Think back to the early two thousands. You're flipping through TV channels and then you hear this.
I was rooting for you. We're all rooting for you. How damn you learn something from this?
America's Next Top Model was my show, and it might have been yours too. But these days, that iconic show that so many of us love seems pretty horrified.
Robin, first of all, is too old to be starting that model.
She's huge, She's got rolls of skin that hang over her jeans.
Do you really think you can have a coverball contract with the gap in your mouth?
Today?
Some people think A and TM was cursed because of what happened to so many of the models once the camera stopped rolling.
I was in debt after the show.
We've basically sold our souls and they got rich.
I'm Bridget Armstrong, and this is the curse of America's Next Top Model. I'm a journalist covering pop culture. For the past six months, I've been investigating the real story of A and TM by talking to the models, the producers, and the people who profited from it. All were starting at the very beginning with the story of how the show almost didn't happen.
They ran out of money. They were like using bread bag ties to like hold curtains together. I guess we were, you know, the guinea pigs.
And exploring how a show that was supposed to be about making dreams come true ended up ruining so many contestants' careers.
No one wanted to see me after the show.
I couldn't get an agency, Like they completely destroyed me. Back then, we believe they just didn't have what it took to be on top. But after talking to many former contestants, I think it's much deeper than that. Maybe they were set up for a failure.
If someone had a particular fear, we would find out in the costings skin of hots. Maybe this socle we should do a run wape thirty five. I have stories in the air and let them walk off the plank.
Somebody had a sick relative. They would push her and push her and push her, like are you afraid they're gonna die while you're here? The challenges turned into let's see what kind of crazy shit can come out of this.
I talked to Katz crew and producers who were there for some of the show's most shocking moments.
She like, we're running for you, We're already for Like, if you were so rooting for her and saw her drowning, what did you help her? There was a huge chunk that got cut out of that. Tyra got real personal with her and she hit her alow the belt. I'm just clutching my pearls. Okay at this point, it is oh scary.
Top Model had so many viewers in a trance. But when it was all over, what were we left with?
Putting it all across America that I have a white ass. I ended up having an erexia issue after that, bolimia issues after that.
Why would you humiliate someone like this and make them feel as if.
Their very normal body is wrong?
America's Next Top Model taught me that, like everything is a woman's fault, it didn't matter what was always your fault. And in the end, maybe the Curse of America's Next Top Model wasn't just about what happened to the contestants. Maybe it was what the show revealed about us, what we wanted to believe, and what we were willing to watch. Listen to the Curse of America's Next Top Model starting on September sixteenth on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.