Tyra Banks Files Lawsuit Against Netflix's Reality Check Docuseries, Alleging Creation Of 'A False And Defamatory Narrative'

"America's Next Top Model" host Tyra Banks filed a defamation suit against Netflix Saturday, alleging that the streamer's "Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model" docuseries created a "false narrative" about her. 

The docuseries, which was co-directed by Mor Loushy and Daniel Siva, featured interview footage of Banks discussing "Top Model," the controversial reality competition series that aired from 2003-2018. (Banks served as creator, host, and executive producer of "ANTM.") 

According to a report from Deadline, Banks' lawsuit was filed in California federal court. The former supermodel is suing Netflix, 89 Blocks Holdings, EverWonder Studio, Netflix Music, and co-directors Loushy and Sivan for false light, defamation by implication, breach of contract, and false endorsement.

TVLine has reached out to all of the above parties for comment.

The court documents claim that Banks gave the three-part "Reality Check" series an interview that lasted a total of three-and-a-half hours. That was then edited down to 16 minutes of footage and "stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed." The suit states Banks took "accountability" for the show's toxic on-set environment but those moments "ended up on the cutting room floor."

The suit continues: "Worse, the false narrative the producers constructed — through selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage — included that Ms. Banks knowingly allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on her show, exploited that contestant's trauma for ratings, and then could not even remember it when asked. That narrative about Ms. Banks is a complete fabrication — one that Netflix streamed to a global audience of millions."

That contestant, Season 2's Shandi Sullivan, spoke on camera about her alleged experience of sexual assault that she says occurred while filming the second cycle of "ANTM." The lawsuit alleges that this portion of the docuseries is an "egregious example" of manipulated footage. 

"One of the areas of interest about 'ANTM' over the last 20 years has been about an evening during which Ms. Sullivan was intoxicated, had intercourse with a man in Milan, and quickly confessed her infidelity to her longtime boyfriend," the lawsuit alleges. "On the Netflix series, Ms. Sullivan is shown describing the event as an assault — something Ms. Banks had never heard before and was not told during her interview [emphasis in document]. Having withheld that information, Ms. Loushy asks Ms. Banks: 'You remember the story with Shandi?' The episode shows Ms. Banks glance upward, say 'um,' and then the screen cuts to black. The implication is devastating and deliberate: that Tyra Banks cannot even remember the story of the woman who was assaulted on her show."

The suit then alleges that the full footage of Banks was cut and edited, removing important details and context from the actual interview.

"In Episode 1, before the upward glance, Ms. Banks nods — affirmatively, unmistakably— and immediately says, 'I do remember her story.' By carving the nod out of the middle of the sequence and cutting off Ms. Banks' comment at the end, the producers ensured that viewers would see only the lie and not the truth," reads the suit. 

According to the report, as a result of alleged "loss of future business opportunities, loss of business income, other compounding losses," "severe reputational harm," and "significant mental anguish," Banks is requesting a jury trial to decide "appropriate" compensation for general and special damages.