Television series

America's Next Top Model

Name: America's Next Top Model
Released: 2003
Cast: Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker, J. Alexander, Kelly Cutrone, Twiggy

Drama
Relentless

America's Next Top Model is a competition series where aspiring models live together, face weekly fashion challenges, and compete for a contract under Tyra Banks' mentorship. It's a guilty-pleasure showcase of ambition, transformation, and fashion-world drama—part boot camp, part social experiment, designed for anyone who loves watching ordinary people tested against extraordinary standards.

TVMaze rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy competition reality shows where the fun comes from watching ordinary people get remade under pressure, with weekly eliminations, coached photo shoots and harsh but often funny critiques that make every episode feel like a small event.

Skip it if you want scripted drama or quiet, observational documentary; it runs on confessionals, staged challenges and a host who pushes the drama, and the long run of seasons can feel repetitive.

What it asks of you: Each episode runs about an hour and the season stacks up over many weeks, so it asks you to commit to a long, steady run rather than a single sitting, with plenty of bright, chatty energy throughout.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Project Runway2004

The spiritual sibling to ANTM: designers compete under pressure with mentorship from industry legends. Same high-stakes elimination format, same obsession with seeing potential realized or crushed in real time. Tim Gunn's guidance hits differently than Tyra's, but the adrenaline is identical.

But Fashion-focused rather than personality-focused; if you're here for drama and character arcs rather than garment construction, it can feel more technical and less soap-opera.

The Bachelor2003

Captures the same alchemy: strangers in an artificial environment, weekly eliminations, manufactured drama, and participants competing for a life-changing prize. Both are about transformation and the psychology of competition under constant scrutiny.

But Romantic rather than professional stakes, and the format has become predictable to the point of parody. Some seasons feel like going through motions.

Survivor2000

The original reality-competition blueprint. Strangers, high stakes, weekly eliminations, tribal council confessionals that resemble ANTM's judging panels. Both shows understand that isolation and desperation make for compelling television.

But Survival challenges have nothing to do with modeling; the tone shifts between strategic gameplay and survival drama rather than pure ambition testing.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from America's Next Top Model

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Zoolander2001

Both explore the psychology of appearance-based competition, but from opposite angles: ANTM treats it as real stakes, Zoolander laughs at the stakes themselves. Together they explain why the modeling world is both fascinating and ridiculous.

A dead-on satire of the modeling industry and the empty desperation that fuels it. The film exaggerates what ANTM plays straight—the absurd pressure to be beautiful, the tyranny of judging panels, the idea that a look can change your life—and finds the comedy in recognizing how insane the whole thing is.

But The humor is broad and occasionally crude; if you're genuinely invested in modeling as a legitimate career path rather than a spectacle, the mockery might feel mean-spirited.

RuPaul's Drag Race2009

A competition show built on transformation, performance under pressure, and weekly eliminations presided over by a charismatic host-mentor. The runway walks and judging critiques echo ANTM's DNA, but with more humor and a genuinely warm core.

But The drag context means nothing if that world doesn't interest you; some seasons lean heavily into in-jokes that exclude casual viewers.

The Hills2006

Follows young women navigating the fashion and entertainment industries in Los Angeles. Less competition, more soap opera, but it captures the same aspirational world and the messy reality of trying to make it in a shallow industry.

But Plotlines circle obsessively and relationships dominate; if you want fashion challenges and competition structure, this is too unstructured and personal.

So You Think You Can Dance2005

Aspiring dancers face weekly challenges and eliminations judged by dance professionals. The structure mirrors ANTM exactly—testing under pressure, mentorship, the shock of elimination—but the talent is visibly harder and the judging more technical.

But If you don't respond to dance as an art form, watching similar people do similar moves each week can feel monotonous.

The Apprentice2005

Business-world version of the competition format: strangers, tasks, eliminations, a powerful host making final calls. Both are about testing whether ordinary people can succeed in a cutthroat professional environment under scrutiny.

But Corporate boardroom drama is not the same as fashion-world glamour; the stakes feel less about personal transformation and more about strategy and cruelty.

America's Got Talent2006

A broad talent competition with the same structure—auditions, eliminations, a panel of judges, mentorship, and the hunt for the next big star. Less intense than ANTM but captures the same 'ordinary person gets a shot' energy.

But The talent pool is uneven; you'll sit through genuinely bad acts. Lacks ANTM's focused intensity because the competition is less about one specific skill.

The September Issue2009

ANTM promises entry into Wintour's world. This documentary shows what that world actually is—the precision, the power, the total indifference to the individual contestant's dreams. It's the real version of what ANTM dramatizes.

A documentary following Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour as she creates the magazine's largest issue. It shows the real fashion industry that ANTM contestants are supposedly entering—the actual hierarchy, the real gatekeepers, the work behind the glamour. Mesmerizing and clarifying.

But Slow-paced and focused on editorial process rather than drama; if you came for conflict and elimination, this is contemplative and dry.

Phantom Thread2017

Both focus on the relationship between a powerful mentor and a young woman hoping for transformation through beauty and fashion. ANTM treats it as inspiring; Phantom Thread asks what that dynamic actually costs, and who really benefits.

A psychological thriller about a brilliant dressmaker and the young woman who enters his world as a model and muse. It explores the dark power dynamics beneath the surface of beauty, fashion, and the relationship between creator and subject—a vision of the industry that's haunting and complex.

But Slow, strange, and morally murky; the relationship at its center is deeply uncomfortable. Not a feel-good story about triumph or transformation.