Hi, Curse Up listeners, I know you miss me on your feed. Don't worry. We're working on an all new season of Curse Of coming out later this year. In the meantime, if you can't stop thinking about the shocking stories you heard about America's Next Top Model, you'll definitely want to check out our new docuseries from E Dirty Rotten Scandals. In the series, you'll hear from the America's Next Top Model participants you heard from on Curse Of, and a few you didn't like former A and TM
judge Janis Dickinson. Dirty Rotten Scandals unveils the dark underbelly of the long running TV series through the untold stories of former contestants, and shows what happens when a golden opportunity for aspiring models unravels into a harrowing saga of exploitation, shattered dreams, and resilience. You can find the two part docuseries Dirty Rotten Scandals America's Next Top Model on E
Network check your local TV provider schedule. Is Cycle eighteen, the British Invasion season of America's Next Top Model.
It's raining so hard, this is really windy, It's so so.
High up like I just We're on the deck of the Macaw Tower, eleven hundred foot building. A and TM Judge j Manuel just told the remaining five models of the season.
The Macaw Tower is the home of the tallest bungee jump in the world.
And that the top deck of this building, way out on the ledge seven hundred and sixty feet up, is the location for today's photo shoot.
We turn up at this bloody tower and it is raining hard.
Maybe even haling, who knows it was definitely hailing. That's Sophie Sumner, who you heard in the tape psyching herself up to go out on that ledge, knowing full well that one slippery wrong step combined with a horn its malfunction, could send her flying into the pavement seven hundred and fifty feet below. You met Sophie a few episodes ago. She's the British model who said signing the A and
TM contract basically meant the show owned you. On her season she walked a light pink Bob Very twenty twelve. It was a season she went on to win, but on this day she was ready to walk off set and just go home.
We're in a brand new continent that most of us have never been to and we go out on that stupid ledge or something.
I am terrified of.
Height Cycle eighteen pit models from the UK against models from the US, and Sophie wasn't new to this. She'd competed on Britain's Next Top Model before A and TM, But the photoshoot she did on that show looked like school picture Dad compared to this drake in simple, long black dresses with exaggerated shoulder pads and hairstyles that were straight out of the Capitol beauty salon. On Honger Games.
The models worth for represent the strength and power of Macau, but at this moment they were looking anything but strong.
I stepped out there and I have never to this day been that terrified on the side of a building, like slipping all over the place with rain coming down god knows how high up.
Up to this point, Sophie had pretty much trusted the production. Sure some of the photoshoots were over the top, but she didn't think the show would ever put her in harm's way. Now standing on that slippery seven hundred foot ledge, she wasn't so sure. According to Sophie, under normal circumstances in these weather conditions. The skywalk they were posing on would be closed to the public.
I don't know if it's before the photo shoot or after, but it definitely had been closed to the public. It was definitely unsafe. It was not okay.
Ken Mook was there.
They were like, you know, we should really close it type thing, and I remember him or somehow I overheard something that he was like, no, we're doing.
This no matter what.
And so I also went out there.
With the knowledge that this wasn't safe and we shouldn't be out there now.
I have to say this legally, I can't confirm if Ken Max said that or not, but it is what Sophie remembers. Okay, if you'll hear that until we turn around, imagine being out on a ledge. You're terrified of heights. You think the situation isn't safe, and in your mind, the only thing keeping you from falling to your imminent death is the harness you're clinging to. And then you hear the photographer tell you to hold a pose.
Sorry someone without holding it.
I'm sorry, I'll get the harness a little bit further away from my body. If you can stop holding the harness, you mean, the thing keeping her from falling off this slippery seven hundred and sixty foot leg. I was just shaking, crying.
It's so awful, right because you actually have no choice.
You're going home because you didn't see the photo shoot.
I feel like we've got good shots.
Sophie didn't know it then, but the shaking, the crying, the pure of terror and panic in her eyes was all by design. You see heights. What's her biggest fear?
If someone had a particular fear, we would find out in the costings.
That's Andrew Patterson, the creative producer for A and TM cycles fifteen through twenty. He and his team came up with every photoshoot the models did, including this one. He was the reason they were up there struggling to look strong and beautiful while being pelted with freezing rain. Andrew had designed this photo shoot to get this very reaction out of the models.
You go through the casting falls and you'd be like, okay, well, this one's scared of heights, so maybe this cycle we should do a photo shoot which is one hundred stories in the air.
He was there that day to see how his little experiment unfolded.
It is pissing down with rain. It is so cold out there. I think there might have been slight icicles, like literally, like the girls are getting pelted by ice and they're in tears and they're crying, and you know, girls are going out there and they're slipping and they're falling.
Yeah, if the models wanted to blame anyone other than themselves were signing up for this. Andrew was the guy, but that didn't mean he didn't have a heart.
I'm a nice guy, and you know, I'm trying to like, you know, warm them up, and I'm like, you know, consoling them, like, oh sweetheart, it's okay, you can do this. Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry.
