"ANTM" star injured after falling off pendulum runway speaks out on &x27;inappropriate&x27; challenge (exclusive) Joey NolfiSat, February 21, 2026 at 3:30 PM UTC 0 'ANTM' cycle 14 star Alexandra Underwood knocked off runway by pendulum Courtesy Alexandra Underwood; The CW She might've gotten knocked off the America's Next Top Model runway by a giant swinging pendulum, but cycle 14 contestant Alexandra Underwood exclusively tells Entertainment Weekly she's not letting the 16yearold moment define her any longer.
"ANTM" star injured after falling off pendulum runway speaks out on 'inappropriate' challenge (exclusive)
Joey NolfiSat, February 21, 2026 at 3:30 PM UTC
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'ANTM' cycle 14 star Alexandra Underwood knocked off runway by pendulum
Courtesy Alexandra Underwood; The CW
She might've gotten knocked off the America's Next Top Model runway by a giant swinging pendulum, but cycle 14 contestant Alexandra Underwood exclusively tells Entertainment Weekly she's not letting the 16-year-old moment define her any longer.
In a new interview, the model and reality TV personality reflects on the often-meme'd moment from 2010's cycle 14, which saw Tyra Banks' cast of model hopefuls dodge the menacing pendulums that wobbled back and forth as contestants navigated the runway. Naturally, Underwood slipped and fell off the stage when she collided with one of the pendulums, and injured herself in the process.
"In the midst of it, I was mortified. It was inappropriate for the show to put me in that position. I was on ANTM, not American Gladiator," Underwood tells EW when reached for comment on The View cohost Whoopi Goldberg offering an on-air apology to her this week, after Netflix's new Reality Check docuseries included a clip of the Ghost actress laughing at Underwood's runway tumble back in 2010.
'ANTM' star Alexandra Underwood in 2026
Courtesy Alexandra Underwood
She continues, "I don't feel like she needed to apologize. I remember laughing at Whoopi laughing at me. Her reaction gave me permission to laugh at it, too," later adding, "She gave me permission to laugh and find it funny, because to me, it wasn't."
Looking back on the infamous ANTM moment, Underwood says that she "cut [her] knees up" amid the fall, which cameras captured at the time in shots of Underwood's ripped gown and bloody scrapes on her legs.
The fall on stage was also the second instance that saw the aspiring fashion figure take a tumble that day, as she also fell while walking down a flight of stairs to get to the runway with the pendulums on it.
"I was in that ridiculously tight dress in those super high heels, going down stairs," she remembers. "I was already shaken up going into the runway with the pendulum, so I was completely already shaken up and worried about getting axed." (Producer Ken Mok did not respond to EW's request for comment.)
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Though she placed third on cycle 14, Underwood eventually signed a contract with the Wilhelmina agency after the program, and is now entering her 16th year working with a company that, for years, ANTM champions would win a contract with as part of their prize package.
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The model acknowledges that she's "the outlier" when it comes to ANTM experiences, as many contestants and judges — including alums who appear in the new Netflix Reality Check docuseries highlighting show scandals — have criticized Banks and the show and have made allegations against production in recent years.
"I got a great behind-the-scenes look at a big-budget production, and I found it very fun," Underwood tells EW, while stating that "some of the other girls absolutely deserve an apology for what they were put through" on the show.
'ANTM' cycle 1 winner Adrianne Curry and Tyra Banks in 2003
Frederick M. Brown/Getty
In a 2023 interview with EW pegged to the show's 20th anniversary, cycle 1 winner Adrianne Curry said that she didn't feel Banks needed to atone for anything done to her on the show, including Curry's claim that the only prize she won after the competition was a $15,000 gig modeling makeup for Revlon executives in a board room.
"Tyra Banks learned to look out for Tyra Banks. She's a product of her environment, and I don't blame her. For her to be as successful as she is, bravo. She didn't owe me s---," Curry told EW at the time. "I know there are a lot of bitter contestants. I'm not at all. I'm glad that happened: the good, the bad, the ugly, because it really molded my life."
Amid fallout from Reality Check, talk show hostess Sherri Shepherd also tearfully defended Banks on her program.
"The show did awful things to the contestants, and I think everybody expected Tyra to take more accountability," Shepherd said, nodding toward a segment of the series that included cycle 6 winner Dani Evans voicing disdain for Banks after the supermodel pressured her get a dental procedure to close a gap in her teeth back in 2006.
"We're trying to compare a time today that we know a lot to a time when there was nothing like this show on the air," stressed Shepherd. "We're not taking into account the battles that this Black woman had to fight just to stay on the air for other people to come on the air."
A representative for Banks has not replied to EW's multiple requests for comment on the Reality Check series.
on Entertainment Weekly
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Source: Entertainment
Published: February 21, 2026 at 06:45PM on Source: MARIO MAG
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