I'm Wesley Morris and this is Cannonball today.

They're all gorgeous, but only one has what it takes.

In the old days of TV, and by old, I mean like the early 2000s, you were still channel surfing.

You know, like you take your remote and you'd flip around.

And when the show you were watching was in the middle of a commercial, you'd maybe watch some other show that you found interesting.

For a while, that was how I wound up at UPN watching America's Next Top Model, between Whoopi and, like, the West Wing.

But many, many other people watch this show, believing their modeling dreams could come true.

Now, there's a popular new docu-series about the show that needs us to know how bad America's next top model treated those women.

On the one hand, where is the news here?

It's the fashion industry and it's reality television.

It's reality television about people trying to break into the fashion industry.

We were watching for the inane challenges and the judgey scrutinizing of everything from teeth

and hair texture to walks and jiggle. But then I watched this thing.

It's called Reality Check Inside America's Next Top Model.

And I realized the show's host and star Tyra Banks agreed to sit for an interview.

And I'm like, that feels interesting to me.

At least right now in this national moment of denying responsibility for anything,

here is a person, maybe trying to practice accountability, maybe.

I wanted to bring all of this to Michaela Angela Davis, who's been in the fashion and beauty

industries for a long time. As a journalist, as a stylist, as an editor for Essence and my subway platform magazine

stand purchase, honey, where you can find out all about what was happening in Black Beauty.

And I started by asking her to go back to 2003 when top model started.

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