But A and TM's executive producer Ken Mack wasn't having it.
And I get a tap in the back of my shoulder from Ken Mock say, Andrew, stop it, stop it. We want to see these girls cry. This is going to make great television. Stop consoling them, play it out, let them be as it is.
Maybe and a shoot. In the real world, it would be kind even expected for a creative producer to comfort the scared talent. But this wasn't the real world. This was reality TV. You want to beyond, Some want to beyond some. Welcome to the Curse of America's Next Top Model. I'm Bridget Armstrong. Even though reality TV is supposed to be real, we all know, at least these days, it's really about telling a story, and A and TM was
no exception. The show presented itself as a look behind the curtain, a window into what it took to be a high fashion model. But America's Next Top Model was always a reality TV show first and a modeling competition second. It prioritized drama and good characters over the best models, and featured unrealistic and even dangerous photoshoots that no model would ever do in the real industry, like dangling Sophie off the side of a seven hundred foot building just
so we could see her freak out. They did that to make great reality TV. So on this episode, we're going to take a look at how the show achieved that and what the cost was to the model. By the time we get to the macau Tower photoshoot on cycle eighteen, A and TM had already built a reputation for wacky and extreme photoshoots, challenges, and runways. These are the stunts that made A and TM iconic, and each
season they had to top the last. There are so many outrageous photoshoots in A and TM history that I've decided to make them into a little game. I'm calling it, Did that really happened? My team and I came up with the most ridiculous fictional runways and photoshoots we could think of. I want you to guess which are the ones we made up in which actually happened on A and TM. Consider it a test of your top model knowledge. Okay,
let's start. Is it A the models pose inside a meat locker lying on an ice block with nothing but a bikini on. Or B the models are submerged in a freezing cold pool for over forty five minutes, wearing nothing but a thin gown. If you guess B, you are correct. On cycle seven, the models have to pose in water so cold one of the contestants, Carrie d English, almost got hypothermia. Carry you're from Fargo.
Come on, this is real, real modeling, guys.
Being cold as there's a point where my body just literally takes over, Like I feel like my skin and everything that's just like pins and needles go. When the camera got on me, you know, I try to just take those shivers away and not let her show my face.
She was so cold knit, she was kind of convulsive.
As a model, you need to tell people when you've passed your limit. It wasn't just that she was cold. It wasn't just that her teeth were chattering. She had reached the moment of hypo.
Fermil Yep, you heard that right after Tyra encouraged Carrie D to stick it out because she's some fargo. Jay Manuel blamed Carrie D for not saying she was literally freezing sooner. Okay, that one was a little too easy. Let's try another one, which is a real A and TM photo shoot. Is it A the models are harnessed to the wing of a low flying plane and full
lamb with aviator jackets and six inch chos. Or B the models have to strut down a moving conveyor belt in front of an audience while wearing full length gowns and six inch chos. The answer is B. On cycle fifteen, the models had to walk a conveyor belt in the second Street tunnel in La I've never felt more embarrassed at one time in my life.
I'd rather have natural labor again than do this.
I didn't come in here having a very good walk in the first place, and I guess I started to overthink it when come.
They are built when you go backwards, kind of bumpy, so like I got on there and my shoes just fulled right off.
But I still was smiling though.
Yeah, I'm still fears.
I'm still feared.
When you heard the audience go whoa, That was their reaction to one of the models actually tripping and falling off the runway. Okay, let's change the rules a little bit and play two truths and a lie. I'll give you three scenarios, two of which actually happened on A and T M. The other was made up. Option A the models do a photo shoot in Canada drenched in maple syrup while wearing maple league. B the models do a photo shoot in Japan in a tank of coyfish while wearing Ramen noodles.
Or C.
The models do a photoshoot in Greece posing on top of a giant bowl of Greek salad, wearing nothing but a bikini. Now, remember two of these really happened on A and TM. If you guessed A and C, you are correct. Andrew told me the maple syrup photoshoot was a last minute idea. The girls were supposed to do a photo shoot for former A and TM judge and
supermodel Twiggy's clothing brand. At the time, Twiggy was living in Canada, but when she canceled the day before the shoot, Andrew and his team had to come up with something quick.
We started at six am, like, we're going to have the girls in hair and makeup. I'll go, okay, what's this country famous for? Maple syrup? Okay, all right, all right, okay, maple leaves a maple syrup, and so we were like okay. So literally from then we went outside and we grabbed all these maple leaves and we had all these bikinis and I started sewing maple leaves onto bikinis.
And the Greek salad photos. She well, that was Tyra's idea.
