Best Shows and Movies About Beauty Pageants
In short: There are only a few scripted TV series about pageants, so the best list mixes reality TV and films. For TV, RuPaul's Drag Race is the most celebrated pageant-style competition, and Toddlers & Tiaras is the famous documentary look at child pageants. For films, start with Miss Congeniality for comedy, Little Miss Sunshine for heart, and Miss Juneteenth if you want something quieter and more serious.
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- Reality competition: RuPaul's Drag Race.
- Laugh-out-loud comedy: Miss Congeniality.
- Funny and touching: Little Miss Sunshine.
- Quiet, serious drama: Miss Juneteenth.
- True story: Misbehaviour.
TV shows
RuPaul's Drag Race (2009 onward). Drag queens compete across design, comedy, acting and runway challenges, with one sent home each week. It borrows the pageant's crown, sash and talent-show structure, and has won the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program several times. Start with any recent season; each is self-contained.
Toddlers & Tiaras (TLC, 2009-2013). A documentary series following families on the child pageant circuit: the spray tans, flippers (false teeth) and high-pressure parents. It's compelling and often uncomfortable, and it was widely criticized for how it presented the children. It also spun off Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
Insatiable (Netflix, 2018-2019). A teenager who has lost weight takes up pageants with a disgraced lawyer turned coach. It's the rare scripted pageant series, but it drew heavy criticism for its fat-shaming premise before it even aired. Watch it only if you want an over-the-top dark comedy and don't mind that baggage.
Movies
Miss Congeniality (2000). Sandra Bullock plays Gracie Hart, a scruffy FBI agent who goes undercover as a contestant to stop a threat to the Miss United States pageant. The film mocks the pageant world but ends up fond of the women in it.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006). A broke, quarrelling family drives a VW van across the country so seven-year-old Olive can compete in a children's pageant. The finale is one of the great comic set pieces of the 2000s. It won Oscars for Alan Arkin and for its original screenplay.
Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999). A mockumentary about a small Minnesota teen pageant where contestants keep having fatal accidents. Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards and Kirstie Alley star. A cult favorite for dark, deadpan comedy.
Dumplin' (2018, Netflix). Jennifer Aniston plays a former pageant queen whose plus-size daughter (Danielle Macdonald) enters her mother's pageant in protest. Warm, kind and full of Dolly Parton songs. Based on Julie Murphy's novel.
Miss Juneteenth (2020). Nicole Beharie plays a former Miss Juneteenth winner in Texas, now working at a bar, who pushes her teenage daughter to compete for the title she won. A small, understated drama about ambition and what we want for our children.
Misbehaviour (2020). Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw star in the true story of the 1970 Miss World contest in London, which was disrupted by women's liberation protesters and ended with Miss Grenada, Jennifer Hosten, becoming the first woman of African descent to win.
Our verdict
For a night in, Little Miss Sunshine is the one most people will enjoy. If you want something that takes pageant women seriously, Miss Juneteenth is the best film on this list and the least known.
Frequently asked questions
Are there any scripted TV series about beauty pageants? Very few. Netflix's Insatiable (2018-2019) is the best-known, and it was controversial. Most good pageant stories are films or reality shows.
What's a good pageant movie for a comfort night? Miss Congeniality or Dumplin'. Both are funny, warm and on the side of the contestants.
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