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Introducing: Curse of: America’s Next Top Model · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Back to the early two thousands. You're flipping through TV
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: channels and then you hear this.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I was rooting for you. We're all rooting for you.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Out damn. You learn something from this.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: America's Next Top Model was my show, and it might
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: have been yours too. But these days that iconic show
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that so many of us love seems pretty horrifying.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Robin, first of all, is too old to be starting
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: that model.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: She's huge, She's got rolls of skin that hang over
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: her jeans. Do you really think you can have a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: coverball contract with the gap in your mouth?
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Today?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Some people think A and TM was cursed because of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: what happened to so many of the models once the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: camera stopped rolling.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I was in debt after the show.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: We've basically sold our souls and they got rich.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I'm Bridget Armstrong, and this is the curse of America's
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Next Top Model. I'm a journalist covering pop culture. For
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the past six months, I've been investigating the real story
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of A and TM by talking to the models, the producers,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and the people who profited from it. All were starting
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: at the very beginning with the story of how the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: show almost didn't happen.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: They ran out of money. They were like using bread
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: bag ties to like hold curtains together. I guess we were,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: you know, the guinea pigs.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: And exploring how a show that was supposed to be
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: about making dreams come true ended up ruining so many contestants' careers.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: No one wanted to see me after the show.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I couldn't get an agency, Like they completely destroyed me.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Back then, we believe they just didn't have what it
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: took to be on top. But after talking to many
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: former contestants, I think it's much deeper than that. Maybe
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: they were set up for a failure.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: If someone had a particular fear, we would find out
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: in the costings skin of hots. Maybe this socle we
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: should do a run wape thirty five. I have stories
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: in the air and let them walk off the plank.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Somebody had a sick relative. They would push her and
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: push her and push her, like are you afraid they're
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: gonna die while you're here? The challenges turned into let's
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: see what kind of crazy shit can come out of this.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I talked to Katz crew and producers who were there
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: for some of the show's most shocking moments.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: She like, we're running for you were already for you, Like,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: if you were so rooting for her and saw her drowning,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: what did you help her? There was a huge chunk
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: that got cut out of that. Tyra got real personal
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: with her and she hit her alow the belt. I'm
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: just clutching my pearls. Okay at this point, it is
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: oh scary.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Top Model had so many viewers in a trance. But
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: when it was all over, what were we left with?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Putting it all across America that I have a white ass.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I ended up having an erexia issue after that, bolimia
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: issues after that.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Why would you humiliate someone like this and make them
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: feel as if.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Their very normal body is wrong?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: America's Next Top Model taught me that, like everything is
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: a woman's fault, it didn't matter what was always your fault.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: And in the end, maybe the Curse of America's Next
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Top Model wasn't just about what happened to the contestants.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was what the show revealed about us, what
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: we wanted to believe, and what we were willing to watch.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Listen to the Curse of America's Next Top Model on
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast,