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Reality TV has never been more disturbing. Join us as we dive into the most shocking secrets uncovered in Hulu's documentary exposing the controversial makeover show "The Swan." Our countdown includes complete contestant isolation, banned mirrors, extreme dieting, surprise beauty pageants, behind-the-scenes manipulation, and more! Which bombshell shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at the biggest bombshells from Hulu's documentary
00:06exposing secrets of the controversial reality show, The Swan.
00:11What is The Swan?
00:14Do you want it, how it was sold to us?
00:17Sure.
00:17Or do you want the truth?
00:20Complete isolation.
00:22To appear on The Swan, contestants had to leave their lives behind and travel to Los Angeles,
00:28California, where they'd stay in an apartment for the 90-day duration of the program.
00:33During that time, they were cut off from communicating with their family and friends.
00:38With reality TV, you are put in this sort of bubble that's not, like, real.
00:45And the only information you're getting is from the crew, the production,
00:50because you have really no access to the outside world other than that.
00:54Thankfully, the contestants had each other to lean on,
00:57and were able to speak to a therapist throughout the three-month period.
01:01But the isolation took its toll.
01:04I refer to it as prison with some freedom.
01:09I was basically responsible for the day-to-day activities of all the girls,
01:14and I just wanted to set the stage that I can be very nice,
01:20but if they break any of the rules, there'll be consequences.
01:24They also couldn't leave the property.
01:27Cindy Engel was unable to attend a close family member's funeral,
01:31because if she left, she couldn't return.
01:34So I talked to my mom.
01:37She's like, no, Cindy, complete your journey.
01:41You know, that helped ease the pain that hurt from not being there.
01:48But I still hate that I wasn't there.
01:51No mirrors.
01:52Not only were contestants shut off from the outside world,
01:55they were also isolated from themselves.
01:58I agree that I will not see myself in a mirror so I can focus on my internal transformation.
02:04When they arrived at their temporary residence,
02:06they were shocked to find that there were no mirrors.
02:09Avoiding their reflection was one of the strict rules they had to follow.
02:13Them having to go through everything I brought,
02:17anything with a reflective surface, like CDs, you know, too bad you don't get them.
02:22This was partly to ensure that the big reveal would inspire dramatic reactions on screen.
02:28Some swans said the mirror ban actually built up the anticipation and excitement
02:33after not seeing themselves for so long.
02:36Forget what you look like.
02:38I was so excited to see myself.
02:43If you don't change your eating habits, you're going to be a tub when you get home.
02:48Dawn has 15 pounds to lose if she wants to make it to the pageant.
02:51I'm going to let Greg know that she has to step it up in the gym.
02:54While the swan was primarily known for providing cosmetic surgery,
02:58the transformation process also included shedding pounds in the gym.
03:03Contestants had to exercise for hours at a time, six days a week,
03:07all while they were still healing from their extensive surgeries,
03:11despite the doctors' and trainers' qualms.
03:14The producers were like, they're not losing enough weight fast enough.
03:17We need to get you to work them out twice a day.
03:20And I just thought, that's impossible.
03:23They're not on enough calories.
03:26They were also put on a strict diet,
03:28and season two's Dori Weber said she only consumed up to 800 calories a day.
03:34The show's creator, Nellie Galan, acted as their life coach,
03:38though she lacked qualifications to properly guide them.
03:42She, and allegedly one of the trainers,
03:44would try to motivate the swans by ridiculing them and their progress, or lack thereof.
03:50At one point, two hours in on an elliptical,
03:52and they had cameras in my face,
03:54and they would flat out tell me what a failure I was,
03:57saying like, your sister's losing all this weight, what is wrong with you?
04:01They were given a mission.
04:02Season two's Sister Secret.
04:05The second they said, you're gonna be a swan,
04:08I immediately knew, like, this isn't what we signed up for.
04:12For the hit show's second season, production decided to try something new.
04:17They put out a call for sisters, and found Carrie and Gina Bravada.
04:21When they told Carrie that she'd be a swan,
04:24she didn't know that Gina was also chosen.
04:26What about my sister?
04:28If she doesn't want me to do it, I can't do this without her.
04:31Carrie was kept in the dark about her sister also being on the show,
04:35and wouldn't know until the big reveal at the end.
04:38Gina claimed the show's legal team told her that if her presence was revealed earlier than planned,
04:44she would be removed from the show,
04:45and liable for the amount production spent on preserving the secret.
04:49I don't remember how much money it was,
04:51but it was not something I would ever be capable of handling.
04:55That was not what I had signed up for.
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05:08Behind the scenes manipulation tactics.
05:10To create great TV, producers will often stir things up behind the scenes.
05:16One of the mandates was we had to get the money shot, which was getting a swan to cry.
05:22We needed that drama, and for us, sometimes we had to ask really tough questions.
05:29On The Swan, season two contestant Dory Weber claimed a cameraman taunted her
05:34about her infertility to get a reaction out of her.
05:37He said, so how does it feel that everybody else can have kids and you can't have any?
05:45And I looked at him and I said, why would you say that to me?
05:50That season, the doctors also discovered one of the swans,
05:53Patti Shodan, had cancer.
05:56Her husband had passed away from cancer,
05:58and former producer Jenna Baker was made to ask Shodan an insensitive and cruel question.
06:04If she was concerned about her children losing another parent.
06:08I don't want my kids to know.
06:09It would just devastate them.
06:12That was when I started to think, this feels kind of disgusting.
06:18While the creators claim to want to change women's lives for the better,
06:22it ultimately all comes down to a storyline.
