Former contestants and one of the show's surgeons spoke to Allure about how little control they had over their procedures.
A new Hulu documentary, "The Swan: Behind the Mirror," is revisiting the 2004 reality series 22 years after it aired, with former contestants and one of its plastic surgeons speaking about how little control participants had over their procedures, according to Allure.
The original show was pitched to the public as "inside-out makeovers," but one producer says the network's real goal was summed up as "we're gonna take ugly chicks and make them hot." Contestants underwent three months of mandatory surgeries, dental work and training before a dramatic on-camera reveal, then were required to compete in a lingerie and swimsuit pageant that they say they weren't told about until weeks into filming.
Season two contestant Kari Bravata says her vitals dropped on the operating table and "I almost died for reality television." Fellow contestants Beth Lay and Cindy Ingle say they had "maybe 1%" say over which procedures they received, each undergoing roughly 10 hours of anesthesia; surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow told Vice in 2024 that the team performed about 200 operations over two weeks of filming, more than a typical plastic surgeon does in a year.
Surgeon Dr. Randal Haworth, who called plastic surgery "barbaric" in the documentary, gave Allure a statement saying he's "changed enormously in 22 years" and that some of his comments "lost important context in the edit." Both Haworth and Dubrow still practice in Beverly Hills; Haworth says his site still lists The Swan and that prospective patients continue to cite the show as their reason for coming in. Dubrow declined to be interviewed for the documentary.