They're like, we're going to Greece and next cycle. I was like, okay, that's pretty cool, and so we contacted the tourism bureau and Greece and you know, typically that's what would happen, is that one of the executives would do deals with the tourism bureau of each country or an airline to bring us all out there. In the meeting with Tyra, I'm like, what do you think of Greece? Tira, tell me the first thing that comes to your mind,
and she goes the Greek salad. And I was like, oh my god, you don't think Greek mythology, you don't think Medusa, you don't think all of these other beautiful things. You think of a Greek salad. And she goes, Yep, I want to throw the girls into a ball of Greek salad. Andrew I was like, okay, well let me let me talk to the group Jews and Bureer, just see if I can win them over with this gride r D. But it was it was very top model, you know what I mean? To thre the girls into
a ball of Greek salad? Which was that first photo shoot in.
Creet Okay, last question for extra credit, choose all that apply. Which of these runways did a and TM feature that actually caused the models bodily harm? Is it a a floating runway where the models had to walk a rickety runway that was floating in a pool while wearing six inch heels Is it B a pendulum runway where the models had to walk a runway while dodging a pendulum
swinging back and forth. Is it C a runway where the models were placed inside a plastic bubble and told to walk a twelve inch wide runway that was floating over water. Or is it D a runway where the contestants had to walk down the side of a building in a harness that, my friends, was a trick question. The answer is all for congratulations to our winners. As a prize, you get to continue listening to this episode, and you know what, I'm such a benevolent host.
Some of the.
Losers and these runways didn't just happen to be dangerous. Freelance reporter Kate Taylor wrote an excellent piece all about Top Model for Business Insider. She's a consulting producer for this podcast. She told me she talked to an A and TM crew member who told her the floating runway was rickety on purpose.
I spoke with a producer actually who for the floating runways, said that they had people go in and loosen the runway even more to make it less safe because they're like, well, it's going to be more interesting if someone falls. So that was something that throughout the process seemed to be you want to make good television, and at times aimes, the good television came at the expense of the well being of contestants.
Eugena Washington, who competed on that season cycle seven, was one of the ones who fell on the runway.
As soon as I stepped on it with one foot, I split.
I kept going after I fell off, I just keept going.
I'm freaking bleeding. Eugena still has the scar from that to this day. Here she is talking with consulting producer Oliver Twigs on his YouTube channel.
I don't know if you can see this scar, but this scar right.
This this Eugena sit up to show Oliver a nasty scar on her knee.
Yes, with my real life body.
Okay, okay, because you're on this runway that's floating. And so they put on ful corsets, pulled them as tired as they could possibly pull them, so I could not breathe. And then I had six inch stiletto hills, like needle stiletto hills, So I'm walking on my fucking tippy toes. And then the shoes are a size too big, and they said go out there.
And poles it bit.
You better smiles in front.
Of all these lights in the dark under these conditions. So as a human being, you're like this, I can die because first I can't breathe, I can't walk. And then the runways going like this on top of water, and they're talking about get to the end and take a good picture.
And the pendulum runway A and TM found mixer Jose Torres was there that day and he remembers how it all went.
Down that pendulum runway. The entire crew was on pins and needles waiting for somebody, you know, and we don't want somebody to get knocked off, but we're like it was funny but not funny. And then the one girl who got hit. I'm trying to remember who that was. I can't remember.
Her name was Alexandra.
Oh yeah, she was so nice, but yeah, man, she got hit. And it like you could just play like that cartoon sound or somebody sort of like about to teeter off the side and fall off, and you could just hear like the bongo sound or whatever the wh whoa whoa woa end off she went and crashed into some lights and she cut up her knee and we're like, oh God, no.
All of this, all of these wild photoshoots and challenges happened before the cycle eighteen Makal Tower photo shoot you heard at the top of this episode, and by the time that aired, A and TM was past its heyday and struggling to draw an audience as large as previous seasons. A modeling competition where ten to fourteen girls battle it out to see who's the best, was no longer cutting it. Creative producer Andrew Patterson again was.
Very adamant that after cycle thirteen, she never wanted to do a normal top model again, so she started with short girls and then she went into high fashion and then it progressed from there.
So when I started, there was always a theme.
There was the All Star season, the college season, the British Invasion, and the seasons where they included guys. But it wasn't just the season themes that had to up the ante. It was the challenges, the photoshoots and the runways themselves, which was not an easy task. By the time Andrew started in twenty fifteen.
We were just trying to do things that hadn't been done before, especially when I joined, they had already done two hundred and fifty photo shoots on camera before, so trying to come up with creative that they had never been seen was not easy. I'd sit there and I'd pitch things to Tire and she'd be like, oh no, honey, we did that Citle two, Episode eight. I was like, damn it, okay, And for each photo shoot I had
to come up with fifteen different options. When you look at that, that's one hundred to one hundred and eighty different options per cycle.
So would you say that you guys were sort of encouraged to do these things that could cross some that will say accident, so mis apps and far ofsome trip ups. Were you encouraged to do that?
Yeah?
