room.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know what, that makes sense because Tyra and the
panel were squeezed in at that table like the models
on cycle five during that phone booth photo shoot. In fact,
Giselle told me that the so called penthouse was just
a bunch of regular hotel rooms.
Speaker 11 (18:34):
What they did is they took the top floor and
they took all of the rooms, and they like took
the doors off, and then they combined it. There was
no penthouse or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Ken Mark struck a deal with the hotel to house
the models and crew in exchange for promotion on the show.
That's why there are so many shots at the hotel
signage in this season. And we're not talking about the
rents here. It was a small, low key New York
hotel that's now out of business. I'm telling you. These
people were making it wan a hope and a prayer.
Speaker 11 (19:04):
Using bread bag, you know, those little ties to like
hold curtains together. And I guess we were, you know,
the guinea pigs. So it was more of like a
free for all and let's figure it out as we
go sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Facle One didn't have the budget for the over the
top photo shoots and stunts that became synonymous with A
and TM in later seasons. Instead, the models did runway walks,
a bikini photoshoot on a cold rooftop, They went to
casting calls, did a mock commercial, worked with pr people,
and did a magazine interview. The most shocking things they
did were a mostly nude photo shoot where Robin uttered
(19:40):
these iconic words last week. It was brawn panties. I
probably would never do that. This week it's two strands
of ribbon and ms all, what is it gonna be
next week? And they did a beauty shot with a snake.
From the beginning, antm loved an animal prop. I wonder
if had a deal with an exotic animal agency or something.
(20:03):
But my point is, in the absence of death defying
photoshoots and ridiculous challenges, they had to use what they had,
the judges, experts, and of course the models. When Gazelle
was brought onto the show, she and another contestant named
Tessa were their last to join the cast. The other
girls were already in New York at the hotel, and
they used Gazelle and Tessa's entrance to stir up some
(20:25):
conflict on the very first episode.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
You guys, you know, are eight finalists, but I like
very round numbers.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So what I did is I did a nationwide search
for two more.
Speaker 13 (20:35):
Oh my, I was like what I had literally just
said a minute before, girls, I'm glad to see.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Eight of us, So come on in here.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
Tessa and Gizelle.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Noticed checking me, like from up and down. You know,
just I don't know if I like this girl.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
There were already two girls in the house who kind
of resembled Tessa and Gazelle, which automatically put them at odds.
Jazelle and her doppel ganger, Katie both had long, dark hair,
and I can't quite place your ethnicity kind of looks.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Katie and I are very very similar. So I mean,
if they're looking for.
Speaker 11 (21:08):
That exotic type look, there's a major competition between us.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
But that's okay.
Speaker 12 (21:12):
I think she's beautiful. I know that she's older than me,
so that's okay.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Did you catch that shade? This unexpected twist of bringing
in new cast mates is something we see over and
over again in reality TV. The Traders does it RuPaul's
Drag Race has done multiple seasons where there are two
casts who initially know nothing about each other. America's Next
Top Model didn't invent this trick, but they were one
of the first to do it in this way, and
(21:37):
while not sinister, it was clearly done to throw off
the original eight and pit them against the newbies. Rewatching
Cycle one made me feel older than any of the others,
not just because it happened the longest ago, but because
the drama feels so dated I couldn't believe these are
the things that riveted me. In two thousand and three,
(21:58):
there was the bikini wax on episode. I felt extremely
uncomfortable with the bikini wax.
Speaker 14 (22:04):
Now, it's only two people that's been out there but
myself and my guy of colleges, and I give him crap.
Speaker 12 (22:10):
I told everybody in my whole life, I said, I
will never get a bikini wax.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I was too young for bikini wax in two thousand
and three. But this must not have been a widespread
thing back then, because these models freaked out. The waxing
scene was even the clip they showed on Tyra's Late
Night appearance with Conan O'Brian when she was promoting the show.
That's something that a model has to do his new.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
Models are always told by their agencies that they have
to show up at a shoot clean hair, clean face,
and clean shaven, and a lot of models don't really
understand what that is. They think, okay, clean shaven, clean shaven,
and then they get to the shoot and it's like,
you know, they forgot a spot, so haha.
Speaker 10 (23:01):
But this is something that I don't think's ever been
seen on TV.
Speaker 11 (23:03):
And I was looking at the clip.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Today never seen before on TV is wild. Of course,
from the beginning, the makeover episodes were a built in
day of drama, although compared to later seasons, these were
pretty reasonable. Most of the girls just got two thousands
highlights and elevated versions of the hair they already had.
