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So your AI agents, they make the team that uses them more productive, right? But if they aren't connected to other agents or your data or your existing workflows, how productive can they really make your teams? Any business can add AI agents. IBM connects your agents across your company to change how you do business. Let's create Smart to Business IBM stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra durable LG X Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG X Boom and for a limited time save 25%@LG.com with code fall 25 bring the boom xboom there's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives. Where do you see the business actually heading? Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co Editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton. The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartradio app search daily Variety and listen. Brought to you by Progressive Insurance do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. We've all heard about ANTM's controversies, race swapping challenges, dangerous photo shoots, and we'll get into all that later in the season. But I want to tell you about one controversy that only the real fans know about. And it's the most telling of them all. It happened to one model who told me her story. I'm Angelea Preston. I am from Buffalo 716 all day. People may remember me from America's Next top model cycles 12, 14 and 17. The original winner of cycle 17 all stars, period. But if you look it up, Lisa D' Amato is the official winner of Cycle 17. So what happened? Well, to understand Angielee's story, the first thing you need to know is how hard she worked to even get cast on antm. It was Angelea's dream to be on the show she auditioned three times before making it. The first time, Angelee didn't even get a call back. The second time, angielee sent in an audition tape. The producer called me, was like, we want you to come to New York. New York City had never been to New York. So I go down there, and I had nowhere to sleep. I was just a girl with a dream. Come on, let me just go down here. This is my chance to see the casting director. Slept in the Port authority in the stall. It was so gross. Yes. I was so hungry. So hungry for it, girl. Angelie always knew she wanted to be a model. As a kid, she was teased for being tall and skinny. She knew in the modeling industry, her body type would be celebrated. Plus, she experienced a personal tragedy after her first audition that made her want it even more. I ended up getting pregnant with my daughter. So I kind of, like, put that dream on hold and was just like, okay, I'm going to just be a mom. Maybe the modeling ain't for me. My daughter passed away not too long after she was born, and this was in 2007. So I kind of took that as a sign, like, maybe I'm not supposed to be a mom yet. And then that's when I auditioned again. That was cycle 12. She didn't make it on the show. During the auditions, she got into a huge argument with another contestant. And I showed my ass in Vegas and got sent the fuck home. I got sent home. I was smiling. But Angeli was determined to make it on A and t M. So she auditioned again and finally made it into the house on cycle 14. Angelique quickly became a fan favorite. She's one of my favorites, too. Remember Alicia Keys in the early 2000s? Angelique kind of looks like her and has her vibe. But if Alicia Keys was loud and outgoing and didn't play the piano, but you get it. The same kind of homegirl vibe. And Angeli's hilarious. When I interviewed her, it was our first time meeting, but it felt like I was talking to an old friend. You ever met someone and just felt like they were born to be famous? That's Angeli. But all the controversy around her all star season overshadowed her charisma and talent. Before all stars, when she was on cycle 14, Angeli did well. She made it to the final four, but she was still a little rough around the edges. She got into it with a few girls on her season. Bitch. She's uneducated. I'm uneducated. I don't know. Are you why I'm uneducated. You know what? I really don't have time to waste. I went to a red book top 150 school, bitch. Look it up. That's nice. My name is Brenda, not bitch. It's really unfair that people assume that I'm uneducated because I talk this way. You uneducated and you ignorant and you rude. When the judges eliminated her on cycle 14, they said they were worried ANTM would be the end for her, not the beginning. But not too long after, producers reached out to invite her back on for cycle 17. It would be ANTM's first and only All Star season. They invited former ANTM contestants to compete against each other for the title of America's Next Top Model. This is an opportunity to do it right this time. And they're talking about the format is going to be different for All Stars. They're going to be branding us as celebrities and you're gonna get paid. Angielee decided to do it. This time. She was going to show a more poised side of herself. At first, the judges were like, where's the old Angelie? But eventually, her new approach paid off. When it came time to shoot the finale in Grease, the set was built and the cameras were rolling. Angelie and the other two finalists stood in front of Tyra, and Angeli's picture was the final one on the screen. Angeli was crowned the winner of antm. She burst into tears. Everything had been worth it. She'd finally won a win that came with a $100,000 CoverGirl contract. When I won first, I was happy. I was like, hell, yeah, I won. Yeah, yeah. My life has changed forever. Like, my mama gonna be taken care of. I'm gonna take care of her how she took care of me. I wish I could play you a clip of Angeli's win, but I can't because it never aired. Welcome to the curse of America's Next Top Model. I'm Bridget Armstrong. Last episode, we did a deep dive on Cycle one because it's the blueprint for what ANTM became, which was a mega hit. The production grew and so did the show's popularity. They were filming multiple cycles within the same calendar year, churning out winner after winner. They'd struck TV gold. In 2003, supermodel Tyra Banks had an idea for a reality show. She called it America's Next Top Model, where she and a panel of judges set out to find out the next it girl on the Runway. Fifteen years and 24 seasons later, the hit show has become the longest running reality fashion series airing in 73 countries. You go, girl. And the boss is back. And the show's success also meant it had a reputation to protect. They had more to lose. That's a big part of how Angeli ended up having her win revoked by A&M executives. ANTM never told viewers the real story behind Angeli's disqualification. Fans have wondered what really happened and and how the show was even allowed to take the title from a winner. And I'll tell you now, the reversal was completely within the show's rights because of the contract angielee signed. I've talked to more than a dozen former ANTM models and their contracts came up a lot. So on this episode, they'll take you back to who they were when they signed on the dotted line, tell you what they thought they were signing up for and what it actually turned out