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When it comes to behind-the-scenes controversy, America’s Next Top Model has some of the craziest stories. Someone recently revealed that a friend who competed on the reality TV show was told to purposefully ignore other contestants and bring up touchy subjects.

'America's Next Top Model' Cycle 4 cast members lying down, photographed from a bird's eye view
Brandy, Brita, Brittany, Christina, Kahlen, Keenyah, Lluvy, Michelle, Naima, Noelle, Rebecca, Sarah, Tatiana, and Tiffany from ‘America’s Next Top Model’ | Hyungwon Ryoo/CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images

‘America’s Next Top Model’ saw aspiring models compete against each other for the chance at a modeling career

America’s Next Top Model premiered in 2003. The show, created and hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks, pitted a group of wannabe models against each other as they competed to become “America’s Next Top Model.”

The contestants took part in “challenges,” which could be anything from an underwater photoshoot to a day of navigating a foreign country. The show’s judges would vote someone off each week based on their performance in the challenges, photoshoots, and runway shows. 

One source says contestants were ‘told to ignore some girls just to make a storyline’ for ‘America’s Next Top Model’ episodes

America’s Next Top Model was extremely popular, but former contestants have spoken out against the reality show for the treatment they received while competing. The showrunners and producers have been accused of treating the aspiring models poorly, as well as dealing with touchy topics in an insensitive manner. 

A Buzzfeed user recently told BuzzFeed that their cousin’s wife appeared on the reality show and shared “all sorts of horror stories about the producers” and what they asked the contestants to do. 

According to this source, they allegedly “ … were told to only eat on camera, told to bring up sensitive topics, even told to ignore some girls just to make a storyline…” When watching reruns of America’s Next Top Model, this seems plausible — many scenes show the models talking about politics and social issues, which led to fights and drama in the house they shared. 

The Buzzfeed user’s comments are unverified, but some reports from contestants suggest this isn’t an inaccurate description of the environment behind-the-scenes.

One former ‘America’s Next Top Model’ contestant claims models were sleep-deprived so they’d be ‘wound up’ and crying

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This is far from the only shocking behind-the-scenes story from America’s Next Top Model. Former contestant Victoria Marshman claimed that the show’s producers purposefully made things “very stressful.” 

“Keep in mind that none of us had slept at all,” Marshman told CinemaBlend. “[The producers] sleep deprive you so much that you are very wound up. That’s why everyone cries and catfights all the time.”

Another former model, Angelea Preston, called the show “top model prison” and claimed the contestants couldn’t talk, eat, or drink for hours “unless the cameras were on [per The Daily Mail]. She even sued Banks and America’s Next Top Model after her Cycle 17 win was rescinded when the show found out she had previously worked as an escort. 

Another contestant saw ‘America’s Next Top Model’s restrictive environment as a good thing: ‘You have no responsibilities’

In addition to this stressful environment, contestants were also kept apart from the outside world. Contestant ​​Matthew Stephen Smith told Hollywood PQ that the models weren’t allowed to have cellphones, TVs, or newspapers. 

“You’re an adult, and you’re put back into babysitting mode,” he laughed but added that there were some positives: “You have no responsibilities other than being entertaining and [a] model; which means you have no responsibilities.”

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