This article includes material from HuffPost’s weekly culture and entertainment newsletter, The Culture Catchall. Click here to subscribe.When “America’s Next Top Model” first hit our TV screens more than 20 years ago, it quickly became a pop culture juggernaut that dominated conversations among anyone and everyone who tuned in. Now, with a new viral documentary revisiting the reality show’s complicated legacy, that impact feels more pronounced than ever.This week, Netflix released “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” a bombshell three-part series that pulls the curtain back on the hit competition show’s most unforgettable, controversial and incredibly divisive moments. It features new insights from key players behind the scenes, including creator Tyra Banks, executive producer Ken Mok, former judges Jay Manuel, J. Alexander (aka Miss J) and Nigel Barker, and several contestants and winners — including Danielle “Dani” Evans, Shandi Sullivan, Whitney Thompson, Ebony Haith, Giselle Samson, Shannon Stewart, Joanie Sprague, Bre Scullark and Dionne Walters — many of whom took the opportunity to sound off on the show’s chaos and trauma endured from their experiences.So many of the doc’s revelations triggered an immediate wave of reactions across social media upon its release on Monday, from shock and disbelief to outright disgust over the exploitation, behaviors and toxic beauty standards “ANTM” normalized, both for contestants and for viewers at home.Nah put Tyra banks & the production team in jail? Wtf??? Taking peoples teeth out, shaving off their hair, broadcasting abuse “race-swapping” + more??? What???? #antm #RealityCheck— Dr madame économiste (@FeliciaOdamtten) February 18, 2026Not them glossing over sexual assault twice in the documentary with no accountability antm was an evil show— ⚜️Sovereign⚜️ (@sauvamemte) February 17, 2026Others online pointed out what they perceived as a lack of accountability from the show’s producers and decision-makers for all the harm caused:Nahhh Tyra Banks is pissing off in this documentary because how can she say “I wasn’t involved in the production side of things” meanwhile SHE was the executive producer of the show! No accountability whatsoever! #ANTM— Simmysim 🇯🇲 (@SimmySimzx) February 16, 2026Ok so that Netflix show was really just 3 straight hours of Tyra Banks taking zero accountability for creating a show where she profited off the abuse and exploitation of young women for years. Got it. #RealityCheck pic.twitter.com/rdhWPKdDHR— Cheater Brand (@bravoismysports) February 16, 2026One of the most-talked-about moments from the docuseries stemmed from a Cycle 2 episode titled “The Girl Who Cheated,” which centered on Sullivan cheating on her boyfriend with a male model during the show’s trip to Milan. However, Sullivan makes harrowing claims in the doc that describe the incident more as sexual assault that was facilitated by production. Following its premiere, Sullivan took to Instagram to share that she chose to participate in the doc “knowing that Tyra didn’t have control over my narrative” and “that the director and producers here had my back.”“I did it for me,” she added in a post. “Because I mattered and I still do! The love I have felt today has been immense. Thank you to everyone that heard me.”Several other moments revisited in “Inside America’s Next Top Model” have prompted other show alumni to speak out as well, like Cycle 4 contestant Tiffany Richardson, most famously remembered as the girl on the other end of Banks’ “we were all rooting for you!” rant. The moment, which has since become ingrained in pop culture history, is a notable talking point in Netflix’s docuseries that Banks finally addresses, which seemed to have sparked Richardson’s response in a now-deleted Instagram post.“Hold up @tyrabanks let’s keep it cute.. you are 1 lying ass tied ass bitch,” she wrote in a caption. “[Y]ou know how you treated me the whole time off and on camera, YOU WAS A BULLY!!! You treated me like shit and said the nastiest things about me and my son. That is not how the argument went but YALL EDITED TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU CARED.”Tiffany Richardson calls out Tyra Banks on Instagram.Instagram/ @tiffanythegoat1Banks has yet to respond to Richardson’s comment or make any statement regarding viewers’ response to “Inside America’s Next Top Model.” But that hasn’t stopped other former contestants from speaking out.On Thursday, Cycle 3 winner Eva Marcille appeared on “CBS Mornings” to share that she was “gobsmacked” over some of the troubling stories shared in Netflix’s docuseries.“To be a part of a club and not know what’s going on in the club is crazy,” said the model-actor, also noting that she never understood why “ANTM” was “such a topic every time I interviewed with someone” over the years. “[I was] amazingly horrified [by] the stories,” added Marcille. “I’ve lived my experience, I’ve walked in my shoes, and though there is a level of relatability one would assume someone having walked in the same shoes, I had no idea. Like, absolutely no idea.”Others who have spoken out since the docuseries’ release include participants like Cycle 4’s Keenyah Hill, who wrote on Instagram that she’s “grateful for the opportunity to lend my voice about my experience on ‘America’s Next Top Model.’”“I know we all had very different experiences on the show and I feel for everyone who had to heal from the aftermath with half the world watching!!” she added in a post. “Grateful to have been a part of such a legendary show.”Walters, a Cycle 8 contestant, reacted by saying she was “hoping there would be an apology to those who were traumatized by the show.”“I thought that was probably going to be the first thing that would happen, now knowing that Tyra was actually a part of this,” she continued in an Instagram video. “I personally don’t need one,” Walters added in her caption, “but I do believe it’s important for those whose lives were impacted in the most harmful ways.”Cycle 1 winner Adrianne Curry had more candid thoughts to share about the docuseries, particularly Banks’ lack of remorse, in a seemingly trolling X post captioned, “Tyra Banks Owes You Nothing.”“I have mad respect for Tyra Banks,” Curry starts in her video. “She is not sorry. She is not apologizing to you. That bitch is not effing sorry. She will not bend the knee. And I respect that.”She continued: “We want her to lie? Lie and say how bad she feels? Everyone’s coming to me, and they’re like, ‘None of the judges were sorry.’ Why should they be? They’re all loaded. Why should they give a flying F, you know? If they didn’t give a F at the time, they certainly ain’t gonna give a F now.”“But mad respect for Tyra,” Curry concluded, “because that’s hard to push back on that many people trying to struggle session you, and she’s just like, ‘fuck you, I do what I want.’ I gotta respect that. So, I tip my hat, m’lady. Keep on being yourself, which is someone who doesn’t give a flying shit.”Surely, there will be more former contestants coming forward after E! airs its own “America’s Next Top Model” exposé next month as part of its new “Dirty Rotten Scandals” series. Former “ANTM” judge Janice Dickinson and Cycle 17 winner Lisa D’Amato are both featured in it, and the latter has already hinted that the forthcoming episode will be much more scathing than Netflix’s docuseries.“Watched the Netflix docu on antm and I still think it was sugar coated. It was wayyyyyyy worse for so so many of us,” she wrote in an Instagram post. D’Amato added, “March 11 on E! I said what I said and even deeper torture will be on ’Dirty Rotten Scandals. Stay tuned.”Subscribe to The Culture Catchall to stay up to date on all things entertainment.