Tyra Banks seemingly confirms America’s Next Top Model return: ‘I feel like my work is not done’
"You have no idea what we have planned for Cycle 25," said Banks
By Aaron Sugg
Tyra Banks has teased the return of America’s Next Top Model, as Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model gears up to land on Netflix on 16 February.
In the upcoming three-part docu-series, creator and host Banks teased that she might bring back the show for Cycle 25, eight years after the last season aired.
As per Entertainment Weekly, Banks says in episode three of the Reality Check: America’s Next Top Model series: “After the show, I had so many different ideas for my life. I’m obsessed with pivoting. And I live in Australia now.”
“You have no idea what we have planned for Cycle 25” – Tyra Banks confirms America’s Next Top Model will return
She also teases the reality show’s return: “I feel like my work is not done. You have no idea what we have planned for Cycle 25.”
The documentary includes interviews with Banks, producer Ken Mok, judges Jay Manuel, J. Alexander (Miss J), and Nigel Barker, as well as former contestants and winners such as Whitney Thompson, Shannon Stewart, Shandi Sullivan, Dani Evans and Keenyah Hill, among others.
Banks launched America’s Next Top Model in 2003 at the height of her modelling career. The show is remembered for being entertaining but also controversial, particularly over body-shaming and appearance criticism.
Some contestants were told to lose weight, while others were pressured into dramatic makeovers they did not want, as well as controversial makeover challenges in which contestants were assigned an ethnicity to be transformed into.
“Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb shit” – Banks on America’s Next Top Model controversy
While the show was praised at times for featuring LGBTQ+ contestants, it also faced criticism for pressuring contestants to conform to gender presentation norms.
Banks later addressed the backlash, acknowledging that some past creative choices were misguided. Speaking at the ESSENCE Black Women Awards in 2025, she said: “Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb shit.”
She continued: “But I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the internet when there were 24 cycles of changing the world. And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow.”
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