to be. And you'll hear the story behind one of ATMs most shocking controversies from the two models at the center of it. Despite Angeli being the first winner of ANTM All Stars, Lisa D'Amato's win is what actually aired on the show. There will be one final shot which will announce who America's Next Top Model is. Lisa, it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. You deserve this, Lisa. You are an original. You are a star. I called up Lisa D', Amato, the official winner of A&TM All Stars, to hear her side of the story. I have got receipts. I have got research. I've got names. I've got stories. These days, Lisa lives in Portugal. She's a mom of two sons and a caregiver to her father. She seems to be going through a nasty divorce. Lisa started a company that makes a food storage bib for toddlers. It was featured on Shark Tank. When she joined me, she was sitting outside on a noisy patio, possibly at a rental house she was staying at while her castle was being renovated. Honestly, it's a little hard to follow because our interview started out on a chaotic note, which felt on brand. But true to model form, Lisa looked great. Her hair wasn't that different than when she was first on antm. On Cycle five, she was rocking a dirty blonde asymmetrical bob. In fact, Lisa pretty much looks the same. Same deep set eyes, same big wide smile. But from the moment Lisa joined our call, she let me know she did not come to play. She's probably one of, if not the most publicly critical former ANTM contestants. We talked for almost four hours across two days. Lisa told me about what she sees as a pattern of manipulation from Tyra Banks and the ANTM producers. She said the show completely ruined her professional reputation. Lisa is one of the most infamous contestants to ever grace an ANTM set. The first time she appeared on the show in Cycle five, she was chaos personified. There was her perceived drinking problem that alienated her from a lot of the other contestants. Lisa drinks. She's going through, like, bottles of wine, like, whole bottles in less than 45 minutes. It's sick. Definitely think that Lisa's drinking is hurting her. The judges are not gonna want someone who's an alcoholic to represent America's Next Top Model. Her attitude and, like, her drinking and everything that she's doing here is just bizarre to me. And the time she peed in a diaper during a photo shoot with the guy from MTV's Jackass. Oh, my God. That's right. She's doing it, dude. You can totally see her. No woman of class, especially a supermodel in making, is gonna do something as disgusting as pee on herself at her job. She managed to shock Stevo, which is an amazing feat. Lisa didn't seem to get along with most of the girls on her season. She came off like a drunk, know it all. She was definitely one of that cycle's villains. But she made such great TV. ANTM brought her back for Cycle 17 All Stars. Despite the controversy around her winning that season, Lisa believes she was actually predetermined to win the whole thing. She thinks this because of something she says was in her contract. I actually signed the winning contract before even going on All Stars. My manager was told by production that every girl signed the winning contract. And I asked some of the girls while we were filming, and they said no. I was set up to win from the very beginning. That was all planned from the very beginning for the finale. She thinks the whole thing was an elaborate plot and that they never intended to give Angeli the win. They did. Angeli so dirty. Lisa says producers manufactured a fake win for Angeli. She said the finale set in Grease didn't even look complete. Lisa believes they leaked the alleged fake win to stir up controversy around the season and hopefully boost the ratings, which had dropped. It is true that news of Angeli's win had leaked before the finale aired. An ANTM producer told me that was the real reason the show picked a new winner and reshot the finale. They were worried no one would watch the season if they already knew the outcome. But angielee told me neither of those stories are correct. She told me she leaked the information about her win after it was revoked. According to angielee, the real reason ANTM producers stripped her of her win is much more disturbing. She says shortly after filming ended, she got a call. A week or two later, somebody from the network production called me and was like, you know, they want to have a meeting with you. And they basically told me, we can't air you as the winner because you violated your contract. There's a rumor that Angeli was disqualified because she spoke publicly about her win before it aired. The contract explicitly forbids contestants from doing that. But angielee says she didn't violate this part of the contract because, remember, she says she didn't leak her win until after it was revoked. Angielee says producers told her she breached the morality clause in her contract. The morality clause basically says producers can strip the winner of the prizes and title of America's Next Top Model if at any point before or after their win, they. They are caught or exposed doing something that causes public disgrace, outrage, embarrassment, or otherwise constitutes an act of moral turpitude. The examples the contract gives are getting arrested, charged, and or convicted of a crime or appearing in sexually explicit material. I know you're wondering, what exactly did Angelee do to violate the morality clause? And I promise you we're gonna get there. Whether you believe the rumor or angielee's story, what you need to know now is the outcome is the same. The contract states if a winning contestant breaches any part of the contract, ANTM producers have the right to strip them of their title in the winnings. So either way, she couldn't fight it, and she was heartbroken. Remember, angielee really wanted this. She auditioned for ANTM three times before getting cast on the show. I was bawling, I was crying, right? Obviously, because you guys just put a dagger through my heart. I done had all these plans for this money. This was gonna be my second, my third chance to make it right. I was gonna do right this time. And now you're basically telling me, nope, you just did all this for nothing. Again. I got my hands on a copy of that contract. And after the break, we take a look and find out what ANTM considered a moral violation. Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra durable LG X Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG x boom. And for a limited time, save 25%@LG.com with code fall25 bring the boom xboom there's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives. Where do you see the business actually heading? Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co Editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton. The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety and listen now. Malcolm Gladwell here. I recently recorded the first episode of Smart Talks with IBM where I learned how AI agents are joining AI assistants as a major productivity tool. Lets start with AI agents. AI agents can reason, plan and collaborate with other AI tools to autonomously perform tasks for a user. Brian Bitzel, an expert from IBM, gave me an example of how a college freshman might use an AI agent. As a new student, you may not know how do I deal with my health and wellness issue? How many credits am I going to get for this given class? You could talk to someone and find out some of that, but maybe it's a little bit sensitive and you don't want to do that, bissell told me. You could build an AI agent, a resource for new students that helps them navigate a new campus, register for classes, access the services they need, and even schedule appointments on their behalf, which in turn buys them more time to focus on their actual schoolwork. We can see patterns of how agents and assistants can help employees and customers and end users be more productive. Automate workflows so they're not doing certain types of repetitive work over and over again and streamlining their lives and making data more accessible to them 24 hours a day. To learn more about IBM's AI agents and how they can help your business, visit IBM.com agents. Let's be real life happens. Kids spill, pets shed and accidents are inevitable. Find a sofa that can keep up@washablesofas.com Starting at just $699, our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out so you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry free living. Made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics, they're kid proof, pet friendly and built for everyday life. Plus, changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want. Neat flexibility. Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa anytime to fit your space, whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment. Plus, they're earth friendly and trusted by over 200,000 happy customers. It's time to upgrade to a stress free mess proof sofa. Visit washablesofas.com today and save that's washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Contracts on reality TV are a pretty standard thing. The contracts ensure that the rights and obligations of talent and producers are clear. On the talent side, on a very basic level, it spells out the payment terms. And on production side, the contracts ensure cast members don't gossip and spoil the show before it comes out or divulge the behind the scenes production secrets. They also want to make sure the cast members can't sue if they don't like their edit once the show airs. Sophie Sumner is the model I talked to from ANTM's British Invasion season. That was the season where models from the UK competed against American models. She was the winner of that season, but before coming on ANTM she competed on Britain's Next Top Model and she told me the ANTM contract was a whole different beast. I do remember the American one being like, whoa. I swear the American one was literally like we own you for the rest of your life and everything you do. It was literally like what they said. I think Britain's was like, you gotta be on camera baby. Like you might make money after and we'll like take it for a year. I read an ANTM contract, actually a few of them, including one from cycle 17, and I agree with Sophie, it's whoa. When I talk to the rest of the models about their contracts, this idea of ANTM owning them kept coming up. Here's Yuvi Gomez from cycle four. I was like barely 21, just signing my life away. And Hannah Cat Jones, who was the second runner up on cycle 16. I felt like I was signing my soul away and I thought about how the opportunity would be life changing. So life changing that Hannah looked the other way on a particularly concerning clause in the contract. And another thing that was in the contract that I always remember standing out was if something happened to me on the show, if I got injured or even died, my family wouldn't be owed anything. If you're thinking, well, that probably just meant Hannah couldn't sue the show should something happen. I'm sure ANTM had insurance to cover the contestants. If they were hurt, you would be wrong. The contract made the contestants acknowledge that they were personally responsible for maintaining accident and health insurance to cover up any bodily injuries they suffered on set, while traveling or in housing provided by producers. Contestants had to acknowledge they were responsible for insurance to cover short and Long term disability and any insurance that would cover their deaths. They also had to irrevocably waive their right to sue the other contestants, the producers, the production company, the network and its subsidiaries should physical, emotional or mental injury occur or should they, you know, die because of something that happened on an ANTM set, Which is kind of wild when you remember that on Hannah's season, they did a photo shoot with live bees, a photo shoot in an actual landfill, and a Runway wearing gloves that had been set on fire. Sarah Hartshorn competed as a plus sized model on Cycle nine. She recently wrote a tell all book about her experiences on antm. She has a lot of perspective about ANTM now, but when she signed up for it, she didn't understand what she was getting into. At the time, we knew we were signing our life away, but I'm not sure I had the prefrontal cortex to really understand the ramifications of that. Sarah told me she wasn't the only one who had to sign. Anyone she planned to talk to while in the house also had to sign a contract. If you wanted to be able to call anyone on the phone while you were there, you had to have them basically sign their life away too. My boyfriend, my friends, I talked to my grandpa every week and he was like, I can't sign this. Like, I can't. And I was like, no, I know you're signing your life away. And he's like, no, you're signing your life rights away. Do you understand that? And I was like, I do not. Sarah's granddad was referring to a part of the contract that gave ANTM the right to depict Sara any way they wanted to, wherever they wanted to, or whenever they wanted to. Here's something strange UV Remembers in her contract. It said something wild like, we cannot talk about it on this planet or any other planet. It was something so odd. I was like, do they know something that we don't know? Actually, I want to read you the part of the contract UV and Sarah are talking about. So here are some verbatim quotes and bear with me, y'. All. This might be one of the longest sentences you've ever heard. I irrevocably grant and release Poddle. Poddle is Tyra and Ken Mock's production company in perpetuity and throughout the universe, the exclusive right to depict, portray and represent me and my life and all episodes, exploits, events, incidents, situations and experiences contained in or associated or related to my life, including, without limitation, my experiences in connection with the program, my life story, and yes, it actually says life Story in the contract. And the material in theatrical, motion pictures, television programs and series, theatrical stage, presentation, radio, Internet, websites, programs and presentations, other audio, visual, audio, visual and or print productions, books and other print publications, the production, reproduction, exhibition, broadcast, distribution, advertising, promotion and other exploitation of the productions in any and all media, whether now known or hereafter devised. Whew. Now, this didn't mean that after the show, ANTM could barge into the contestants home and film them eating dinner. What it meant was that any footage ANTM got of the contestants, whether it aired or not, could be used however and whenever ANTM wanted. And here's something disturbing. They could even use footage of the contestants partially clothed or naked, whether they were aware or unaware of such videotaping. To this day, Tyra and Kim Mox production company could use old ANTM footage and edit it in any way they wanted to. And the contestants can't sue. Signing this contract gives the production company the right to inaccurately portray the contestants to convey whatever story they want it to. Here's what the contract actually Poddle and producers may depict and portray me and my life story either accurately or with such liberties and modifications as producers determine necessary in their sole discretion for the purposes of fictionalization, dramatization, or any other purposes, including without limitation, to achieve a humorous or satirical effect and by means of actors who may or may not resemble me. Remember now, this is a reality TV contract. I asked a few crew members about this actor clause, and to my knowledge, the show never actually passed off an actor as one of the contestants. But let me explain a situation in which they could have used this clause. On Cycle four, according to a contestant, she had a loved one in a car accident and she wanted to leave the show asked her to stay for a few days so they could make a plan for writing her off. So she stayed until the next elimination, where of course, she was sent home. Now, one of the things the contract doesn't allow the show to do is physically restrain contestants or keep them on set when they're asking to leave. So if she had insisted on leaving the minute she got the news legally, the show could have replaced her with a look alike or a look similar. Now, signing this contract might sound worth it if you wanted to use your newfound fame to become a public figure. But there was a catch. ANTM contestants told me they couldn't derive money from the show for at least 10 years. They couldn't do a paid interview about ANTM, couldn't write a book about it, an article, make a YouTube video, anything for 10 years. The all Star season seemed to have a shorter window, but most of them were still under their contract from their first appearance. And there was an NDA. If you violated it, you could be fined up to $5 million. In Sarah Hartshorn's memoir, you Wanna Be on Top, she recounts how producers practically threatened her with this NDA. They told her that if she talked about her experience on antm, her wages would be garnished and her children's wages would be garnished and her children's children's wages would be garnished until that $5 million penalty was collected. Here's Gina Turner, who made it to the final two on cycle 24 after being eliminated and brought back. A lot of people are given hush orders. A lot of people are forced to shut up. We have a contract that states if you breach it, if you speak out, I don't know about other past contestants cycles. Mine was a contract breach of $4.5 million. Like, where do you think I'm going to put $4.5 million? Barely any supermodels to this day even make that amount of money. But it's like they use more of scare tactics and threatenings via the contract to, I think, convince people not to talk and not to speak. You may be wondering who in their right mind would sign this contract. And the answer is kids. These were naive teenagers and 20 somethings who were being offered the false promise of a career in the modeling industry. Sharron Brown was the first person eliminated on cycle 11. She was really cute with big bright eyes and an infectious smile. She looked super young because she was, she was 18, but she hadn't even graduated high school when she was on the show. I missed my prom, my graduation, all the senior festivities and everything to be on a Mary's retail Model. And actually the day that I got eliminated was the day of my graduation. Sarah Hartshorn was in college, but she'd barely watched television when she signed up for ANTM. I was 18 when I auditioned and 19 when we shot the show. I am from a town of 765 people. My graduating class was 15 kids. There is no TV in my hometown still to this day you can't get regular cable because the cables don't reach and it's too high up the mountain. And so I didn't know anything. You know, I had never seen any reality tv. Sarah went to college in Boston and that's when she was introduced to TV and antm. She remembers going to the Casting call and being told to do her best Runway walk. They were saying, well, you've all seen models walk the Runway. And I realized that the only models I'd ever seen walk a Runway was like the one season of Top Model that I'd watched before I was on the show. Kenya Hill was a finalist on Cycle four. I remember Kenya. She was my pick to win. When I was watching her season, I was 16, and to me, Kenya looked like a sophisticated adult. She had that sharp jawline and thousand watt smile that made her look like she belonged on a college brochure. I didn't realize it back then because to a high schooler, a college student looks like a sophisticated adult. But when Kenya was on the show, she was barely older than me. I was 17 years old. I was a freshman in college and I was living on campus. I actually auditioned for Top Model twice. I did the first audition while I was living in my dorms at school. And I had to go rent a VHS recorder, okay, we're talking ancient times. So I had to go rent one from like the campus's radio section and self tape, like me walking on the Runway, which was like the dorm at my school. And I remember having someone take some photos of me on a disposable camera because I had zero modeling experience. I just knew from watching America's Next Top Model the first, like two cycles that I needed to be on this show. Kenya wanted to be a model because it was one of the few places where she saw people who looked like her. And she thought the best way to get into the industry was to go on ANTM again. She was 17. I had always wanted to model. However, I was bullied pretty badly in junior high and in high school. In my community where I was living, it was cooler to be thick and curvy. And I was not that. Can we curse on this thing? I didn't have no ass, okay? And I felt like modeling is the one area where I'm accepted. Like, okay, I'm really slim, I'm tall, and I'll be able to thrive in this area. If you're like me, you would probably never go on a reality show. So it might be hard to understand why anyone would sign such a one sided contract. These days. The answer is generally fame and money. Nene Leakes of the Real Housewives of Atlanta reportedly made $2.85 million a season at her peak. But numbers like that are usually reserved for the biggest stars in reality TV. The cast of Love Island USA season seven allegedly got $1,500 a week. Now, no one's getting rich off that. But it is something to help with expenses back home while the show is in production. For most reality TV personalities, the big paycheck comes after the show. These days, they can roll their newfound fame into influencer status, and that means lucrative brand and endorsement deals. But here's what you have to remember about ANTM. The first 20 seasons of that show were shot before Instagram became popular. I mean, Kenya sent in a VHS tape for her audition. This was before reality TV contestants could cash in on becoming influencers. And back when ANTM was on, there were no standards for how much reality stars should get paid. There barely are today. The contracts the ANTM contestants signed outlined a per diem, a small daily stipend meant to cover essentials like personal items and food for when they were in the model house. The amount ranged from season to season. Sarah remembers hers being so low, she had to choose between eating and saving money. Most days we weren't getting paid except for a stipend that we had to use to pay for our own food. It was $37 a day. The exact amount differed from season to season. In fact, it laid that out in the eligibility requirements the contestants saw before auditioning. It said they would receive a per diem allowance with the amount to be determined by the producers. Sarah was paying her way through college. She'd lined up a summer job at a blueberry farm before she got on A and T M. She of course chose the show, but that meant she wasn't going to get those blueberry earnings. And so I got very obsessive about saving money and eating as cheaply as I could and eating as little as I could. If I, like, bought food that wasn't good, I had to throw it away. Like, that would be the end of the world. Here's Cycle two winner, Ioanna House. We were not paid. We were given a per diem. I believe it was like $50. And I saved the per diem because I stayed till the end of the show. So I never blew through my per diem. I saved it. And that was actually the money I used to move to New York was the per diems. By the time Gina Turner came around on the last season, the budgets were a bit tighter. Our per diem started at like $12 a day, and then if you made it past the next following elimination, it got bumped up to like $1920 a day. And then if you made it past another one and it was $24 a day, if that so it was like gradually increasing the more that you made it. But it's not like you can pocket any of that money. We live in the hills, in la. Everything is expensive. And then people don't understand we're paying for our own food. And then not only that, we didn't have a washer and dryer in our house. And so they even had to pay to get their laundry done. There are people who would say, well, this is what they signed up for. Their payment was the opportunity to be on the show. In fact, Sarah Hartshorn got this very comment from someone on Twitter and I was like, no, we got $40 a day and we had to use that to pay for our own food. That was the tweet. And people were like a surprised to hear that. But also they were so mad at me. There were so many people who replied to that tweet like, you knew what you were getting into. You got paid in exposure. You're just bitter that you didn't win. And I'm like, I'm not bitter that I didn't win. I'm bitter that there were a lot of girls who couldn't afford the mental health help that they needed after the show. I've been so surprised by the backlash when I have said that I think we deserve to be paid. It feels so not controversial to say I think people should be paid for their work. That's interesting because according to antm, their contestants weren't employees. That's how they were able to avoid paying them a real wage. Even though they showed up on set for 12 plus hour days, it made Tyra and the network a lot of money. They signed a contract that only entitled them to a minuscule per diem. Now, to a teenager in the early 2000s, a few hundred dollars might seem like a lot of money. Kenya Hill made it to the finals on her season, which meant she went on the international trip to South Africa. But best believe, by the time we got to South Africa, I spent all that money shopping. I definitely spent that money. But later on, like a couple years after doing the show, I remember feeling like this sucks. Like this show now is blowing up and it is in over 170 countries and we don't make a dollar off of this. And so it just at that point, like after I saw like how big this show really was, it felt like they get to make money off of my likeness forever. Just a little context. In 2009, two years after Sarah went on the show, Tyra Banks was on the Forbes top Earning women in primetime. Listen. She reportedly made $30 million between ANTM and her talk show in one year. Of course, ANTM was Tyra's idea and she was the star, so she deserved to make the most money from it. But damn, she couldn't break the models off a little thousand dollars or something. You might be like the people who clap back at Sarah online and disagree with me. There are a lot of people who say per the contract they signed, the only contestants who deserved to make money from ANTM were the winners. Except there are a few winners who also didn't get paid. You cycle two, if you Google ANCM's best photo, her iconic helmet photo shoot, where her hair is swept up and she's just serving face, still comes up to this day. She's definitely one of the faces of antm. But you may be surprised to know she didn't win any money from the show. It was just a contract. And then there was a contract with Sephora, and that was only for a short time. There was no financial reward. There was nothing as far as monetary compensation. Nothing. Ioana's agency representation did mean it was easier to book jobs, but she couldn't use any of her top model portfolio photos because they were too unrealistic. Which meant that after her win Yuan, she had to move to New York and immediately start booking test photo shoots. I had to test that day, go to some incredible photographers that have been doing international Vogues and start testing. And I was getting billed for everything. I was getting billed for every car, for every press event. I was getting billed for the testing, I was getting billed for the dresses that I thought were given to me. And that was me not asking, thinking, oh, this is so cool, they're making sure I'm dressed. No, everything was billed, so. So after a month of doing a press tour, you know, having these interviews and having to look like a million dollars, then comes the bills. So now I'm having to pay and I'm in debt and I don't have a place to stay. I'm living on a couch from a makeup artist who extended their couch for me. And yet I'm like, famous, and everywhere I go, people are wanting my autograph, taking pictures with me. And it was a very stressful time. And not only that, her win meant she had to continue to promote ANTM after her season ended. I also had to do a lot of continual press for the show and it was not paid. So that would take precedence over any sort of jobs or castings that would pay Tyra owned me for that year. The network owned me for that year. That's where the frustration came. I started getting angry. I started kind of almost not liking the show anymore, and it was really hard to not get kind of in that head space of being bitter towards the show because I'm like, okay, you