We were encouraged to make things spicy, make things like they'd never been seen before. We thought it made good TV. And a lot of this came down to wanting the audience to go, wow, did you see this? Like, oh my god, can you believe that they did this? Can
you believe that they did that? So we had to come up with these elements of fear or these different elements to see if the girls could have it or be able to do the photo shoot, or go underwater and hold their breath and be able to strike a pose, or you know, can they smile while they have a silkworm on them? Or are they able to hold it together when they're you know, two hundred stories in the air being thrown off the side of the building in Pelking Rain.
Working models sometimes have to pose in a scary situation or with a wild animal. Cindy Crawford posed Knew with a Boa constrictor in the nineties. One time, Kate Upton polls in a bikini in Antarctica while standing on an iceberg. But those kinds of photoshoots are rare. Andrew work as a fashion photographer in the real world before joining A and TM. He told me professional photoshoots are almost always the opposite of what we thought on top.
Model, coming from the real world of advertising. I've shot campaigns for Louis Vuitton, I've shot campaigns for Chanel, Hugo Boss. That's not how we do it. Top model is not how we do it in the real world. And model's pictures are very intimate. It's between them and the photographer. It's when you have a connection with a photographer and you really connect with them that you actually get beautiful images, and not a lot of that goes on on Top Model.
There's intimate moments where you get you know, these beautiful you know, big eyes and you get your reactions. Those moments wouldn't work, you know, on America's Egg Top Model because they just changed the channel and it'd be very boring, you know, crazy, wacky, quirky, unusual photoshoots. Was to keep the audience, and that was to keep ratings. That was to keep you know, people wanting to watch the next
episode or you know, tuning into the next cycle. I mean a lot of this stuff might not be realistic, but it certainly added to the story in which we were creating, and it added to the competitive element of a competition reality show.
On cycle one, they did do semi realistic photoshoots and the result most bands consider Cycle two to be the real start of America's next Top Model. I don't think A and TM would have lasted very long if it would have remained realistic. A TM took the premise of modeling and made it entertaining, and there's nothing wrong about that project. Runway takes the art of designing clothes and
makes it competitive by presenting themed and timed challenges. The issue with A and TM is that models you use their faces and bodies to convey their talent, and that means putting their bodies on the line, which seems even more insidious when you consider they signed a contract that says if they get hurt while carrying out these production fever dreams, A and TM wouldn't owe them anything, not even medical care once they left the show if they
got a long term injury. Many of the models signed up to do these outrageous things because they thought it would help them in the real modeling world, but as we said over and over, for most of them, it didn't. It actually made them a joke in the fashion industry. After the break, we'll take a look at the casting process and how from the very beginning A ANDTM was thinking about the story, not the best models. There's a process for creating the characters and personalities we love and
hate on reality TV. It starts in casting.
The unscripted world. You're dealing with everyday people and they are not actors.
That's Raphael Doorball. He was a casting producer for America's Next Top Model Cycles twenty one through twenty four. Those were the seasons that included guys and girls. Thousands of wanna be contestants sent in audition tapes and showed up to castings. Raphael was a part of the team who looked for people who would pop on screen.
Some people are already amplified, they're pre turned. They come in the door swinging, you know, and we're just steering them.
Like Brittany Brower from Cycle four. Brittany looked a lot like a young Janis Dickinson, something that probably made her stand out. Here's what she said happened during her casting process.
I got called in a room probably with maybe like twenty to thirty other women.
They had to stand in a big circle and go around the room and say who we were and a little bit about ourselves. And everyone was just kind of going around the circle, and you know.
Like, Hi, I'm Diana, I'm from you know, the North Carolina.
I like pink flowers.
And then she gets around to me and I'm like, hello, I'm Riddy Alena Brower. I'm from Tallahassee, Florida. I'm twenty two years old. Go signoles, and I am so happy to be here. Michelle like stopped everybody.
Michelle Mopp, the head casting director, and I.
Had a green abercromy skirt on, and she goes, you see green skirt here, you see green skirts, call me green skirt.
She's like, you guys, see green skirt here. She's like, that's the kind.
Of energy we need from all of you.
But not everyone comes in pre turned like Brittany. It was rare fail's job as a casting producer to identify that spark in a contestant.
We are taking their personality and basically amplifying it.
Sometimes potential contestants need the casting producers to put that battery in their back.
So we're in the semi final stage and we're figuring out, okay, he's going to make casting. This one guy, it came out to where the producers were and he said, I can't do this.
I can't do this, and he's freaking out. I was like, what's the matter, what's it going on?
He's like, I can't say this one and this one's a bit and she just wants phony and blah blah blah, and he had so much to say.
The guy wanted out. He didn't think he could handle all the different personalities. But instead of seeing a quitter, Raphael saw the makings of great TV.
I was like, oh god, you have strong feelings, okay, so oh right, well why are you telling me? And he's like, I just have events. I can't I don't even want to be out there with them. I don't want to and he's getting all agitated, and I was like, well, I don't think you should be telling me this. Why don't you go say that to the face. It seems like you you know, you gotta a lot to.
Tell them, so tell them. So he did.
He went out there and he had stuff to say, and he made the cast. So casting producers, we literally are creating people.
