The claim that America’s Next Top Model execs forced Tyra Banks to terminate her close friends/collaborators, Miss J, Jay Manuel, and Nigel Barker, was deemed untrue.
The Ankler‘s Elaine Low interviewed CW executives and EP Jason Beekman, who debunked Tyra’s tales from Netflix‘s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.
The statement:
“The former CW execs disputes Tyra Banks’ recollection in the ‘Reality Check: Inside ANTM’ docuseries that she was forced to fire the judge trio.”
“This person recalls that then-network president Mark Pedowitz had directed Banks to shake things up to revive the maturing show.” That was to be done “through budget cuts or other means, but had not directed her to fire the trio.”
No sacred cows:
In Netflix’s viral docuseries, Tyra maintained that letting the trio go was “probably some of the hardest news I have ever had to deliver, in my existence.”
“I cried myself to sleep that night. They were there from the beginning. They were some of the closest people to me in my life. Ken and I had to deliver the news that the deal is up and that it’s over. You can imagine what that feels like.”
“But bosses have bosses,” she continued, adding, “and the big boss was very clear. There are no sacred cows. And I heard that meaning, ‘You too, Tyra. So pick up the phone and do what I’m telling you to do.'”
Tyra concluded, “And the thing is, I don’t believe that they knew that it came from above. No matter how much Ken and I were explaining, ‘This was not our decision,’ to this day, I think they think that it was me.”
