7 Documentaries To Stream Now If You Loved Netflix's America's Next Top Model Exposé

Netflix’s hit documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model provided viewers with a fascinatingly grim journey back to the early 2000s.

The three-part series explored the harmful beauty standards, racial insensitivities and near-non-existent duty of care that dominated Tyra Banks’ reality competition, which promised the world to hopeful young women.

As stories continue to emerge about that morally-dubious era of showbiz, a wave of documentaries offering candid interviews and behind-the-scenes revelations has been building momentum in recent history.

We’ve put together seven of the best to stream now if you’re looking for your next watch after Netflix’s Top Model doc…

Boybands Forever

You can always count on Louis Theroux and his production company, Made By Mindhouse, to put together an absolute corker.

Boybands Forever takes viewers through the recent history of boybands, beginning with 90s sensations New Kids On The Block and Take That all the way up to Blue and Westlife.

Talking heads include band members like Robbie Williams and Brian McFadden as well as industry bods and journalists like Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh, as the series explores how ambition, fame and achieving heartthrob status all muddied together with tabloid culture to create something not everyone signed up for.

Stream it on: BBC iPlayer

Fit For TV: The Reality Of The Biggest Loser

Another documentary that shines a light on the 2000s frenzied obsession with weight loss, Netflix’s three-part series Fit For TV tells the story of US reality show The Biggest Loser.

Just like Inside America’s Next Top Model, former Biggest Loser contestants reflected on their journeys for the doc, sharing horror stories about their attempt to win the televised competition, as the humiliation rituals and dangerous practices of the show are laid out plainly.

Netflix also speaks to Biggest Loser’s producers, building a 360 picture of how such a show ever existed, let alone become such a phenomenon.

Stream it on: Netflix

Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star

Dating shows are perhaps one of the most morally-dubious – yet richest – wells for reality TV creators.

While the darker side of modern shows like Love Island and Married At First Sight has already been well-documented, Miriam: Death Of A Reality stars tells the story of a woman at the centre of one of the first shows of its kind – and its tragic ending.

Miriam Rivera was the star of 2004 series There’s Something About Miriam, which used the fact she was transgender as a “reveal” at the end of the show.

This documentary tracks how the show came together as well as the devastating effects it left in its wake.

Stream it on: Channel 4

The Bachelor Of Buckingham Palace

One for the podcast fans – The Bachelor Of Buckingham Palace is a truly wild ride. 

The audio series delves into the wild 2014 reality show I Wanna Marry Harry, in which they duped 12 American women into believing they were competing to fall in love with Prince Harry – The Bachelor style. The only thing was, it wasn’t Prince Harry at all but a very loose lookalike, and regular bloke called Matthew Hicks.

Released in 2014, The Bachelor Of Buckingham Palace goes through the series episode-by-episode, interviewing Matthew, as well as the contestants and the show’s creators to unearth the truth behind the headlines.

Stream it on: BBC Sounds

Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam

A dream crossover for fans of both true crime and music, Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam tells the story of boyband mogul Lou Pearlman, who was behind the huge success of groups like ’N Sync and Backstreet Boys.

The true crime connection? He was also running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in US history, which landed him in prison with a hefty 25-year sentence after conning investors out of over $300 million.

Stream it on: Netflix

Pamela, A Love Story

There’s a reason why Pamela Anderson’s documentary boasts an enviable near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes.

In the film, Pamela retells her life in her own words after years of dodgy interpretations and the media doing it for her.

Over the course of the doc, we’re taken through the Baywatch star’s rise to fame in the 1990s, the misogyny she had to endure and the damaging relationships that she weathered to get to where she is today.

The documentary marked a way of Pamela reclaiming her voice after the polarising miniseriesPam & Tommy was made without her involvement.

Stream it on: Netflix

Jerry Springer: Fights Camera Action

So popular and everpresent was the Jerry Springer Show that chants of “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” even made it into everyday vocabulary over the pond for when something was kicking off.

The talk show, synonymous with outrageous topics and on-screen fighting between guests, essentially became a televised circus act with increasingly slippery morals. This documentary interviews guests and creators alike to examine what on earth it was all about. 

Stream it on: Netflix