Sarn Brown was still in high school when she was on cycle eleven of Top Model, and she looked like it on our season. She had this big, infectious smile that betrayed her age. She turned eighteen a month before she auditioned. She told me she was one of the ones who needed guidance, and that guidance started during the psyche bow.
The psychologist proceders, so basically give us our character, which I didn't know at the time, but he started it off by saying like, wow, looked over all of your stuff and I can see that you're a very confident person. Now looking back, I was like, oh, he was giving me my character or like what they wanted to portray me at.
And he also went with like, but I can see here also very reserved. In this situation.
You want to make sure that you lean more to that confidence side, that you lead more into this. I thought that, like, oh, well, he's telling me about myself and affirming who I am and how was how kind?
But yeah, no, and he was giving me my character.
Then that was followed up by the producer who then reiterated that was like, I know you like to read, and I know you're an introvert, but in this situation we needed to be very, very extroverted.
Sharan told me she struggled with self esteem when she was younger. Her mom instilled a sense of confidence in her, taught her how to say positive affirmations. Maybe that's what producers picked up on, a sense of outward confidence that was still developing on the inside. Rafael told me it was their job to really get to know potential castmates beyond what they presented on the surface.
You can tell they've never had a day of therapy in their life because they want to suddenly tell me everything.
We learn a lot about people in a very short period of time.
It was a producer's job to make contestants feel comfortable enough to talk openly.
You're building a relationship or rapport with these people. So yeah, a big part of being a casting producer is building trusts for sure.
Tarn says she was an open book during her casting process. Once the producers had an idea of who she was, or at least who they wanted her to be on the show, they started coaching her on what to do and say. They came up with something that made her stand out in her audition where she met Tyra and the Jays.
Our first meeting with the judges, they were asked me, Okay, so what are you gonna do? And I was like, I just gonna go and leave me and say you know, and they're like, no, you gotta come up with something. I was like, Okay, was like, we wanted this to be memorable. So that's where the whole like Lucky abdwere came from because that was kind of like we talked about that together.
The competition has started and I'm ready for it.
And when the competition is on, I got my game face on and I'm like, Hella, confidence.
Are you convinced you've already won?
I know it, Tira, Oh tell me why?
Because I am America's next time model.
You guys just don't know it yet. And what is that in your hand? I'm lucky underwa.
The thing we've done so far, I've had them.
I always look it, she says. When producers were going over her semi finals plan with her, she mentioned that she had a pair of underwear that said America's next top Model across the butt. The producers loved them and told her she should use that in front of the judging panel, and the little stunt worked. Sharon made it into the house, but once she was in the house, producers told her she still needed to present her confident facade.
The camera makes you look smaller, so we need you to be figger with all of your actions. If there's anything going on, make sure you're the first one there.
Tyra loved your like. They would keep telling me that Tyra loved your confidence. Tyra loves your confidence. Love and so just camping it up, and they did it in a way where you felt like you were getting a private meeting with producers at the time, realizing that I was being pushed or manipulated a coach that away, I just thought that it was like a big sister trying to put me on a game of how to you know, how to show up.
Creating characters in reality TV isn't specific to A and TM. Audiences need characters to know who to identify with, who to root for, and who to root agains. Often the characters play into archetypes or stereotypes we already know that makes them memorable. Professor Amanda Kline teaches about reality television at East Carolina University. She says, creating character is what makes the story stick. This is sort of a fundamental human need.
The way people make sense of the world is through categories, putting things into places that help them make sense. Why it's important on reality TV is they need to establish character and story right away, and so to do that, they need people to appear as certain character types.
You've heard me refer to former contestants as the girl next door, the wild child, or the villain. This association on A and TM was by design. Here's A and TM casting producer Raphael dr ball. Again, this is.
Certain formula that you that's a comfort, that's the reason why you tune in and get excited to watch. And I think the most exciting thing about Top Model was you always obviously had a different cast that was very different from the last, but you also kind of always got that same formula as well. So you know, you always got like the country girl guy, you know, who's in the middle of nowhere, who has no modeling experience whatsoever.
Then you got like the hot jock that was thrown in there, who's super confident and whatever.
And maybe the beauty queen.
You know, you got the girl who's like did every pageant and you fil them all together and like like, how is this going to work? You know, that's what makes it interesting to watch and fun, and that's what we looked for.
Remember Brittany from cycle four, the one Michelle Mott called Green Skirt Well on her season, she was loud, she liked to have fun, and she liked to drink, sometimes to the detriment of her competition performance. There was a challenge where the models had to interact with representatives from Cover Girl at a party. In the episode, Brittany seemed more interested in getting drunk than actually impressing the people from Cover Girl, or at least that's how the producers
made it look. They were developing a character. Brittany was the party girl. There's people from magazines.
I want to try one of those things El magazines comes holid in.
Oh that's a drink I had. Then there was another time when the models went out and Brittany got wasted. She was dancing on the table. But Brittany wasn't the only one who got drunk that day. UV Gomez told me she did too, And.