spit me out as a winner. I won it, rightfully so. And now I'm having to look and be a million bucks, but I'm not making any money right now. On cycle three, the cycle after Ioanas top models started awarding the $100,000 prize. Eva Marcille, who went by Eva Pickford back then, was the first winner to get it. But ANTM was not contractually obligated to give any winner anything, even if the prize was announced on the show. As we heard last episode, Cycle one winner Adrianne Curry says she didn't get what she was owed. The contract was very clear that these prizes were given at the producer's discretion and they didn't have to live up to what was promised on the show. Here's another thing. In the contract, producers could take a win from a contestant and award it to someone else. Even if they taped the finale episode, crowned the model the winner, and sent them home to wait for the prizes. There were clauses that protected the producers if they decided to strip the winner of their title and the contestant couldn't do anything about it. Which is exactly what happened to Angelea Preston during the All Star season of Top Model. Coming up, you'll hear the disturbing truth about Angielee's revoked win. Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra durable LG X Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because, let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG XBoom and for a limited time, save 25%@LG.com with code fall25 bring the boom XBoom there's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives. Where do you see the business actually heading? Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co Editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton. The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety and listen now. Malcolm Glabel here. I recently recorded the first episode of Smart talks with IBM, where I learned how AI agents are joining AI assistants as a major productivity tool. Let's start with AI agents. AI agents can reason, plan, and collaborate with other AI tools to autonomously perform tasks for a user. Brian Bitzel, an expert from IBM, gave me an example of how a college freshman might use an AI agent As a new student, you may not know how do I deal with my health and wellness issue? How many credits am I going to get for this given class? You could talk to someone and find out some of that, but maybe it's a little bit sensitive and you don't want to do that, bissell told me. You could build an AI agent, a resource for new students that helps them navigate a new campus, register for classes, access the services they need, and even schedule appointments on their behalf, which in turn buys them more time to focus on their actual schoolwork. We can see patterns of how agents and assistants can help employees and customers and end users be more productive. Automate workflows so they're not doing certain types of repetitive work over and over again and streamlining their lives and making data more accessible to them 24 hours a day. To learn more about IBM's AI agents and how they can help your business, visit IBM.com, agents Life's messy. We're talking spills, stains, pets and kids. But with Anabe, you never have to stress about Messes again. @washablesofas.com Discover Annabe Sofas the only fully machine washable sofas inside and out starting at just $699. Made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics, that means fewer stains and more peace of mind. Designed for real life, our sofas feature changeable fabric covers, allowing you to refresh your style anytime. Need flexibility? Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa effortlessly. Perfect for cozy apartments or spacious homes. Plus, they're earth friendly and built to last. That's why over 200,000 happy customers have made the switch. Upgrade your space today. Visit washablesofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. When I won first I was happy. I was like hell yeah, I won. Yeah yeah. My life has changed forever. Like my mama gonna be taken care of. I'm gonna take care of her. How she took care of me. That's Angelea Preston talking about how she felt after winning antm. I told you the story at the top of this episode about how angielee was originally Given the crown at the end of season 17. My team has talked to contestants and crew who were there when Angeli was named the winner. Even the official winner, Lisa d', Amato remembers Angeli's face. After Angeli won and they were heading home. I remember in the airport, Angelie looked finally at peace, like her chin was held so high. She was so proud of herself. But Angeli being the original winner is about the only thing they agree on in this story. Here's what Angelique says happened after she went home. I got a phone call from somebody associated with the show maybe like a week or two later and was like, hey, have you been telling any of the girls about what happened to you? Here's what happened to Angelee, the thing that got her disqualified after her first full season, cycle 14. Angelie was trying to start her modeling career. She had trouble booking jobs. She'd done well in the competition, but the edit made her seem difficult to work with. Like a loose cannon. She couldn't get signed with an agency. She also had trouble finding a regular job. Things got bleak, and she got desperate. One day, she was in Queens with. Walking with a model friend she'd met in New York. We were just walking down Jamaica Ave. The ave. Just two lost models, not knowing where to go, what to do. And this guy pulls up. He pulled up in this nice Mercedes, and I was just looking real regular. And he got out. The car had nice shoes, silk channel. Like, he looked like somebody. And he was like, you know, trying to cap. Trying to talk to me. He got her number, and they started talking, But Angelea said something felt off. He started asking her about how she made money, because I was telling him, yeah, I got money problems. Like, I'm a struggling model. And he, like, mentioned something about, like, going on dates. And I was like, what the fuck? This is like some models Inc. Shit. Like, I heard about models, you know, being escorts or whatnot, But I didn't think this shit was real. So that kind of turned me off. She stopped talking to him for a while, Even booked a modeling job that paid her $500. But when that ran out, curiosity just peaked and ended up texting him. I was like, are you a pimp? And he was like, are you a hoe? I was like, what? No. I was so offended. And he was like, look, the girls I have, they just make money. So I'm like, but is there, like, sex involved? And he was like, no, you don't have to sleep with anybody if you don't want to. My dumb Ass believing it. Like, oh, my God. A world where you go on dates with guys and they just give you money because you're beautiful. Angelique was 25 at this point, but she told me she was really naive. Buffalo was a small town compared to New York City, and she was about to become a cautionary tale. I ended up meeting two of his girls. They were, like, in this, like, ritzy Manhattan hotel. One of the girls had a cute little dog. They had Louis bags. Oh, they were giving makeup, hair, Louboutin shoes, Rolex. And I'm like, dang, these