But that didn't stop the tears. Giselle cried, Giselle wine.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Giselle moaned, Giselle.
Speaker 12 (23:29):
Grown, I'm just a way I had my hair, so
I'm kind of concerned about the link Robin's finfrushir was
her whole hair situation.
Speaker 14 (23:39):
I don't feel that this color is right for me,
so it's kind of like just having like hair color
from ag double Hockeysticks.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
The one person they did wrong Ebony Haye. Ebony was
this gorgeous, striking black woman with very short, almost no
hair except for a bit at the top. There wasn't
much to change about her look, so Tyra decided to
cut that off.
Speaker 8 (24:03):
It was really just frustrating when people did not have
the correct clippers.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Everybody basically sat and they didn't know what to do.
While it may seem like a simple task, the hairstylists
were these white women who were honestly looking at their hair,
like they never touched a black woman's hair before. They
had the wrong clippers. They were making jokes and shaving
in the wrong direction set, leaving a little top. I
ain't like the way the woman was cutting my hair
or the way they were have a conversation in front
of him.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
Street Writer.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
As a woman who also has very short hair, who
recently let her boyfriend cut it and ended up bald.
I feel her pain. But despite being made the butt
of the stylish jokes and getting a terrible haircut, she
later had to fix herself. Ebanie reacted to the whole
thing very well, better than I would have. I don't
(24:50):
know if it was intentional, but this botched haircut mirrors
the dynamic Tyra encountered in her early career showing up
on set and there's no one there who can style
black hair.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
You know, the white girls and the Asian girls and
the Latina girls. They would come to set just put
their little purse empty handed.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Child. I came with a suitcase.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
I had to have the pressing comb, and sometimes the
pressing comb and the hot plate. If the pressing comb
that plugged in wasn't working, I had to have my
Vita point grease, I had to have my edge.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Toothbrush to come down my edges.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Supermodels, Ducky thought Jordan Dunn in Anakia I have all
talked about this. Maybe the show was trying to give
Ebany a taste of what she'd experience in the real world,
but giving a contestant a bad haircut and a competition
that's all about looks seems unfair. Overall, though, the makeovers
on this cycle were pretty tame, but the drama in
(25:46):
the house was a little more spicy. America was a
lot more religious twenty years ago, and antim really played
into the conflict between Team I'm a Christian, I et
Robin Shannon and Kizzie versus Team Atheist, whose sole member
was eleass.
Speaker 6 (26:02):
You believe it at least an atheist.
Speaker 12 (26:07):
When I found out at Last was an atheist, I
had extreme reservations about her.
Speaker 13 (26:13):
I really fansor for Robin, of course, qualifies every seaman
with I'm not saying that you're going.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
To hell, but you're going to Hell.
Speaker 13 (26:19):
Robin actually showed me this Bible verse foolish is the
man who says there is no God?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Like when I read it, it made me think of you, So, Robin,
Elise might as well have been an alien. I genuinely
think she'd never met an atheist before. But the Christianity
conflict didn't end there. Ebony, the one who got the
bad haircut, was queer and one night, wanted her girlfriend
to come visit the hotel. When she asked the other
(26:46):
girls if they were cool with it, the Christians Robin
and Shannon were not feeling it. You know, if it's
okay if my girlfriend come over for about an hour
or two. Today, Ebney's a lesbian and I found this
offensive my.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
Voice on him six Sha, I think that definitely it
is wrong, as in the Bible, that it's an abomination
to the Lord.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But instead of making this moment about these two models
and their bigoted beliefs, producers pivoted and focused on Ebane's
visit with her girlfriend. They hugged and talked about Ebone's
new haircut. Ebone braided her girlfriend's hair. It was sweet.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
The girls were very nice, you know. They came and
introduced themselves.
Speaker 14 (27:27):
Sorry, this is.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Introduce yourself, Harry, Everyone except Robin and Shannon, of course.
You know, you really let me know that she's okay,
and she's she's in this for the long one For
everything A and TM did wrong, this one moment on
cycle one, they got right. This was two thousand and three.
Same sex marriage was still illegal, and for a lot
(27:48):
of viewers this was probably their first time seeing a
loving black queer relationship on cable. Ebony ended up getting
eliminated on episode four, Justice for Ebony. Today, she's a
fitness instructor in Brooklyn. I found her on Instagram and
it seems like she and Ka are still in each
other's lives as friends. Religion and sexuality weren't this season's
(28:11):
only source of drama. Let's go back to Elise, the
self proclaimed atheist. Her whole persona was about how smart
she was. She wanted to be a doctor, and she
really struggled with being on a show with people she
thought were dumb. Perhaps her most memorable moment was her
confessional crash.