06:25Surprise beauty pageant.
06:26Shortly into the Swan program,
06:29Nelly Galan surprised contestants by telling them this was a competition.
06:33I wanted to give women such a big motivator that they would do the work.
06:36What is a bigger motivator than being in front of 30 million people in a beauty pageant,
06:41in your bathing suit, and in lingerie?
06:43They found out that they'd first be pitted against each other in pairs.
06:47Then the winner would move on to compete in the big pageant.
06:50Let's stand them next to each other.
06:52One of them is going to the pageant, one of them is going home.
06:55I'm thinking, aren't you tearing down everything that we've done for them?
07:00By that point, the women had bonded and supported each other
07:03through the grueling transformation process.
07:05And they didn't want to battle it out with their new friends for a crown.
07:09The pageant also required the contestants to wear lingerie and swimsuits on stage
07:14in front of millions, which was out of their comfort zone to say the least.
07:19It was just weird.
07:20Being on stage in lingerie was embarrassing.
07:25I didn't even want to be out in front of my friends and family in lingerie.
07:30So why the hell would I want to be on TV in front of millions of people?
07:33Multiple procedures.
07:34On The Swan, everything was rushed to accommodate the set 90-day structure.
07:40Contestants underwent multiple surgeries at once,
07:43including procedures like liposuction, rhinoplasty, and breast augmentation.
07:48Dr. Randall Hayworth and Dr. Terry Dubrow would do as many as they could
07:53within the maximum 10 hours the contestants were under anesthesia.
07:57Sometimes it would be both doctors performing surgery on one woman at the same time.
08:02What do you mean?
08:03Well, Dr. Dubrow wants to do all of your body surgery,
08:06and Dr. Hayworth wants to do your face surgery because he's the artist.
08:11He wants to artistically redo your face.
08:14According to a former producer on the show,
08:16the women had very little choice when it came to surgeries.
08:20Season 1 contestant Beth Lay claimed she was pressured into getting
08:23every procedure suggested by the doctors,
08:26and that she'd be eliminated if she chose not to.
08:29None of this was my choice at all.
08:33You're told this is what you're doing.
08:35No questions asked, really.
08:37Dr. Hayworth's book.
08:39The show demanded a lot from its swans and frequently put them in situations
08:43that made them feel uncomfortable.
08:45In the documentary, former contestants recalled a nude photo shoot that felt off.
08:50They brought us into the garage,
08:52and it was set up with a white backdrop and all these lights.
08:55I was like, okay, this is just what he does.
08:58You know, this is how he does it.
08:59But why is there a photographer here?
09:02And why is there rock and roll music playing?
09:03They were told they would be taking before and after photos for Dr. Randall Hayworth.
09:08But the shots were intended for something else.
09:11The main photographer did Playboy.
09:15I remember the photographer being on like a stool and looking down and saying like,
09:22I don't want to do this.
09:23I can't do this.
09:23I don't want to do this.
09:24And it was, if you don't do this, you go home.
09:26During his interview, Dr. Hayworth explained that the pictures were actually going to be
09:31used for a coffee table book that he planned to publish.
09:34His art project never came to fruition, though he admitted that he was still in possession
09:39of the photos.
09:40Dallin was thinking we'd do it sort of very Man Ray-ish.
09:43So it was very like black photos and there, it was very against the green screen and it
09:49was very, um, super artsy.
09:53Post-show complications.
09:54After undergoing cosmetic surgery, some contestants alleged that, although a nurse would visit them
10:00periodically, they mostly had to take care of themselves and each other.
10:05Kathy Rickers and I were roommates and we helped each other.
10:10They couldn't sit.
10:12I couldn't walk.
10:13I remember Cindy was constantly hearing me like cry.
10:17I helped nurse her when the nurses weren't around.
10:21And then later, when I had my procedures done, she's nursing me.
10:25Post-op issues continued when everyone returned home, as the show's professionals allegedly didn't
10:31provide any resources to maintain their new looks.
10:35Nellie didn't give us any of the tools for how to take care of ourselves when we went back home.
10:40Some women had complications, like Cindy Ingle, whose breast implant popped and needed to be fixed.
10:47Several of the contestants had problems with their teeth after extensive dental work,
10:51particularly having veneers fall out.
10:54Christy Garza also revealed that she had to have multiple teeth removed.
10:59We've all had extreme leftover problems from what Dr. Worth did to our teeth.
11:04And let's face it, she's no longer practicing for a reason.
11:07The show's resident dentist, Sherry Worth, would later lose her license after other patients accused her
11:13of negligence, fraud, and excessive treatment.
11:16Carrie's surgery.
11:17In season two, Carrie Bravada went through a terrifying experience.
11:22After her surgeries, nurses had trouble waking her up from the anesthesia.
11:26It's very blurry.
11:28When they went to wake me up, they pulled like the tube out, expecting me to wake up and I
11:33didn't.
11:34Her oxygen levels dropped drastically and her lungs filled up with fluid.
11:38Things got serious enough that the show's cameras were removed from the room.
11:42I want to know about my sister.
11:44I kept wanting to know how she was doing and nobody would give me answers.
11:47During her recovery, Carrie recalled a nurse suggesting her chest pain may have come from
11:52being given CPR.
11:54But that's all of the information she was ever given.
11:57To this day, Carrie still doesn't know exactly what happened to her in that operating room.
12:02It's hard to swallow.
12:04Like, it doesn't sit right.
12:05Like, I almost died for reality television.
12:09What reveals shocked you the most?
12:11Let us know in the comments.