We were all at this cute little restaurant and I drank too much and didn't eat at all, and I was.
Like, ooh, I'm not feeling good.
And I think the producers saw that, and they pulled me to the side and they like snuffed me out because they already had the drunk girl. There couldn't be two, so they completely edited all of that out. I even think I might have gotten sick, but they were like protecting me, like guarded the bathroom, told me to turn my mic off. They just didn't want to film any of that because they had Brittany.
Producers liked their characters to be neat. It helps the audience follow the storyline. We weren't watching A and TM because we wanted to see complicated characters wrestling with their inner natures. If we wanted that, we could have turned to HBO. I asked Brittany if that drunk party girl character followed her after the show, if it hurt her chances in the industry, and she said it didn't really
affect her, But Sharon wasn't so lucky. In addition to meeting country girls, jocks, and party girls, A and TM needed villains. The characters we laugh act, not with the ones we love to hate. Sharan had been told to play up her confidence, but on screen it came across as annoying. Remember I told you Sharon's mom taught her to say affirmations. Sharon always wanted to be on A and TM, so at home, her mother would tell her you are America's next top model. My mom taught me
a version of this, naming it and claiming it. Producers thought it would be a good idea to have Sharon repeat that mantra once she got into the house. It's one thing to have your mom tell you you're going to be America's next top Model. Baby, it's another thing to keep repeating it to everyone you meet. On the first episode of a show where everyone also thinks they're going to be America's next top model.
I believe I am america Start top Model.
I won't get this. I want this so bad, so.
Let me start my introducing Myself's my name is Sharon, I am as next top Model.
I really, my.
Name is Sharon, and I am America's next top model.
Oh christ and this stuff that I can I ask you the m because you have it all in the bags.
Yes, very confident with myself, but I don't want anybody to read it as like being cocky or arrogant.
But kaki and arrogant was exactly how she came off. Sharan gave the producers what they wanted, but the character they'd created for her wasn't likable.
Oh Searon, she's always wild and over the top and get crazy.
I find that kind of propulsive and most girls.
Producers were setting Sharan up to be the season's first villain. They already laid the foundation of her being cocky and annoying. They drove it home by making her a bully. You already know reality TV producers often stir the pot to get drama going between cast members. Cycle eleven, the cycle Sharan was on, featured A and TM's first openly trans contestant. Her name is Isis. We're going to talk about the way A and TM handled gender identity later on in
this season. For now, we're going to focus on the storyline between Isis and Sharon. And I'll say this, the situation we saw on the show did not make Sharan look good. Cycle eleven premiered in two thousand and eight. The way society talks about gender identity and trans people today still isn't great, but two thousand and eight might as well have been the stone age. On the first episode, when it was revealed that Isis is trans, some of the girls in the house were uncomfortable. Some of them
were downright mean. A group of girls were portrayed as bullying Isis, and Sharon was in that group. The first photoshoot of the season was a voting shoot. Remember it was two thousand and eight. When it was their turn, each model had to look sexy at the ballot booth with the wind machine blowing in their face. Peek A and TM a group of models were staged in Isis's shoot behind the booth as if they were spying on her. Sharon was in that group of models and Jessa heads up, this isn't nice to hear.
So obviously you have the street that is see true. You got the cameras, so you have no privacy and you guys are still spying on her. Remember you're in the shot.
That's the funniest thing that's in my head, like trying to be said, reality.
Is she's a man. That was Sharon who said reality is she's a man and a cut In confessional, Sharon and the other models made jokes about Isis. They caught her sweaty and said she looked Harry, but in the scene it's unclear who's saying what. Either way, it made Searan look like the ring leader. She came across as a mean bully. But according to Sharon, what we saw on the show isn't the full picture.
Ices was doing her photo shoot and we were behind the photo booths.
First of all, we were placed there, and so they hands picked all of ironically the black and brown girls to go on her photo shoot, and they placed us behind her.
Word she was shooting, there was one white model.
They did that to make that scene as if she was being taunted and bullied during her shoot.
Sharon says they were standing there for a long time and they started to crack your mama jokes on each other, including isis. It was immature, for sure, but Charon swears they weren't just picking on isis.
When you cut out one portion of it and only show another portion.
Of it, it looks like something that is not. And now the whole world thinks that all of those girls, black and brown girls that were back there our caddy, our gossiping, our taunted, when it was actually the opposite.
It didn't just make them look like bullies. It made them look like bigots, because that's the plot line A and TM wanted. Later in that same episode, we see Sharon's confessional and she appears to be ranting about isis isis.
Is over the time, America's next top model is not going to be a drag queen.
I'm sorry, it's not That's the line we all remember. Sharan By she told me that behind the scenes, producers asked her a question and told her to repeat it back to them.
I was asked, what do you think about a drag queen being America's next top model.
But when you're asked a question in a way, you're told you have to repeat the question back.