girls ain't gotta sleep with these guys to get all this. I could do that. I could be pretty and go on dates and get the bag. She told Silk shirt she was down. We ended up flying to North Carolina. And I hadn't tell anybody what I was doing, you know? Cause I was like, well, I'm just. I'm just going on a modeling trip, you know? Cause I don't want nobody to worry. Cause at the time, I wasn't worried myself. And when I got there, the girls, the same two girls I had met, they were like, they're going to the strip club. They were going there to pick up clients. And I was like, oh. I was like, I don't want to go to the strip club. And so they looked at me like I was crazy. Like, I didn't have a choice. The one girl was like, I don't know what you think this is, but he is going to expect you to. To work. And I'm like, work? And they were like, yeah. And I'm like, so y'. All. Y' all be having sex with these people for money? What the fuck did I get myself into? So I'm like, okay, well, I don't got no money. I'm already here. I can't get signed. I done gave up on modeling. I had given up on my dream. I thought it was over for me with the modeling. And I'm like, shit, I need money, and I'm here. Why not? And I don't want to tell anybody. Look, I done got in this situation because it was embarrassing. And I didn't want people to be worried. And I didn't want people to be like, I'll pay for your ticket home. Because I'm like, well, I'm going to go back to New York. And then I got nothing. I'm back to square one anyway, so I might as well try and make some money. Angelea was so lost and dejected, she didn't even think about the danger she was in. Not even just putting my body on the line, but just meeting up with strangers, you know, no protection, like I could have been killed. The fear only started kicking in when they went to Vegas and she was worried about getting arrested. I didn't, of course, want people to know I didn't want to go to jail. You know, this girl's on Top Model and now looking around here, doing this crazy shit, right? She told Silk Shirt she wanted out. He said, I'm gonna pay for your flight to go back to New York, but you have to work. Angeli didn't have the money to leave on her own. Plus, she was scared because he'd threatened her and he'd been physically abusive before. Two of her friends eventually found out what was happening to her. One of those friends lived in Vegas. Angeli had actually met her on Top Model. She won Angelique's season. That friend got Angelique to call her sister and tell her what was going on. Her sister thought she was on drugs. Angeli was still too afraid to tell her best friend. He kept me away from New York because there were people like my best friend that cared about me, and he didn't want me to go and have some sense being knocked into my head. The guy eventually took Angelea to New York, but to work. Angelea says it had been a month since she left New York to go to North Carolina. Her Top Model friend says it was longer. When Angelee got back to New York, she finally called that best friend. She was too afraid to tell. I was out in a hotel in Long island, and she was like, just meet me at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. I just want to know you are okay. I said, okay, cool. I said, I got my bag here, though. She said, just leave your bag. Just leave your bag. I'll take it over and get it. So I took the Long island railroad, went to go meet her, and she said, bitch. Like, I gave her the longest hug. She's like, bitch, you ain't going back. And that's how Angelique got out, through the kindness of a friend who wouldn't take no for an answer. The whole ordeal was short, but she learned a lifetime of lessons. A few months later, she got that call from ANTM All Stars. It was the lifeline she'd needed months before Angelea signed on to do the season. But she was worried the producers would find out about that chapter in her life. That fear was confirmed when she met up with casting director Michelle Mock, ended up having to go to LA to meet with Michelle. So when I met with her, it was film. There was a camera there. And she's like, so what have you been up to? I was like, oh, you know, nothing. Just modeling. And she was like, that's it. In my mind, I'm like, oh, she knows something. She knows something. And I'm like, yeah, that's it. And she asked me. She flat out asked me, was I being pinned? Angeli lied, told her no, because she thought if she told the truth, they wouldn't let her back on the show. But her mind started racing to figure out who snitched. Remember I said two of her friends knew about the situation when she went to Vegas. Well, the one who'd been an ANTM contestant with Angeli said she reached out to Top Model producers, crew members, Tyra's assistant, and Tyra herself to try to get Angeli out of that situation. The friend said she didn't get much of a response. So this was AngieLee's first time hearing that anyone from the show other than her friend knew anything about what she'd been through. She thought for sure she was going home. So she sat in her hotel waiting for her plane ticket back to New York. Before we went in the house, we were in the hotel. Michelle came by with someone else and was like, I just want to tell you I know what happened. I just want you to take this opportunity and run with it. She gave me a hug, and I was like, okay, this is our little secret. Angeli believes she genuinely wanted to keep it between them so she could have another chance. And it also almost worked. Angeli won. Then the whole thing blew up. A week or two later, somebody from the network production called me and was like, you know, they want to have a meeting with you in. In New York City. Because at this time, I was back in Buffalo with my family. They want to have a meeting with you to discuss sponsorships because you are the winner. I said, okay. When I got down there, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. I'll never forget Columbus Circle. I walked up in that room. The attorney was there from CBS. Laura Fuchs was there. Michelle Mock was there. Dr. Zachary was there. That's the show. Psychologist Ken Mock wasn't there, but they. They put his ass on the phone, and they basically told me, we can't air you as the winner. Angeli says the execs told her being trafficked violated the morality clause. Of course, they didn't use the word trafficked, but that's what I'm calling it. And her violating that part of the contract meant she wouldn't be getting the $100,000 or any of the other prizes. We don't know how the other execs found out about what happened to Angelique, but if her Top Model friend called people who worked on the show to get Angeli some help, then there were several people who potentially knew about her situation. Angielee thinks it was another friend she confided in. Off show. The guy was a photographer and knew some of the Top Model girls. Angeli thinks he blabbed to them. One of them ended up on All Stars. And angielee says when she got eliminated before Angeli, she complained that that she couldn't believe Top Model was going to, quote, let a prostitute win. That's angielee's theory, and we can't confirm that that was the real reason. We just know the cat