America's Next Top Model (often shortened to Top Model or abbreviated as ANTM) is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry.

The show was created and is hosted by television personality, former supermodel and current talk-show host, Tyra Banks, who also serves as the lead judge and executive producer of the show. The first "cycle" premiered in May 2003 and was one of UPN's highest rated shows. The show's seventh cycle was the first of the shows among regular programming on UPN's successor network, The CW, and thus far is the network's highest rated series. The show will continue until at least the 2009-10 season. The opening theme is performed by Tyra Banks. Banks co-produces the show with Ken Mok and Anthony Dominici. For the 2006-2007 television season, ANTM was the #1 show in average viewers on The CW.

Each season of America's Next Top Model has from 9-13 episodes and starts with 10-14 contestants. Each episode, one contestant is eliminated, though in rare cases a double elimination or no elimination was given by consensus of the judging panel. Makeovers are administered to contestants early in the season (usually after the first or second elimination in the finals), and a trip to an international destination is scheduled at about two-thirds of the way through the season (usually with five or six contestants remaining).

Each episode of Top Model covers the events of roughly a week of real time (however, while overseas, an episode roughly covers three to four days, totaling two weeks of filming abroad), and features a fashion challenge, photo shoot or commercial, a critique of each contestant and her performance by the judging panel led by Tyra Banks, and the elimination of one or more contestants. As of Cycle 10, the current panel includes fashion photographer Nigel Barker, runway coach J. Alexander and Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova. Previous judges included fashion icon Twiggy, supermodel Janice Dickinson, fashion stylist Nolé Marin, designer Kimora Lee Simmons and fashion editors Beau Quillian and Eric Nicholson. Photo shoot director Jay Manuel, though not a permanent judge, is featured every episode. Usually, an additional guest judge will sit in on the panel every week. Each episode is usually associated with a theme in the world of modeling, such as dealing with the press in interviews, selling a commercial product, appearing in a runway show or going on "go sees".

An episode usually begins with the contestants receiving training in an area concurrent with the week's theme. For example, contestants may get coached in runway walking, improvisational acting, or applying make-up to suit various occasions. A related challenge soon follows, such as a mock runway show or interview, and a winner is chosen by a judge. She receives some prize, such as clothing, a night out, or an advantage at the next photo shoot, and she is usually allowed to share the benefits with a certain number of other contestants of her choice.

The next segment is a photo shoot, and each contestant's performance will reflect heavily on her judging for that week. Each season features photo shoots such as bikini or lingerie shots, beauty shots, posing nude or semi-nude, posing with a male model, and posing with animal(s). Usually one photo shoot per season (excluding Cycle 4) is replaced with a commercial shoot, though in Cycles 2 and 9, a photo shoot was replaced by a music video for Tyra Banks and Enrique Iglesias respectively.

The final segment of each episode is judging. During judging, contestants are often given a challenge in some area such as posing, selling a product, runway walking, or choosing a representative outfit or make-up to satisfy a given prompt, known as a pre-evaluation task. Each contestant's photo is then shown and evaluated by the judging panel. After all photos have been evaluated, the contestants leave the room as the judges deliberate. The elimination process is ceremonious, as Tyra reveals and hands out the photos of the contestants that have not been eliminated one-by-one, in order of merit, each time saying, "Congratulations. You are still in the running towards becoming America's Next Top Model". The last two contestants who have not received their photos are brought up as "the bottom two", and Tyra critiques each one before revealing which of the two has been eliminated. However, there have been four exceptions, as Cycle 4 had a double elimination, Cycle 5 had a non-elimination, in Cycle 9, the original eliminee was saved by another contestant's decision to quit, and in Cycle 10, one girl decided to quit, and an elimination still took place.

The format varies slightly when only three contestants remain. With the exceptions of Cycles 1 and 2, (when CoverGirl wasn't a sponsor), and Cycle 3 where there was no commercial, the three remaining contestants compete in one last photo shoot and commercial for CoverGirl, followed by a judging session in which the judges eliminate the contestant they feel to be the weakest. The final two then compete in a runway show in front of the judges and a live audience, before both their performances there and during the entire competition is considered when the judges declare a winner.