That's pretty standard in these reality TV confessionals. If so, producers can cut their questions and the contestants' answers will still make sense. Sharon says she didn't voluntarily call Isis a drag queen. She was asked do you think America's next top model will be a drag queen? And then asked to repeat her answer in a neutral and sassy way.
She says the producers chose her sassy response. Sharan told me that if she was asked to do this today, she would say no, She'd tell them Isis is a woman, not a drag queen. But this was filmed twenty years ago when Sharan was still in high school. She didn't have the understanding she has now.
If I have the knowledge to correct them and correct how I referred to her in that moment, then I would have. But I did it. I was a young girl.
I ain't know no better, and I was also kind of prompted to answer the question in such a way.
This scene of Sharon bullying Isis put the nail in her coffin. She was already annoying and arrogant. Now she was being mean, and to top it all off, she bombed when it was her time in front of the camera.
Hey Sean, it's looking a little convoluted.
And in a way, it's not pretty.
On that episode, during the elimination, when Tyra announced the girls who would go to the next round, Isis was called out second, which is pretty high praise. Sharon, however, was sent home packing. It was the same day as the high school graduation she'd missed to be on a and TM. Sharon was devastated, but she cheered herself up even though she went home early. She'd beaten out thousands
of girls and made it on her favorite show. The real depression didn't kick in until weeks later, when she saw her ended on television.
My family threw a watch party, and so we all got together, I like my uncle's house, and everybody was so excited, and we made a big event and a big party out of it. And I was excited to because never did across my mind that things would be, you know, edited in such a way.
I didn't know that I was eliminated early on, and I know that my family and stuff didn't know that, so that was maybe a little nervous about that.
But as everything started airing, initially they would shelby and we'd be like, yeah, that's.
And then as they kept going on, sargiest, silent, silent, and I could feel the energy in the room.
My heart dropped.
Sharan found out with the rest of the world and a room filled with her family and friends that she was Cycle eleven's first villain.
And it was a very kind of like ten situation since in the air, and it.
Was very confusing. You're questioning reality or you're questioning what happened, and you're questioning your truth and what you knew also happened. And it was heartbreaking because it wasn't a true reflection of who I was.
It didn't matter to A and TM producers who Charon really was, because Charon was a character in a story. It was a story of an over confident bully who gets what's coming to her when she flops in the first photo shoot and is eliminated. It was a tidy character arc that started the season off.
With a bang.
We have no way of knowing if Sharon was sent home that week because she actually had the worst photo, or if she was sent home because that made the best story. And that's because a lot of what we saw on A and TM was an illusion.
I've heard producers talk where they were like, Yeah, this girl's boring, she's terrible TV. What do we want to do? Photo shoot? You know, every thing is still on the up and up. Maybe their photo that's chosen is not the.
Best photo, is not their best photo.
After the break, you'll hear how the producers created the version of reality we saw on the show. Reality competition shows are not always there. That was certainly true on A and TM. What made the show entertaining wasn't just the photo shoots. It was the drama, the personalities the models brought to the set. But the best models didn't always make the best reality TV. So producers had a way of getting rid of contestants who weren't entertaining enough. Here's hown mixer Jose Taurus.
I've heard producers talk where they were like, Yeah, this girl's boring, she's terrible TV. What do we want to do?
Photo shoot?
You know, everything is still on the up and up. Maybe their photo that's chosen is not the best photo is not their best photo.
That's why so many of y'all's fades were getting sent home. Early producers had the right to use creative license in tailor and competition how they fawt fit, meaning the most talented model didn't always win. Oftentimes the person with the best story or best TV personality did. When someone wasn't delivering what the producers needed to make good TV, or when the producers were done with their storyline, they would pick a model's worst photo and say it was their best.
I asked ANTM creative producer Andrew Patterson about this. Was it always the best person winning? And was it always the worst person being sent home?
Hena, Hena.
Now, I'm not saying every elimination was predetermined for the plot. Producers couldn't manipulate everything. You still had to be a talent in order to progress in the competition. It's just that the talented models who also had interesting personalities or the best stories were usually the ones who made it to the finale. And when it was time to get rid of a lackluster contestant, producers had other ways of tipping the scales. I asked casting producer Raphael d'Orval how
that worked. He didn't want to give me an example from A and Tom, so he used RuPaul's drag Race to explain.
Let's say you're a contestant on Roopuol's drug Race, right and let's say, for what are reason you're not rising to the occasion on the show, and you're just not stepping up as an interesting personality on the show right now, if you're just falling flat and producers are freaking out, They're like, oh God, we gotta got.
Read this person. They're bringing the whole show down now we know about this person.
So when you're vetting these people who listen, let's just say, and there's always a season, whether it's somebody who doesn't know how to sew.
He's referring to sewing challenges. Drag Race is also a competition reality show. Contestants are expected to perform, dance, sing, act, and occasionally sew their own costumes. Every contestant has their strengths, but inevitably there's always some queen on the show who doesn't even know how to thread a needle.
