Janice Dickinson is making some heavy allegations about Tyra Banks and their time on America’s Next Top Model.
In the new docuseries Dirty Rotten Scandals, which airs on E!, Dickinson, a judge on the early seasons of America’s Next Top Model, claims that Tyra Banks and the production team pushed her to be more cruel to the contestants, to the point where she should have been more like Simon Cowell, who was a judge on America’s Idol.
“The producers, especially Tyra, were begging me to be harsher and cruel, like Simon Cowell was on American Idol,” Dickinson says in the docuseries, based on the clips that aired leading up to its March 11th premiere.
Dickinson, who was a judge in the early seasons of America’s Next Top Model, brings up one of the biggest controversies in the show’s history: in 2005, Tyra Banks had a public argument with contestant Tiffany Richardson. It’s come up again in the past week due to the reality TV world’s 2000s practices.
“Tyra didn’t want any competition,” Dickinson claims in the docuseries. “She went off on one girl, and it was so frightening that I was going to get up and hold her down.”
Dickinson’s strongest accusation against Banks is that she treated the contestants differently and was harder on black contestants because of a combination of competitiveness, jealousy, and age.
“She would go harder on the Black girls on the show because of competitiveness, jealousy, and her being older than these young women,” Dickinson claims.
Dickinson also claims that the contestants left the reality competition emotionally traumatized.
“They left the show depressed and drained while she got so rich,” Dickinson claims in the docuseries. “America’s Next Top Model really tortured these girls for Tyra’s ego. I was there, and I saw it for four seasons. She was a hardcore b—-.”
“Dirty Rotten Scandals” premieres March 11 on E!.
