Weighing in on Tyra Banks: Why Talk Show Hosts Banks and Winfrey Are Judged so Harshly

Talk show host and hostess/creator of the reality series "America's Next Top Model" Tyra Banks retired from professional modeling in 2005 following a career that spanned nearly two decades. When Banks was featured on the 1997 cover of Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue, she was the first black model to hold that distinction.

Banks is one of only a handful of former supermodels to have successfully carved out a successful, high-profile career for herself following retirement from the runway. (Other notable superstars who have found success after a modeling career include Heidi Klum, creator and host of "Project Runway", Iman, whose line of skin care and beauty products are sold worldwide, and perhaps even Janice Dickinson, whose self-proclaimed title of the "world's first supermodel" may be questionable but was enough to garner her a reality show of her own, "Janice Dickinson's Modeling Agency."

Christie Brinkley, when not fending off divorce attorneys representing her idiot husband, also has an established skin care line.) Since retirement, Banks has been the hostess of a fairly successful talk show, much of whose popularity stems from the host's own antics, controversial topics, and improbable line of guest stars. (One of those shining moments came when Banks had fellow African American model Naomi Campbell on her show. In an effort to diffuse a long-running feud between them, Banks asked Campbell why she had been 'so mean' to her when Banks was first starting out as a model.

Campbell, whose own rash of thrown-objects related issues have caused headlines and lawsuits, stared blankly at Banks for what appeared to be an hour, before furrowing her (plucked) brows and mumbling something that no one, to this day, was able to understand. It was a flashback to junior high school days: why were the 'populars' so mean to the other kids? I thought it was actually brave of Banks to confront a fellow black model whose professional jealousy towards her had caused a lot of emotional pain.)