The Set-Up | EP 1
Curse of: America’s Next Top Model
iHeartPodcasts and Glass Podcasts
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tyra Banks screamed it, but was she ever really rooting for these girls? In the series opener, host Bridget Armstrong explores one of ANTM’s biggest criticisms—that the show didn’t create any top models. We go back to the beginning to figure out how this germ of an idea in Tyra Banks’ imagination ended up on our screens. We talk about Tyra’s accomplice, ANTM Executive Producer Ken Mok, and explore how America’s Next Top Model was built on a formula of entertainment, desperation, and humiliation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.1 | If you've ever watched America's Next Top Model, or even if you haven't, you probably recognize this scene. |
| 0:10.7 | I'm coming here with a defeatist attitude. |
| 0:12.2 | I don't have a bad attitude. |
| 0:13.6 | Maybe I am angry inside. |
| 0:15.1 | I've been through stuff, so I'm angry. |
| 0:17.0 | Yes, but this is not, be quiet, Tiffany. |
| 0:19.3 | Be quiet. |
| 0:20.6 | That's what is wrong with you. |
| 0:21.8 | Stop it! |
| 0:25.6 | On the surface, it's Tyra Banks, finally losing her patience on a seemingly apathetic contestant |
| 0:31.3 | named Tiffany Richardson. |
| 0:33.1 | Tiffany had just been eliminated from the competition, and Tyra was disappointed in her attitude. |
| 0:38.9 | But there's something deeper going on here. |
| 0:41.1 | I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this. |
| 0:44.7 | When my mother yells at this is because she loves me. |
| 0:47.6 | I was rooting for you. |
| 0:48.7 | We were all rooting for you. |
| 0:50.1 | How dare you! |
| 0:51.4 | Learn something from this! |
| 0:55.0 | It's become one of the most iconic moments in all of reality TV history, maybe in all of pop culture history. |
... |
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