The most recent docuseries is here on Netflix and has blown viewers away. Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model goes through the iconic series that first aired in 2003, showing wild photo shoots to unforgettable blowups, digging into what really happened on the series. And Eva Marcille reacts to the three-part documentary.
Created by Tyra Banks and developed by Ken Mok and Kenya Barris, the series ran for 24 seasons from 2003 to 2016. Each season, or cycle as they’re called, followed a new group of aspiring models who lived together, competed in challenges, and faced weekly eliminations. The winner was then awarded a spread in a fashion magazine along with contracts with major fashion brands and an agency.
Eva Marcille, known as Eva Pigford on season 3 of “America’s Next Top Model,” which she won in 2004, says she was “gobsmacked” and “amazingly horrified” by the stories of other “ANTM” contestants detailed in a new documentary, “Reality Check.”
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) February 19, 2026
Marcille says her career is thanks,… pic.twitter.com/BOn46pyjRc
The cycle 3 winner, Eva Marcille, appeared under her maiden name Eva Pigford, admitted that she was “gobsmacked” after watching the series. “I was in awe… my mouth was wide open. To be a part of a club and not know what’s going on in the club is crazy,” she said on CBS Mornings Thursday.
When asked to clarify her reaction further, Marcille explained that she was “amazingly horrified for the stories,” though her experience didn’t match what she saw.
“I’ve lived my experience, I’ve walked in my shoes,” she continued, “and though there is a level of relatability one would assume someone having walked in the same shoes, I had no idea.”
The reality star, who later joined the Real Housewives of Atlanta, believes the Top Model producers of the show knew all about the alleged wrongdoings that happened throughout the show’s run, including the alleged bullying, body shaming, and racial profiling.
“That environment could not exist without producers aiding and abetting what was going on. I’ve done reality now on every level. Housewives, I mean, I don’t know what is going on in someone’s life unless the producers tell me. It’s a part of how this thing works.”
“What Tyra set out to do in this business, I will always say — and especially for Top Model, initially — she set out to change the world; to change what the modeling industry looked like, sound like, felt like and expected. And she did that for me.”
Marcille finished the interview by pointing out the level of atonement the host has expressed, saying, “She apologized a million times, but an apology to the person that you wronged is only as good as they could appreciate it.”
“There is no sorry, I think that’s big enough to truly fill and heal that kind of hurt.”
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