So if you're going on the show and you don't know how to sew, it's going to be very difficult for you if there's a challenge that you have to sew not one, not two, but three different outfits, which has happened on the show. So let's just say the powers that bio like, Ooh, this girl's rough. She's killing us. This is not going to work. So I'm trying to get rid of Brittany. I guess our next challenge has
to be a sewing challenge. Maybe we're on episode four, and maybe the big sewing challenge wasn't supposed to happen until episode six, was switching up the game, and now we're making the sewing challenge episode four, So there's always ways to kind of do what you need to do.
For whatever reason, Rafael didn't want to spill the t on A and TM. Maybe he's a Tyra Banks loyalist. Maybe he's still under his NBA. But in case you're having trouble deciphering his drag Race riddle, Rafael is saying A and TM had a way of producing the results they wanted in the competition. Producers designed the photo shoots and runways. They also knew the contestants' weaknesses. So if there was a boring model who took decent pictures but
had a horrible runway walk. Surprise, surprise, that runway date plan for week eight is happening today. The boring model would trip over her heels and get sent home promptly by the judges, and they didn't even have to select her worst photo to get rid of her. I'm not trying to make the producers sound like evil masterminds who wanted to torture and sabotage them models. They were doing their jobs, creating a show that was entertaining and memorable.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Watching twelve perfectly nice and talented models compete in intimate photoshoots and realistic runways would have been boring. It was fun to watch Brittany drink and dance on tables. It's riveting to see a bunch of scared models hanging off the side of a seven hundred foot building. It was satisfying to see Sharon get eliminated first. Before the contestants, it
was a different story. They knew the show would be edited. However, most of them thought they would get a fair shake in the competition, but A and TM used them like pieces on a chessboard. There were heroes and villains, and the producers moved them around or knocked them off the board to fit the story they wanted to tell. Here's sound mixer Jose Torres.
Top model. Honestly, a lot of those were just like cogs in the machine. You know, they got looked at as there were a commodity, there were a product. They were brought on to be part of a TV show. If they had a good experience, great, and if they didn't, that's a shame, you know, it's too bad. That was the mentality.
Being a contestant on A and TM meant you might get dangled off the side of a building, thrown in a pool of water, or on top of a Greek salad. You might be made to look like a drunk or a villain. But it was supposed to all be worth it because even if you didn't win, you got a portfolio. Aspiring models often paid thousands of dollars to get professional photos they could send out to agents. Your portfolio could
jump start your career. Here's Tyra talking to the contestants about the power of a good portfolio.
I booked twenty five fashion shows in Paris off of one, two, three photo, So you have four seen how.
A leg up?
Okay, Tyra Poppins. But the point is, the promise of the portfolio is why a lot of these women allowed themselves to be dangled off the side of a building or covered in live bees, because if they could look fierce while they did it, that photo could be their golden ticket. But after they were eliminated, a lot of contestants found out their A and TM portfolio was a glorified coffee table book. They were a joke to modeling agencies. Here's Kenya Hill from cycle four.
I already knew by the time it ended like this is a TV show, but I was expecting the modeling industry to embrace me with open arms because this is America's Next Top Model.
After the show, Kenya moved to New York, ready to take on the industry A and TM photos in hand. But like a lot of the models I've spoken to, she was in for it rude awakening.
I couldn't even used my portfolio from America's Next Top Model in my actual portfolio because the pictures from the show were so over the top, so overly edited, overly styled, overly made up, it was for TV. Real modeling portfolios didn't look like how our pictures looked. The retouching was insane. That is not how photos actually look in magazines.
Kenya eventually became a working model, but she had to build her career herself. These days, she coaches new models who are trying to break into the industry. She says this her mission to give them more than A and TM gave her. Before Kenya was cast on ANTM, she'd been a fan, and she fully bought into the premise. She thought A and TM was really a competition to find and make the best model. As a teenager, I
did too, I think we all did. But once Kenya left Top Model and launched her career, she realized the show wasn't it all like the real modeling industry.
The average person watching the show would be, oh, yep, that's a photo.
Shoot, that's the modeling industry, and so I think like the entire country took that as Yep, this is real. This is the modeling industry through and through, and it's just not true.
It's just not the case. So much of it was just TV. It was pure entertainment.
And something America found very entertaining were racist stereotypes and A and TM was among the best to ever do it. That's what we'll get into on the next episode. 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 jo maybe keep that one to yourself. Thanks again to all of our listeners. The Curse of America's Next Top Model is 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 Fetterman and Andrea Denning. Associate producers are Alisha Key, Kristin Melcurrie, and Curry Richmond. Consulting producers are Oliver TwixT and Kate Taylor. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Kriincheck. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Callaway and Matt del Vecchio. The Curse of America's Next Top Model theme music was 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 podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out the Glass podcast Instagram at Glass Podcasts for Curse of America's Next Top Model, behind the scenes content and more.