Speaker 13 (28:31):
Out, Adrian, stop interrupting me, stop quoting Jane, silent Bob
right next to my ear. I've had enough of you, Jay,
you offended me today. I know what the medical school
it is hard work. How could I possibly not be
aware of that? Kate, I don't believe a word that
comes out of your mouth. You're the most insincere person
I've ever met.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Giselle, you worthless.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
You're so wasteful, bitchy, stupid, You're worthless.
Speaker 12 (29:01):
Your parents must be shamed of you.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Damn, that's harsh, even by today's standards. Alif made it
to the final three, which might have something to do
with the fact that she was a source of drama.
Gazelle told me that around the time of Elitha's rant,
the show started to feel different. It became what Tyra
and Ken Mott called a dramality.
Speaker 9 (29:21):
This show, this is a this is a reality show
that you're doing.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
Drumality.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
What was that a dramality?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
My co executive producer says, dramality.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Okay, it's drama reality, it's dramality. Yes, here's Jazelle.
Speaker 11 (29:33):
We all got along at first. Then I started realizing
that when we would sit down and do our one
on ones with the producers, the interview format started to change.
First it was very like, well, how do you think
the photo shoot went, what did you learn, what's your
experience like? Then later it started becoming more like, well,
(29:55):
how do you feel about that girl? And did you
know that this girl said something about that one, and
did you hear that these girls are saying all of
this about this one? That's kind of like where the
shift happens. And then you know, she called me a
cunt and that my parents should be ashamed of me.
(30:15):
And I was like, Okay, this is a whole different
ballgame here.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Gazelle's right, this was a whole different ballgame. It certainly
wasn't the modeling competition she signed up for. More after
the break, I wanted to spend the whole episode dissecting
cycle one because it's the blueprint, the bare bones image
of Tyra's initial vision, and from the beginning, Tyra talked
(30:41):
about size inclusivity.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
All collars, all shapes, and all sizes.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Before we go on, I want to flag for listeners
that were going to discuss eating disorders and body dysmorphia
in the next section. Before Tyra filmed the first episode
of A and TM, she was a nineties runway model
at the height of the heroine era. Tyra said in
interviews that she was repeatedly told she was too big
for runway.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I was told that I wasn't good enough. They said,
your but is getting too big.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
The Kate Moss body standard simply wasn't possible for Tyra,
so she made her own. Lane, found clientele who appreciated
her curves, and she worked it. Tyra knew what it
was like to be told you don't have the right body,
so she decided to embrace different body types on America's
Next Top Model. From cycle one until the end of
(31:34):
the show, she always included at least one, and for
a long time only one plus sized or curvy model.
But despite featuring plus sized models, ANTM still trafficked in
dangerous body standards. Contestants and fans have talked about how
the body shaming they heard on the show made them
feel bad about themselves and caused dysmorphia in eating disorders,
(31:59):
and that body shaming was a part of the show
from the very beginning. Alise was five ten and one
hundred and fourteen pounds. We know this because in the
first cycles of the show they weighed the contestants on
screen and read the number out loud. We were living
in some dark times, y'all. Alise wait the least of
all the girls, and rumors of her eating disorder started
(32:22):
when the other girl said they noticed how little she
ate in her frequent trips to the bathroom. Now we
have to say this. Alise vehemently denied having an eating
disorder on the show and after, but whether she did
or didn't, it was a huge part of her storyline.
Here are some of the girls speculating about her after
a dinner with j Manuel and Tyra.
Speaker 12 (32:44):
That's kind of an issue right now, whether Elise has
some eating disorders or not.
Speaker 8 (32:47):
But we're kind of confused.
Speaker 12 (32:48):
We don't know what's really going on with her.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
I'm really worried about Realise.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
She's a smart, smart girl, but she's not fooling anybody
and even misstire season.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Alise ate like a whole plate of stuff.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
She mentioned to somebody that it was because power was there.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And when asked during a judging panel which of their
fellow models should be eliminated, more than one girl said Elise.
Speaker 8 (33:11):
I think this time she's struggling through unhealthy eating habits
and that can harm her in the future.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
I don't want to be the one to judge Elise
because I'm very worried about her health.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And here they are speculating again at another dinner.
