Tyra Banks has reflected on her infamous on-air clash with America’s Next Top Model contestant Tiffany Richardson, admitting she “lost it” over Richardson’s reaction to being eliminated from the competition.
Richardson competed on ANTM’s fourth cycle in 2005, quickly emerging as a favourite with viewers and judges alike — particularly Banks, who would go on to host the show for 23 seasons. But after the aspiring model was eliminated, Banks unleashed an infamous on-air tirade, accusing her of having a “bad attitude” and not taking the competition seriously.
The confrontation produced one of reality TV’s most enduring memes, as Banks shouted: “I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you. How dare you!”
In Netflix’s forthcoming docuseries, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model (out February 16), Banks cites the incident with Richardson as her “toughest” moment on the series.
“Tiffany, that girl was my heart,” Banks says during the third episode of the new series. Banks claims that Richardson had missed out on a previous season of ANTM after getting into a bar fight. She says she and her team worked with her off-camera, mentoring her so she would be ready to compete when she returned for Cycle 4.
“I just wanted to change this woman’s life,” Banks says. “I felt like she could have been a supermodel, with a capital S.”
The episode revisits the viral ANTM moment, showing Banks scolding Richardson for laughing and joking with the other contestants after her elimination. Banks then erupted, telling her she had a real chance to win the season and that “all of America was rooting for her.”
During a confessional interview for the new Netflix series, Banks says she was angry at Richardson for “kind of giving up” on the competition, after they worked to get her on the show.
“I went too far. I lost it,” Banks confesses. “It was probably bigger than her. It was family, friends, society, Black girls, all the challenges that we have. So many people saying that we’re not good enough. I think all that was in that moment. That’s some Black girl stuff that goes real deep inside of me. But I knew I went too far.”
Former judges and producers also recall their reactions to Banks’s rant in Reality Check. “Tyra really scared all of us,” former ANTM judge Niguel Barker says. “We literally jumped out of our seats. What is happening right now?”
Meanwhile, Jay Manuel, who was the creative director for photo shoots on ANTM, calls Bank’s outburst the “most difficult moment on set I had ever experienced.”
“When they were done shooting, the production staff literally took Tyra off set,” Manuel recalls.
Banks previously shared her regrets about her behavior during an interview with BuzzFeed News in 2017. When asked if she would have done things differently during the viral outburst, she said, “Oh my god, totally, I wouldn't have done it. Actually, maybe I wouldn’t have aired it.”
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