was out of the bag. After they gave Angeli the bad news, producers flew Lisa d' Amato and Alison Harvard in to tape a new finale with Lisa as the winner. Lisa says when they flew into la, she and Alison had a talk with Ken Mock before the reshoot. She says he separated them and asked them what projects they were working on and what they would do if they won the show. Then she says, he had a conversation with them both. He goes, don't you fucking say a word about this reshoot. And he put his finger in our faces. Me and Allison were standing right next to each other in the hallway, and he goes, both of you don't say a fucking word. Do you hear me? Like, threatened us. Then we got driven to the studio in the Valley, and it was the same set that they were shooting cycle 18. Lisa says the next season was already in production, and they used that set to tape the new finale. The whole thing was done in a day, and Lisa was the new and official winner of cycle 17. In a way, both Angielee and Lisa fell victim to the ANTM curse. Because even though Lisa was given the title, she didn't enjoy her win. It had a dark cloud over it. When the finale of cycle 17 finally aired, Angeli's win had already leaked, and Angeli wasn't there for the reshoot. So the judges had to address Angeli's absence. Well, we're back in Los Angeles on the Top Model set, and we're here for a second special finale that's being conducted under unusual circumstances. Yeah, it turns out that after shooting was wrapped, our production team and the network learned information from Angeli that disqualifies her from the competition. So what does that mean? Well, it means we're now going to do our final judging with the remaining two girls. And in the interest of fairness, the producers and the network thought it best to evaluate Alice and Lisa on their own without the added competition of Angeli. You know what, guys? We wish Angeli the best in all her future endeavors. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So are we ready to proceed with our final judging? Yes. Let's do this. Are you ready? Yes. All right. That statement overshadowed Lisa's victory. Fans were angry because Angeli was a fan favorite and Lisa was not. I got so much backlash after winning All Stars. Oh, my God. Everyone thought that I paid somebody off, that I blackmailed somebody, that I just stole her win. That was undeserving. It's like, you don't know my story. Nobody knew my story. Nobody knew what I had gone through my whole life leading up to that point. It was so devastating to get the backlash again when I went on that show to redeem myself. And the way that they also weaponized this whole finale, that also really hurt me as well. Lisa was the villain all over again. I think that's why she clings to this story that she was always going to be the winner, whether it's true or not. It eases the sting of her win being Angeli's misfortune. Lisa may have gotten the America's Next Top Model title and the $100,000, but she never got to redeem her image. She still gets hate mail to this day. Angeli was devastated for a long time. She tried to sue ANTM for $3 million, but eventually dropped the suit when she realized the contract she signed was ironclad. She didn't have a leg to stand on. She thought signing that contract was going to make her dreams come true, but it ended up being her nightmare. Angeli eventually gave up on modeling. She was getting older, and the damage was done. But she found a new dream. She went to college, got a bachelor's degree in journalism. She's the first person in her family to finish college. After graduation, she got a job as a host and reporter at her local public radio station. Today, she's a working journalist and a mom in her hometown, the 716, Buffalo, New York. I don't think Angeli, Lisa, or any of the other models I spoke with thought their ANTM journeys would end up like this. When they sent in those audition tapes and signed the contracts, they thought they were getting a head start in the fashion industry. They certainly didn't think they would be talking to me 20 years later about how the show still haunts them. As this podcast continues, you're going to hear more from the models as they tell you about the experiences that have stuck with them. These contestants weren't just Tyrus props, they were real people. Real people whose NDAs have finally expired and they want to tell their side of the story. On the next episode, we're going to get into one of the most disturbing parts of ATMs casting process. I'm talking about the psychiatric evaluations. Psych evals are standard in reality tv. They're used to make sure a potential cast member is mentally capable of handling the stress of being on reality TV. But what I've been told about ANTM's psych evals raises serious ethical questions. Contestants told me about deep personal trauma they shared that was later used by producers to manipulate them them. I've also heard about possible bias that kept certain contestants out and let others slip through the cracks, some of whom met tragic ends after their time on antm. Thanks for listening to the Curse of America's Next Top Model. We really appreciate the support. We'd love for you to really show your support by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to leave us a five star star rating and review. If you love the show, tell your group chat, your co workers, your friends, your mama to check us out. And if you don't, maybe keep that one to yourself. Thanks again to all of our listeners. The Curse of America's Next Top Model is a production of Glass Podcast, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart podcast. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass, hosted and senior produced by by me, Bridget Armstrong. Our story editor is Monique Laborde. Also produced by Ben Federman and Andrea Gunning. Associate producers are Alicia Key, Kristen Melcurry and Curry Richman. Consulting producers are Oliver Twixt and Kate Taylor. Our iHeart team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krynczyk. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Callaway and Matt Del Vecchio. The Curse of America's Next Top Model theme music was composed by Oliver Baines Music Library provided by My Music. Special thanks to everyone we interviewed for this podcast, especially the models for sharing their stories and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out the Glass Podcast, Instagram Lasspodcast for Curse of America's Next Top Model behind the scenes content and more. Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the Boom. Hit the town with the ultra durable LG X Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG XBoom and for a limited time save 25% at LG.com with code fall25 bring the boom x Boom There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives. Where do you see the business actually headed? Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co Editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton. The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety and listen now. Every day has a to do list, but adding Enjoy Belvita to yours can help you knock out the rest of it. 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