Tyra Banks Accused of Paying ANTM Contestants $38 Per Day as She Made $18M From the Show—Models Being ‘Hungry’ & ‘Sleep-deprived’ Made For ‘Better TV’
Jason Pham
She wanted to be on top, and she made it. As one of the highest-paid models in the world, Tyra Banks‘ net worth is in the eight figures. But at what cost?
Banks, whose full name is Tyra Lynne Banks, was born on December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California. She started modeling at 15 years old and was signed to Elite Model Management at 16 when she got the opportunity to move to Milan. She booked 25 shows in her first runway season. Fast forward to 2003, and her successful career as a model led her to create, executive produce, and host her own modeling reality TV competition series, America’s Next Top Model, which ran for 15 years before its cancellation in 2018.
In 2026, Banks and America’s Top Model were the subject of Netflix’s documentary, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, in which Banks was criticized the show’s production, which included seemingly fat-shaming contestants, filming contestants as they had sex, putting contestants in blackface for photoshoots, and emotional abuse.
“I went too far,” Banks said in the documentary. “I lost it. It was probably bigger than her. It was family, friends, society, Black girls, all the challenges that we have. So many people saying that we’re not good enough. I think all that was in that moment. That’s some Black girl stuff that goes real deep inside of me. But I knew I went too far.” But how far did she go for her worth?
What’s Tyra Banks’ net worth?
Banks is worth $90 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Along with what she made from America’s Next Model, The Tyra Banks Show, and her contract as a Victoria’s Secret Angel, Banks’ net worth also accounts for her top model career with Elite Model Management, for which she appeared on the covers of magazines like Vogue, Elle, and Sports Illustrated (becoming the first Black model to do so solo in 1997).
She also walked in fashon shows for labels like Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Valentino, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, and Michael Kors, as well as appeared in advertising campaigns for brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Escada, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, H&M, Swatch, Versace, Christian Lacroix, Got Milk?, Pepsi, and Nike.
Banks’ net worth also accounts for her successful acting career on shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and movies like Love & Basketball and Life-Size. She also served as the host of Dancing With the Stars and America’s Got Talent. Forbes listed Banks as one of the top five models in the world for three years, starting with $5.5 million in 2000, $4 million in 2004, and $6 million in 2005.
How much did Tyra Banks make from America’s Next Top Model?
Banks was the creator, executive producer, and host of America’s Next Top Model for all 24 of its seasons aside from Season 23, where Rita Ora replaced her. Banks made an estimated salary of $18 million per year on America’s Next Top Model, according to a 2008 report by The Hollywood Reporter.
Banks came under fire in 2021 when Sarah Hartshorne, a contestant on America’s Next Top Model Season 9, claimed that she and other contestants were only given $38 each day to pay for their own food while Banks made millions off the show. “We were not paid at all for being on the show,” Hartshorne said. “We were given a $38 daily cash stipend that we had to use to pay for our own food. And they didn’t even give us a microwave to heat the food up.”
She continued, “Production kept us in the dark about almost everything because they wanted to keep us on edge. Us being confused, tired, stressed, sleep-deprived and hungry just made for better TV. We never knew where we were going at any given time. They would transport us from place to place in a windowless van and we’d have to face every situation totally clueless and out of sorts.”
How much did Tyra Banks make from The Tyra Banks Show?
Banks hosted her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, for five seasons. She also served as the creator and executive producer of the show. She earned two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Informative Talk Show as the creator of the series.
While Banks’ exact salary for The Tyra Banks Show hasn’t been confirmed, Forbes reported in 2009 that Banks made $30 million that year for her work on America’s Next Top Model, as well as her talk show, and her other primetime shows, ABC’s True Beauty and The CW’s Stylista, both of which she served as a producer on. Given that she made a reported $18 million on America’s Next Top Model, it’s estimated that Banks made at most $12 million on The Tyra Banks Show if she earned a total of $30 million in 2008.
How much did Tyra Banks make from Victoria’s Secret?
Banks served as a Victoria’s Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005. While Banks’ exact pay as a Victoria’s Secret Angel hasn’t been confirmed, she likely made around the same as other top angels, such as Gisele Bündchen, who signed a five-year contract worth $25 million with the company in 2000, according to Forbes.
As a Victoria’s Secret Angel, Banks also received free lingerie from the brand, which the company revoked after she retired as an Angel in 2005. “I had a Free Angels card that the head of Victoria’s Secret gave me,” Banks told Today in 2025. “They were like, ‘Forever. We love you so much. You have this card, and you can go to any shop forever and shop forever with no cap on it.’ So I would get lingerie for myself, matching tops and bottoms, every collection that came out, I got it.”
Banks then revealed that after she rejected Victoria’s Secret’s offer to extend her contract for three years, they allowed her to keep her Free Angel card for one more year before asking for it back. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to. I want to be a talk show host. I don’t want to do it,’ ” Banks said. “And they let me have that Angel card for a year later and they said, ‘Give it back, baby!’”
She then told the story of when her Free Angel card declined. “I hate saying this on national TV! I hate saying this,” Banks said, explaining that she had a pile of clothes when her Free Angel Card no longer worked. “It was in like a suburb store in Los Angeles off of the freeway. But oh my gosh, guess what happened, Jenna? I don’t match anymore!”