It was announced on January 24, 2006, that Top Model would be part of the new The CW network, a merger between UPN and The WB, when the next cycle started in September airing on Wednesdays. Prior to the announcement of merging with The CW, UPN had committed to renewing the series through its ninth cycle on January 20, 2006, for which casting was conducted throughout mid-2006.

To celebrate its tenth cycle, ANTM aired a special installment called America's Next Top Model: Exposed in two parts on the CW on Wednesday, Feb 6 & Feb 13, 2008. It reviewed the best cat fights, mishaps and most memorable photoshoots, personalities, defining moments and contained other segments about the show since Cycle 1 to Cycle 9, and featured a special opening fusing all three openings together. Camille McDonald (Cycle 2), Toccara Jones (Cycle 3), Eva Pigford (Cycle 3 winner), Bre Scullark (Cycle 5), Cassandra Whitehead (Cycle 5), Joanie Dodds (Cycle 6), Jael Strauss (Cycle 8), Dionne Walters (Cycle 8), Heather Kuzmich (Cycle 9), and Bianca Golden (Cycle 9) all returned to comment on events that happened in their or other cycles.

On March 3, 2008, The CW comfirmed a 11th and 12th cycle would run. 

On July 21, 2006, the writers of America's Next Top Model went on strike while working on Cycle 7, set to premiere on the new CW Network in September 2006. The writers sought representation through the Writers Guild of America, west, which would allow them regulated wages, access to portable health insurance, and pension benefits. These benefits would be similar to those given to writers on scripted shows. The strike was the focus of a large rally of Hollywood writers coinciding with the premiere of the new network on September 20, 2006.The dispute was chronicled in a July 24 interview on the website Television Without Pity with Daniel J. Blau, a former TWoP recapper who covered the series, and at the time was an ANTM show producer.In November 2006, the writers on strike were taken off payroll.

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, commenting on ANTM and Project Runway in the September 2006 issue of Harper's Bazaar, slammed it as "trash that is funny for five minutes if you're with other people. If you're alone, it's not funny. Those girls will never be the next Gemma Ward. There is no justice in the fashion business." Ward was discovered in Australia's Search for a Supermodel, a similarly-themed model reality show that was created before ANTM and aired in Australia in early 2003. Lagerfeld served as a photographer for the French version of ANTM.

Allure magazine criticized the show in its October 2006 issue, saying that ANTM "hasn't exactly produced any actual supermodels." Compared to ANTM, participants in American Idol are thought to have a better chance at a good career in their field, even if they don't actually win the contest.

Ken Mok and Tyra Banks noticed that Cycle 8's girls were unusually heavy smokers. "Tyra and I understand the influence 'Top Model' has on a generation of young people, and we want to make sure we get the right message to our audience," Mok said, which then prompted the "green" theme of Cycle 9.

After filming Cycle 10, the producers of America's Next Top Model were served with a lawsuit from Michael Marvisi who owns the loft used as the Top Model house. The lawsuit claims the contestants as well as the production crew caused an estimated $500,000 in damages to the loft. Marvisi claims the contestants engaged in food fights, made holes in the walls, caused water damage to the bathroom, damaged a $15,000 chandelier beyond repair, and caused $90,000 worth of damage to an electrical store. Also, the production crew has been accused of damaging the flooring and making holes in the ceiling for lighting equipment.

After Saleisha Stowers' win in Cycle 9, there has been controversy regarding her eligibility to appear on the show. The rules state that a contestant must not have appeared as a model in a national advertising campaign during the last five years. There is debate among viewers of the show over whether Stowers' 2006 commercial for Wendy's could be considered an advertising campaign, and whether her past experience as a model including being a model on ‘The Tyra Show’ where she was one of about a dozen models that modeled designs by Rami Kashou during a Tyra Banks episode that featured a fashion show of Kashou's work. 

She also participated in a Gen Art fashion show that Top Model's sixth-season cast attended as well as a subsequent runway appearance on Banks' syndicated The Tyra Banks Show definitely had to do with modeling. She also attended Tyra Banks TZONE camp. All connections with Tyra Banks could be considered unfair advantages. Other viewers reason that many past contestants, including Jaslene Gonzalez, had some experience in modeling before being on the show. The CW said in a statement that Stowers did disclose her participation in the Wendy's spot, and "after reviewing the commercial, it was determined that her appearance did not amount to "modeling" experience, and therefore did not exclude her from participating in the show."