Model turned mogul Tyra Banks has signed another lucrative deal. Deadline recently announced that Banks is partnering with ABC Signature to bring both scripted and unscripted programming to the network.
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“Ever since I was a little girl growing up in Inglewood, California, I’ve been enamored by the magic of Disney. Joining the family at ABC feels like a homecoming of sorts,” Banks said in a statement.
Banks signed the deal via her Bankable Productions which is an all-female team anchored by executive vice president and Hayley Lozitsky and Sabrina Besla, director of development/in-house writer.
Banks has proven her mettle as a TV producer with her successful reality model competition show America’s Next Top Model which discovered talents Yaya De Costa and Eva Marcille. The show has run for 24 seasons and three networks since its inception in 2003. It’s now on VH1.
Banks has also produced an eponymous talk show and the holiday-themed movie Life Size 2. Earlier this year, she announced Modelland, a beauty empowerment themed attraction in Santa Monica, California. (The opening was delayed in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Banks says she’ll bring that kind of energy and variety to the projects she has in mind for ABC.
“My Bankable team and I are pumped to create dynamic, can’t-miss programming that is loud, splashy and spans to international shores. From dramas and docu-series to comedies and cartoons, we’re coming to your screens with a mission to entertain you and your families in the most unexpected ways.”
Though America’s Next Top Model continues to be a success, theGrio reported recently that the show’s former creative director Jay Manuel said that he had “PTSD” from working with Banks.
Manuel said on the Just the Sip podcast that Banks expressed her disappointment when he wanted to leave the show and when he did return for one last season, she was “icy and hostile.”
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Though Manuel says that Banks ultimately apologized for her behavior, their previously close relationship was never the same again.
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