Speaker 8 (33:26):
All of the girls are concerned about Elise when we
were eating at He's the place she got oatme.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
She doesn't really eat as much as I would care.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
For her too.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Keep in mind, anorexia has the highest mortality rate of
any mental illness. Yes, it's classified as the eating disorder
and mental illness, But the closest the judges ever came
to addressing it was this moment when they asked Elise.
Speaker 13 (33:52):
Or Naturally about banners that something can work towards No,
I'm naturally the spin I love it.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I'm not so against thin.
Speaker 10 (33:59):
If it's well you have, you have nobody hat on you,
so there's no insulation.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
It's a little bit of tend for me.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
While Alice denied having an eating disorder on the show,
other contestants from cycle one say they're eating disorder started
after the competition ended.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
I like Cizelle because it just seems like she wants this,
but I think.
Speaker 11 (34:17):
She needs a tight enough.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
It's kind of wide. Here's Gazil who's asked. Tyra just
called wide on national television.
Speaker 11 (34:26):
I saw it on the show, which is like a
shock to me, which means now you're putting it into
everybody's head all across America.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
That I have a white ass.
Speaker 11 (34:37):
So clearly I'm not good enough.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Clearly I can't be a model. So how do I
get rid of this white ass?
Speaker 12 (34:48):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Maybe I should stop eating?
Speaker 11 (34:51):
And then when I eat too much in one setting
because I get so hungry, Oh, now I feel guilty.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
How about to go throw that up now? I walked
into that show with a lot.
Speaker 11 (35:05):
Of confidence and then I ended up having an orexia
issues after that, bolimia issues after that. Have never overcome
my own body of shame that I have.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
And it wasn't just Gazelle. Robin, the only Curby model
on Cycle one, got it the worst. Now I have
to pause and say this. I'm sure I thought Robin
was beautiful when the show first aired, but rewatching, Oh,
I was gagged. Robin is a baddie. She has the
type of body people go get a BBL to have.
(35:40):
And this is how the judges talked about her.
Speaker 7 (35:43):
Robin's doubt.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
As far as I'm concerned about being a supermodel.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
Because I think of the next America's Top model is
not a plus sized model, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
That's that's of course, Janis Dickinson, who was especially outspoken
about Robin's body, but she wasn't the only one.
Speaker 7 (36:03):
Now are we shooting for the large size category?
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yes, Robin would represent a plus sized model. One problem
that I do have with Robin I think, on the top,
she's not plus sizing.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
On the bottom, she is.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Robin, first of all, is too old to be starting.
Speaker 12 (36:17):
She's huge.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
She's not going to be a top model.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Her car toppling company?
Speaker 2 (36:22):
I think, did she say a car toppling company? What
does that even mean? Imagine being invited to a show
where you've been told your body type is welcome and
even celebrated as a representation of real women, and then
going home and hearing the judges say this nonsense. While
(36:44):
there may have been questions about Elisa's size, she was
rarely talked about as negatively as Robin. In fact, Elisa
is actually praised for having the most high fashioned looks.
Speaker 12 (36:54):
When I look at Elise, I think, and the body
is right for quoth She's just a real fan.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I love at least I thought had a really good
look for the runway, very thin and very pale.
Speaker 7 (37:05):
Irving penn Avedon would love her.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
We don't know if producers actually thought she had an
eating disorder, or if they kept the questions about her
eating habits and the edit for a dramatic effect, and
I don't know which one is more disturbing. What we
do know is that it was such a topic of
conversation it made us believe that she was struggling with eating.
Some of those clips you heard earlier are from an
(37:28):
episode titled the Girl who Everyone thinks is killing herself?
What message does it send that the girl we've been
led to believe has an eating disorder is also the
girl who's most ready for high fashion, the girl with
the best body, a girl who made it to the
top three. While we were told that there was no
(37:50):
place in the competition or industry for plus size model Robin,
I don't have a market here for Robin. You know
there's no markets or precizes in front. I know A
and TM didn't invent these standards. A lot of what
we heard on the show about bodies and weight were
a reflection of the actual modeling world, and that's been
Tyra's defense against the criticism.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
We were trying to be as realistic in the modeling industry,
not trying to embarrass anybody.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
It's just what it's done. So we're pulling back the curtain.
Tyra said she wanted to challenge the rigid beauty standards
of her industry. That's why someone like Robin was even
on the show. But it doesn't seem like much of
a challenge if the judge has spent the entire season
calling Robin fat and then justifying it by saying they're
just being realistic, And why even cast and keep a
(38:40):
girl with an alleged eating disorder until the end if
you're not going to really address it. Tyra did come
to the model's hotel to have a heart to heart
about insecurities, to use that as an opportunity to talk
about eating disorders, and occasionally Tyra would counter Janus's insults.
