“America’s Next Top Model,” created by supermodel Tyra Banks, premiered in May 2003, and ran for 24 seasons on three different networks. Banks’ initial conception — as recounted in “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” a three-part docuseries streaming on Netflix on Feb. 16 — was for the competition aspect of “American Idol” to be mated with the communal living documentary treatment of “The Real World,” set within the world of fashion. She developed the series with showrunner Ken Mok and took it out to pitch: Every network said no, except for UPN, the least-watched of the broadcasters.
There, “America’s Next Top Model” became a watercooler, word-of-mouth hit, and
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