Jay Manuel was an America's Next Top Model O.G., dating back to the 2003 series premiere.
He was brought on board as the creative director for 18 cycles, much to the delight of contestants
and fans. But when he left before the series wrapped, viewers were shocked. Here's why
he said goodbye to Top Model.
Jay Manuel began his stint on America's Next Top Model in the show's first cycle in 2003
and was responsible for conceptualizing the models' photo shoots and guiding them through
the process.
"This is Jay Manuel. Jay is my personal makeup artist for years and years and years. There's
nothing this man cannot do."
When Jay and fellow judges, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker, simultaneously parted ways with
the show in 2012, Page Six described the departures as quote "ugly firings." According to the
outlet, the three were informed that their contracts were not going to be renewed after
Cycle 18.
Top Model executive producer Ken Mok, however, had nothing negative to say, lauding the three
as quote "amazing assets" to the show, in a statement released to Page Six, and praising
them for transforming the series "into [a] household name."
However, a source for the outlet claimed that the three were blindsided when their contracts
weren't renewed as the show prepared to pull a one-eighty for the following Cycle 19. As
Deadline noted, the departures came after low ratings for Top Model, while Page Six's
insider claimed that getting rid of the three was a decision made by production.
At the time of his exit, Manuel didn't directly address Page Six's report that he was fired
from the show. But in a since-deleted blog post, via Reuters, Manuel simply declared,
"It's a wrap everybody. Nigel, Miss J and I had a great run, and now it's time for us
to move on."
"The fondest memory working on that show, darling, it was the paycheck. Let's be real."
Fellow judge, photographer Nigel Barker, also seemed to take the whole thing in stride,
appearing to downplay reports that the threesome had been axed. Barker told E! News of his
exit,
"It wasn't a shock. I'm friends with Tyra and the producers. There had been a discussion
that ratings were down and that something like this would happen."
As Barker explained, the trio's exit wasn't as big a deal as the media made it out to
be. In fact, he said that in earlier cycles he and the show's producers had already discussed
the possibility that he might be "eliminated" from the show.
Discussing his time on Top Model with Variety, Manuel revealed that as the show grew more
successful, big changes began to take place that affected the show's inner workings - and
not for the better. He explained,
"The culture behind the scenes of ANTM was something that shifted over time. It became
a culture where you could only speak your mind so much."
"Christina, you're gonna be an East Indian. Tiffany, you're gonna be Native American.
Brittany, an African American woman."
Manuel pointed to Cycle 4's infamous race-swapping photo shoot, for which Tyra Banks subsequently
offered an apology on her daytime talk show. According to Manuel, the original concept
had nothing to do with race-swapping and was far different than what viewers ended up seeing
on TV. He said of the photoshoot,
"I was so, so, so uncomfortable with this. […] I was so afraid that I would wear this
because I was the creative director, but it was not my idea. […] It was supposed to
be a different concept. I remember that very, very clearly."
"Sister, you look like a black girl, girl.”
“I was feeling it!"
By that point, Manuel felt he had lost creative control of the photo shoots.
Nearly a decade after his exit from the show, Manuel finally cleared the air about reports
claiming he was fired from Top Model. In a 2020 interview with Variety, he explained,
"When we parted ways, I had already completed my contract after Cycle 18 with no plans to
return for Cycle 19."
"They just didn't do new contracts with us, so we weren't really fired for doing something wrong."
Manuel says the decision to exit the show was quote "100 percent" his. And as he explained,
he felt it was time to move forward in his career - after a whopping 18 cycles of Top
Model. At the time, however, he was contractually forbidden from discussing his exit. But by
2020, he was no longer under any legal obligation, and could finally confirm that the choice
was up to him.
Manuel might have been tempted to cash in on his deep behind-the-scenes knowledge of
America's Next Top Model by writing a salacious tell-all.
"If you were Kim Kardashian, how would you be eating that hot dog right now. It still
looks like you have to pee."
But he decided to take a different route entirely by fictionalizing his experiences in a novel
titled The Wig, The B---- & The Meltdown. As Manuel told Variety in 2020, he'd been
working on the novel since 2014. The story focuses on a young man named Pablo Michaels,
who sets out to make a name for himself in the New York City fashion industry and winds
up on a reality show called Model Muse. Manuel said,
"I wanted this book to entertain and that's why I used satire, and had a lot of fun with it."
"You're my new best friend"
According to Variety, an entire chapter - titled "The Meltdown" - is about the reality show's
fictional host losing it on a contestant. Manuel confirms the chapter does in fact draw
inspiration from the infamous ANTM moment when host Tyra Banks furiously lashed out
at contestant Tiffany Richardson, yelling:
"I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you! How dare you! Learn something from this!"
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