But if Tyra really wanted to make the learning experience,
(39:01):
why didn't she bring in an expert to talk about
healthy eating and body image. Remember this is a season
that brought in a guest acting coach, a guest stylist,
and a guest trainer to weigh the girls on camera.
We could almost forgive A and TM for degrading women's
bodies on national TV to an audience of young women
if they would have learned the lesson and changed after
(39:23):
the first season, but we all know the body sham
and continued for a long time after that. When it
was all said and done, cycle one ended with Adrian
Curry wearing the crown. After passing all the tests production
through at her, Adrian became the show's first ever winner.
(39:45):
The very first episode of America's Next Top Model was
titled The Girl Wants It So Bad. As Tyra laid
out in the first thirty seconds of the premiere, she
was looking for someone who wasn't an obvious winner.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
I want to make a top model an eighth weetes.
I want to take someone from obscurity to fame, a.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Person she could transform into a top model. She wanted
a diamond in the rough. Some of these girls you
would not look at twice in the streets.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
But I'll know when I can make them into South Oh,
you've coming to La.
Speaker 6 (40:16):
This is the once in a lifetime opportunity, a life
changing opportunity.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
What I'm looking for is a star, that's all.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
And that star turned out to be Adrian Curry. She
was the embodiment of everything Tier was looking for. She
was different and edgy, a self proclaimed tomboy with a
history of teenage drug use. She had a habit of
quoting the movie Jay and Silent Bob, a perfect candidate
for Tyer to showcase her ability to find and make
a star. And Adrian took on the competition with a
(40:45):
self assured but laid back attitude.
Speaker 6 (40:48):
I'm funny, I'm pretty, I got perfect too.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
What do you think makes you special? I'm like a
really big time boy.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
I mean, she genuinely brought into the dream the show
was selling. She took the competition, and seriously, there was
a time she got food poisoning and was threatened with
elimination if she didn't leave the hospital to make it
to the judging panel.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
I would never cut Adrian for being sick, but unfortunately,
the judges came to the decision that if she was
not present during the judging, she would be eliminated because
it wouldn't be fair to the other girls that would
be present.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
The doctor told me it was a severe case of
food poisoning.
Speaker 5 (41:26):
I faked being better to get out of the hospital.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
I'm not gonna miss this elimination.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
There's no way.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
The one time I had food poisoning, I could barely
lift my head, let alone put on a bunch of makeup.
And get judged in front of a panel for hours,
But Adrian left the er and showed up at the
judging panel, which again was a curtain drape hotel room
with bread ties holding back the fabric. Here's what Jan
said to Adrian that night.
Speaker 7 (41:53):
All of the matters that you showed up is what
it takes to be a model at a supermodel well done.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
The fact that they encouraged her to leave the hospital
and celebrated it was at the very least irresponsible, But
this was just a small part of Adrian's storyline. By far,
Adrian was the girl who tried the hardest, seemed the
happiest to be there, was the most cooperative, complained the least,
and had the biggest transformation. Tyro said as much when
(42:21):
she crowned her the winner.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
Adrian, you have transformed like Cinderella. When I looked at
you in La our semi finals, I was like, I
don't even think she'll make it to the finals. Then
you got here first week, I was like, I don't
think she'll make it to the second week, and you're
standing here.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Adrian came from a working class background and her mother
had gotten scammed out of a bunch of money by
pay for play modeling agencies. She'd been trying to make
her daughter's dreams come true, but it was money the
family couldn't afford to lose. Adrian didn't just want to win,
She needed to win.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
And you could tell I don't want to leave neither
everyone and my life drastically changes and for the better,
or I lose and I fall more and more into
the whole.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
She may not have been as refined as some of
the other girls, or as runway ready as a lease,
but she did want it bad and she had the
best story. And this isn't an insult. She isn't in
denial about why she won. A few years ago, in
an interview, she said, quote, did I deserve to win?
Speaker 6 (43:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (43:28):
I just gave the producers what they wanted to make
a diamond get a show going. I say that to
point out that from the very beginning, ANTM was about
selling a Cinderella story, making a nameless but seemingly deserving
young woman's dreams come true by propelling her into supermodel stardom.
