Netflix is asking a federal judge to throw out Tyra Banks’ defamation lawsuit over Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, arguing that the dispute comes down to editorial choices she had already agreed filmmakers could make.
Netflix has moved to dismiss Tyra Banks’ lawsuit over the three-part docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. In an August 14 filing, the streamer argued that Banks signed an agreement giving filmmakers authority to edit her interview and acknowledged that she had no right to review or approve the finished documentary, according to People.
Netflix characterized Banks’ claims as objections to “ordinary editorial decisions” rather than actionable defamation. The company and production outfit EverWonder Studio also filed an anti-SLAPP motion, a procedure designed to strike claims that arise from protected speech and are alleged to lack legal merit.
Banks sued Netflix, EverWonder and directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy in June, accusing the filmmakers of using selective editing and omission to create what she says was a false portrayal of her. Her complaint says she sat for roughly three and a half hours of interviews, while only about 16 minutes of that material appeared in the finished series.
A central dispute involves former ANTM contestant Shandi Sullivan and her account of a 2004 incident that she now describes as sexual assault. Banks’ lawsuit argues that the documentary was edited in a way that falsely suggested she knew about the alleged assault, failed to act and later could not remember the episode, while Netflix says the series does not make those claims and actually shows Banks recalling Sullivan.
Netflix also argued that Banks, as the creator, host and executive producer of America’s Next Top Model, is familiar with the kind of editorial discretion she is now challenging. The streamer said the filmmakers interviewed participants extensively, presented competing perspectives and will “vigorously defend” both the documentary and the people behind it.
Banks’ legal team has pushed back on the idea that the case is simply about wanting more screen time or creative control. Her lawyers have argued that the core issue is whether viewers received an accurate representation of what she said, and they have called on Netflix to release her full unedited interview so the public can compare it with the final cut.
Hogwarts Finds Its Most Charming Fraud as Nicholas Hoult Joins ‘Harry Potter’
August 12, 2026