Sherri Shepherd gives a passionate defense of Tyra Banks amid ‘Reality Check’ backlash: ‘Have to understand the time’

Sherri Shepherd addresses the backlash at Tyra Banks following “Reality Check” and shares insights into the entertainment industry.

After Tyra Banks began facing renewed backlash following the release of Netflix’s new documentary “Reality Check: America’s Next Top Model,” Sherri Shepherd is urging viewers to consider the era in which the show was created.

In a clip of her show “Sherri” teasing her upcoming interview with former “ANTM” judges Jay Manuel, Miss J, and Nigel Barker, the 58-year-old host addressed the criticism head-on after playing a segment featuring cycle 6 winner Dani Evans reflecting on her experience.

“This is such a hard one,” Shepherd said. “I understand why people are mad. I do understand. But you also have to understand the time that this all happened was in 2003. Reality TV was the wild, wild West.”

Shepherd pointed to other early 2000s franchises — from “Survivor” to “Fear Factor,” “American Idol,” and “The Real World” — that thrived on shock value as networks competed to outdo one another. Within that landscape, she said, Banks was navigating uncharted territory as a young Black woman at the helm of a major franchise.

“We’re trying to compare a time today, when we know a lot, to a time when there was nothing like this show on the air,” Shepherd said. “We’re not taking into account the battles that this Black woman had to fight just to stay on the air.”

She added, “There’s a lot of stuff that we did not know back then that would not have happened if this show aired today.”

In the years since “ANTM” first premiered, reality television has evolved. Many productions now employ mental health professionals, intimacy coordinators and stricter alcohol policies. There is also greater awareness around inclusive casting and culturally competent hair and makeup teams — areas that, Shepherd said, were once major blind spots.

Discussing season one contestant Ebony, who received a controversial haircut and was labeled the “angry Black woman,” Shepherd said, “We didn’t have the sensitivities behind the scenes back then that we do now. Nowadays, if you have Black talent, they make sure to get Black stylists. That’s what we had to fight for.”

Shepherd then shared her own experience from early in her career.

“There was a time I did a show and the white stylist thought my hair was too oily,” she recalled. “He poured a whole tub of baby powder on my hair and then took a curling iron to it. I was a young Black girl. I wanted the job, so I didn’t have the power to say ‘stop.’ I do now.”

Ultimately, Shepherd, who became emotional at one point during the speech, acknowledged the show’s flaws while urging context.

“I’m not saying that the show didn’t do terrible things, because it did,” she said. “But think about it in the context of when it happened. There was no social media to hold people accountable. There were no intimacy coaches, no psychologists. It was a different time, and there were battles she was fighting because you’re always thinking about the long game. I want the show to stay on the air. I want more Black women to come on.”