Cinderella is a happily ever after kind of story. She
(43:51):
got her prints in her castle, and we heard all
season what A and TM's winner would.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Get a contract with Revlin, a fashion spread in Marie
Claire magazine, and representation by top modeling agency Wilhelmina.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
But here's the thing. After we closed the storybook and
went to sleep, we never came back to make sure
Cinderella really got that happily ever after, because if we
found out the prince was a jerk and the castle
was a rental, the story wouldn't be a fairy tale.
That's true about all Cinderella stories. We never get to
see what happens next. And for Adrian, A and TM's
(44:29):
first winner, her fairytale story ended abruptly as soon as
the camera stopped rolling. According to her, she never got
the prize. She stated publicly in multiple places going back
to two thousand and seven that the Revlon contract turned
out to be a fifteen thousand dollars job to model
makeup in a room for some execs, and according to her,
(44:53):
she never even got the fifteen thousand dollars and the
Wilhelmina contract well. Adrian said when A AND's replaced them
with another agency, IMG Models on the next season, they
sidelined her as a retaliation. According to Adrian, When she
reached out to Tyra and the producers to get advice
about navigating her contract and getting paid by Revlin, she
(45:15):
was met with crickets. In fact, she said the only
time she ever heard anything from Top Model after her
win was when she decided to do the reality show
The Surreal Life. Then the agency reached out to let
her know Tyra and Top Model execs didn't want her
to do the reality show. She ignored them, but by
the time she spoke out to tell her truth about
(45:37):
her A ANDTM experience, we had already moved on to
new models and new drama. A ANDTM became bigger than
Tyra's original vision as the challenges got wilder and Tyra
got more eccentric. It stopped being a modeling competition designed
to give contestants authentic modeling experience, and became a Tyra
Banks circus, complete with acrobatic photo shoots and clown makeovers.
(46:01):
We weren't paying attention to what happened to last season's
Winter Cycle one was the blueprint for everything we love
and hate about A and TM. Cycle one walked so
moments like we were rooting for you in terms like
smies could run, but It's also the cycle that laid
the blueprint for body shaming, exploiting people's pain for a storyline,
(46:24):
and selling a lie to a bunch of people with
the dream while getting us the viewers to look the
other way. After cycle one, the show took off and
the America's Next Top Model machine was up and running.
There was a growing supply of new models who happily
signed up to reveal their secrets and trauma and go
through grueling, twenty hour long production days for little to
(46:45):
no money. They signed up to temporarily give up their
autonomy and have their most embarrassing and difficult moments witnessed
by us, all for the chance to be America's next
Top Models, thinking they would be the one who would
actually make it. On the next episode, you hear more
from the models. They'll tell you what they thought they
(47:06):
were getting when they find on the dotted line, and
what it turned out to be. We'll explore the A
and TM contestant contract and talk about how it enabled
one of the biggest controversies in A ANDTM history.
Speaker 15 (47:18):
I was in debt after the show. I was getting
built for the testing, I was getting built for the dresses.
So now I'm having to pay, and I'm in debt,
and I don't have a place to stay. I'm living
on a couch and everywhere I go people are wanting
my autograph, taking pictures with me, and it was a
very stressful time because Tyra owned me for that year.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
I have thought receipts, I have got names, I've thought stories.
I know more about this show than I ever willingly
wanted to. Because of my own experience and hearing other
girls experiences, I was like, this can't be real.
Speaker 14 (47:55):
Whole week or two later, somebody from the network production
called me. It was like, I want to have a
meeting with you in New York City and they basically
told me we can't air you as the winner because
you violated your contract.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Thanks for listening to the Curse of America's Next Top Model.
We really appreciate the support. We'd love for you to
really show your support by subscribing to our show on
Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a five
star rating and review. If you love the show, tell
your group, chat, your co workers, your friends, your mama
to check us out, and if you don't, maybe keep
(48:33):
that one to yourself. Thanks again to all of our
listeners the Curse of America's Next Top Model. It's a
production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group
in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced
by Nancy Glass, hosted and senior produced by me Bridget Armstrong.
Our story editor is Monique Leboard, also produced by Ben
(48:55):
Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Associate producers are Alisha Key, Kristin Melcury,
and Curry Richmond. Consulting producers are Oliver TwixT and Kate Taylor.
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Klincheck. Audio
editing and mixing by Andrew Callaway and Matt del Vecchio.
The Curse of America's Next Top Model theme music was
(49:16):
composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by mid Music
Special Thanks to everyone we interviewed for this podcast, especially
the models for sharing their stories. And for more podcasts
from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Also check out the Glass podcast
Instagram at Glass Podcasts for Curse of America's Next Top Model,
(49:40):
behind the scenes content and more.
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