Tyra Banks has no current plans to bring “America's Next Top Model” back

A source familiar with the situation tells EW Banks is focused on building her ice cream empire SMiZE & DREAM.

Just like cycle 5 star Bre Scullark's granola bars, the prospect of America's Next Top Model returning for new episodes is stolen — at least for now.

A source familiar with the situation exclusively tells Entertainment Weekly that ANTM host and producer Tyra Banks has no current plans to bring the reality competition series back for another cycle, as the 50-year-old supermodel and mogul is focused on building her SMiZE & DREAM ice cream empire.

The news comes six years after Banks told EW in a 2018 interview for her role in Life-Size 2 that she considered bringing ANTM back for cycle 25 — which she indicated would be its last, and could even be the franchise's second all-star cycle featuring fan-favorite contestants from the past.

ANTM celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, after Banks transitioned her supermodel career into TV stardom on cycle 1 all the way back in 2003 on UPN. The show — which aimed to find fashion's next big muse via a series of photo and runway challenges — ultimately became a pop culture phenomenon, spawning dozens of international iterations (some of which produced legitimate supermodels like Australia's Alice Burdeu).

Top Model shifted network homes multiple times throughout its run, eventually moving from UPN to The CW for cycle 7 in 2006. It was announced in 2015 that cycle 22 would be the show's last, though Banks later revived the program and remixed its format for cycle 23's premiere on VH1. The show lasted one more season on the network, before going on an indefinite hiatus following the cycle 24 finale in 2018, after which it was never formally canceled. Banks also stepped down as host for cycle 23, relinquishing the reins to pop star Rita Ora for a single season before returning to the panel for cycle 24.

Banks also previously told EW she nearly quit ANTM ahead of its eighth cycle, and even auditioned another supermodel to take her place on the panel.

"I went to [my lawyer] and I was like, you know what, I’m ready to bring someone else in. I won’t say the name of that person, but I actually brought a different person to the network, met with them, and said, ‘This is the person I want to take the reins of this show,'" Banks said at the time. "It was very early. My lawyer held an intervention of sorts, and said, ‘What are you doing? You created this show. It’s starting to get traction around the entire world. I beg of you not to do this.’ But, I was so tired. I was like, fine, fine, I’ll just continue. I called [my potential replacement] and said, ‘We’re not going to have you do this for now.’ It’s something that’s been on the tip of my fingers for so long, so it wasn’t necessarily difficult [to let go]. It was actually exciting."

Recently, Banks told PEOPLE she cultivated a persona at the head of the ANTM judging table that's drastically different from her real-life energy. “It's a character,” she told the publication. “It's not me in real life at all."

Though it became a widely popular reality TV staple at the height of its run, America's Next Top Model also courted controversy on the air — particularly for two photo shoots that tasked the models with switching races, which contestant Jennifer An previously told EW made her uncomfortable during filming.

Banks eventually addressed the controversy on an episode of her Emmy-winning Tyra Banks Show talk series, and in more recent years on social media, where she wrote, "Looking back, those were some really off choices. Appreciate your honest feedback and am sending so much love and virtual hugs."

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• America's Next Top Model contestants address switching races for shoots: 'This is uncomfortable'

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.