Banks acknowledged the outrage in May after a slew of clips resurfaced from her hit television show "America's Next Top Model," highlighting her insensitive -- and potentially harmful -- treatment of contestants on the show. She tweeted, "Been seeing the posts about the insensitivity of some past ANTM moments and I agree with you. Looking back, those were some really off choices. Appreciate your honest feedback and am sending so much love and virtual hugs."

At the time, the articles and tweets published on Banks' comments suggested that for all her contrition, Banks might be irredeemable. But as her swift return to grace indicates, an online mob isn't sufficient to topple a superstar with decades-long standing in entertainment -- and, crucially, one whose problematic commentary was likely a contributor to her original success. Banks wasn't exposed by some hidden secret which finally became known. Her missteps, particular on "America's Next Top Model," were easily available for download, not hidden behind a confidentiality clause.

So, as she takes on her next role fronting a massive national show, what are the odds she's going to do better this time?

A few short examples from her rap: in cycle eight of "ANTM," which Banks created and executive produced, a contestant was told to pose "dead" in a casket for a photo shoot only a week after discovering that her friend had died of an overdose. Cycle four featured a photo shoot where contestants had to pose made up as different ethnicities. On the fifth cycle, Banks told a gay contestant to tone down her sexuality. She pulled no punches -- and taking sensitive care of her model hopefuls trailed far behind the obvious priority of making scintillating television.

Banks took a similar approach to her talk show, "The Tyra Banks Show," in 2005. This featured a comment on weight discrimination presented as a repulsive exercise in which women were encouraged to assign each other fat phobic insults. (For the record, Banks later claimed there was also a lot of "healing" during that episode.) Then, a victim-blaming "dating experiment" placed the impetus on women in bars to protect themselves from dangerous men.

There were some highlights, though, like Banks' famous "kiss my fat a**" speech snapping back at fat-shamers. But with the benefit of hindsight, a lot of the shows' content wasn't progressive so much as an inventive repackaging of old, problematic ideas.

For all the justified horror expressed by archival binge-watchers, Banks' eventual reckoning this May was quite complicated. Consider the moral barometer of the 2000s -- which the audience, like Banks, was measuring and measured against at the time. Every poor decision on "ANTM" was "validated" by an enormous viewership, which attracted record-setting advertising revenue, and saw over 30 versions of the "ANTM" format replicated worldwide.

Anyone who took issue with "ANTM" then would have been drowned out by the millions of fans who found it exciting, provocative and even hone