‘America’s Next Top Model’ contestants hit back: Squashed dreams, global hatred — and fame as ‘reality TV garbage’

nypost.com:

#DarkSideofRealityTv ANTM airs Tuesday, Nov 19th at 9P ET on VICE TV. #realitytv ♬ original sound – VICE TV Angelea Preston was on top of the world after being crowned winner of “America’s Next Top Model: All-Stars” in 2011.

But the runway walker’s world came crashing down when producers of the series quietly stripped her of the title — allegedly due to her past work as a professional escort — months before the season debuted that September. “Winning ‘All-Stars’ was one of the best days of my life,” Preston, 38, of Buffalo, recently told The Post. “And the day they took that away from me was one of the worst.”The New York native, alongside fellow traumatized “ANTM” alums, tearfully details her fall from glory in “The Dark Side of Reality TV: America’s Next Top Model,” a Vice series unveiling untold — and often untoward — secrets of cult classic, early-aughts shows.

Sounding off with Preston is her replacement winner, Lisa D’Amato — who didn’t fare any better.“‘America’s Next Top Model’ f–king squashed my dreams,” the 44-year-old sobbed on camera for the episode that airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. “It made everybody around the globe hate me.

And it made me hate myself for years.”D’Amato, who appeared in cycles 5 and 17, said production portrayed her as an “alcoholic villain,” a misrepresentation that stigmatized her to modeling agencies and potential clients. “They don’t care if you live or die afterwards,” D’Amato alleged of show executives. “Nothing happened with my modeling career. “I’m basically just reality TV garbage.”Premiering in May 2003 on the since-defunct UPN network, “ANTM” quickly hooked audiences with its no-holds-barred panache.