Six years after “America’s Next Model” hung up its heels, the show is getting called out for some of its more questionable casting practices.
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly for Vice TV’s “Dark Side of Reality TV” docuseries, model Sarah Hartshorne gave a behind-the-scenes look into how she and her fellow contestants were selected to be participants on ANTM.
The show filed “between 100 and 200 girls into this ballroom, and they cram us along a wall in a single-file line,” said Hartshorne. “Nose to the back of the head, nose to the back of the head. Your nose should be touching the head of the girl in front of you.”
The model, who was 20 years old at the time, told EW the women had to step out of their shoes and move forward in this position like a human “centipede.”
She also recounted how this task was especially difficult as the only “plus-sized” model in the room.
When production asked the girls to stand so close together, she recalled “looking down and being like, I’m the only one that has tits that make that impossible.”
The documentary series finale also includes interviews with supermodel and former ANTM judge Janice Dickinson, former shoot director Andrew Patterson, and show alums Lisa D’Amato and Angelea Preston.
Preston has alleged that she originally won Season 17 of the reality show, but was stripped of her title because producers learned she had done sex work in the past. When Bustle published a story about her allegations in 2022, executive producer Ken Mok told the outlet in a statement that he had “nothing” to add, aside from the fact that she was “a wonderful addition to ANTM” and he wished her “nothing but the best.”
A 2021 BuzzFeed article detailed some of the mostcontroversial moments during the show’s run, from body-shaming to placing contestants in upsetting or compromising situations.
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In Cycle 4, for instance, one of the contestants had to pose in a grave shortly after learning her friend had died. In that same season, the contestants were put in blackface makeup for one of their challenges.