This is TV Time Capsule, our chance to revisit moments that defined a genre, era, or generation. In each episode, we’ll take a critical look at a show, theme, or entertainer to relive the absurdity of pre-streaming programming.
In the early aughts, Tyra Banks was a very busy woman building her own media empire. Riding the success of America’s Next Top Model, her next move was, of course, to launch a daytime talk show. Enter the iconic, entertaining, and often erratic The Tyra Banks Show.
The crown jewel of The Tyra Banks Show were its bizarre undercover segments: Banks would film entire episodes “incognito”—as much as one can with a camera crew in tow—on “the streets,” sometimes as a person experiencing homelessness or as an exotic dancer.
In the video above, Jezebel’s Ashley Reese and Rich Juzwiak revisit some of these segments and Banks’s habit of masquerading ego as service.