Miss Grand Thailand

Background

Miss Grand Thailand was founded in 2013 by Nawat Itsaragrisil, a television host and producer who produced Miss Thailand World for BEC-Tero for seven years until 2012.^[6] Afterwards, Nawat established his own pageant, launching Miss Grand Thailand in 2013 in partnership with Channel 7.^[6] Its inaugural edition was global broadcast on Let's Veit VTC9 of Vietnam, Arirang TV of South Korea, the FashionTV,^[1] as well as Channel 7 of Thailand,^[6] then only Channel 7 for subsequent editions.^{[2][7][8][9][10]} The pageant has also been streamed via its YouTube channel and Facebook.^[11] The winner is the country's representative to Miss Grand International, also launched in 2013.^[12]

In 2016, Miss Grand Thailand began franchising provincial competitions to organizers, who would produce seventy-seven provincial titleholders to compete at the national pageant.^[4][13] The national costume competition, was also introduced at this time, where each province would create a unique costume for their candidate to compete in, at the main event.^{[4][14][15][16]} The winner is regularly chosen to be worn by the country's representative at international pageants.^[4][15] In 2020, the pageant ended its partnership with Channel 7 due to internal conflicts with one of the acting board executives and switched to One 31.^[17][18] Under Channel 7, the pageant had the most popular viewership on Thai TV, compared to its rival, Miss Universe Thailand.^[19][20][21]

The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the pageant in 2020 and 2021^[17][22][23] In mid-2021; the provincial pageants could not be held to elect the representatives for the national contest either,^[24] and it was decided to designate the first runner-up of the 2020 edition to represent the country Miss Grand International 2021 competition instead.^[25]

Contestants

The regional competitions for Miss Grand Thailand: (Top) The press-conference of Miss Grand Suphanburi 2019, held at Robinson Lifestyle Suphanburi on 15 January 2019. (Bottom) Miss Grand Bangkok 2022, held at ESC Park Hotel, Pathumthani on 6 February 2022.

Location and date

The following is a list of Miss Grand Thailand pageant edition and information, from its inception in 2013.

Ancillary activities

The ancillary activities usually consist of three sub-events: the best in swimsuit competition, darling of the host round, and the national costume parade.^[49][50][51] These activities are arranged in the preliminary host provinces (e.g. 2013 in Pattani^[52] and 2014 in Buriram^[2]) except the national costume parade which is held at the final competition venue. The winner of each event is announced at the grand final in Bangkok.^{[53][50][54][51]} Some ancillary winners are automatically advanced to the final round at the finals night or even received a job offer from the affiliated company. For example, the winner of the Best Voice Award in 2017 was placed in the top 12, regardless of their accumulation points,^[55] the Miss Rising Star winners normally gain an offer as an actress affiliated with Ch 7 or One 31 for three years,^{[2][56][7][22]} and the winner of M Pictures Awards in 2019 also served as an actress under the management of M Pictures Co., Ltd.^[57]

Special award winners

Notes

1. ^{1 2} No swimsuit contest was held, the winners were determined by the panel of judges during the final competition under the title Miss Being Bodyline in 2013 and Miss Healthy in 2014.

2. ¹ Since 2018, the Best Evening Gown award was renamed to the Best Designer award, honored to the designers instead of the province representatives.^[70]

3. ¹ In 2019, the Miss Popular Vote award was renamed the People Choice award.

Grand Final

Since the establishment of the pageant, the final coronation is always held in Bangkok, Thailand's capital city. The twenty quarterfinalists will be announced on the stage after the introduction portion. During 2013 – 2018, all quarterfinalists were chosen from the initial pool of delegates through a closed-door interview, swimsuit round, and the preliminary competition, then the judges selected the ten semi-finalists as well as the five finalists based on their performances on the final stage, as usually done in other pageants.^{[1][56][8][55]} However, a newly established competition system was first introduced in 2019, the contestants were classified under four geographical regions namely; northern, northeastern, central, and southern, regardless of the government administrative regions, each group consisted of 17, 20, 22, and 18 provinces, respectively.^[71] Five contestants with the highest preliminary accumulation points from each region advance to the top 20 round.^{[11][71][54][51]} The judges then select the top two candidates from each region (eight in total), based on their swimsuit performance on the stage, to advance to the top 10 finalists while two other candidates of the top 10 are determined via mobile application voting and specially chosen by the organizer, regardless of geographical affiliation.^{[11][71][43][13]}

In the semifinalists round (top 10) of the aforementioned system, the remaining 10 candidates compete in an evening gown and deliver their speeches on assigned topics then the judges select the top five finalists, only one candidate of each group together with the other one which is preferentially selected from the initial pool of Top 10 by the president, advance to the top five round and then compete in the question-and-answer portion,^[11][71] where all entrants are asked the same question about the ongoing situations in the country to determine the winner.^[11][8][55]

All selection process above is shown in the diagram below.

Traditional placements

Notes

1. ^{1 2 3 4} For the 2013 edition, the 5th – 2nd placements were announced as Miss Globe Thailand, Miss Intercontinental Thailand, Miss Supranational Thailand, and 1st runner-up Miss Grand Thailand, respectively.^[58]

2. ^{1 2 3 4} For the 2014 edition, the 5th – 2nd placements were announced as Miss Tourism Thailand, Miss Intercontinental Thailand, Miss Supranational Thailand, and Miss Earth Thailand, respectively.^[56]

3. ^{1 2 3 4} For the 2015 edition, the 5th – 2nd placements were announced as First runner-up Miss Grand Thailand, Miss Tourism Thailand, Miss Intercontinental Thailand, and Miss Supranational Thailand, respectively.^[8]

4. ^{1 2 3 4} For the 2016 edition, the 5th – 2nd placements were announced as Miss Top Model Thailand, Miss Tourism Thailand, Miss Intercontinental Thailand, and Miss Supranational Thailand, respectively.^[33]

Supplemental 5th runners-up

Beginning in 2022, the remaining top 10 finalists were automatically crowned the 5th runners-up.

Current Franchises

Color keys

Past Franchises

Color keys

Regional dethronement and license termination

Since the pageant franchise was distributed to the local organizer in 2016, several incidents of provincial champion dethronement and license cessation have been observed, especially in the first few years of an allotment.^[153] It arose from the meticulous regulations of Miss Grand Thailand Ltd., the provincial title holders are not permitted to participate in any beauty pageants throughout the year of reign unless with the organization's consent.^[29][30] In case of regulatory violations, the title would be revoked.^{[153][29][30]} Moreover, if the investigation found the director's involvement in such an offense or failure to comply with the contract-specified terms and conditions, the provincial licenses might additionally be terminated.^{[30][154][155]}

In 2017, the representative of Satun Province, one of the favorite contenders, was de-titled after participating in another local pageant during her reign, she contended that such a decision was approved by the provincial director; as a result, the license was also ceased.^{[153][29][30]} However, the provincial pageant was later held again under the direction of a new franchise holder to select a new representative for the national contest.^[156] The candidate from Surin province was dethroned due to the aforementioned circumstances as well.^[153][157] In addition, the organization's investigation found a corrupted issue in the regional pageant of Samut Sakhon Province. Therefore, the competition result was not authenticated and the license was transferred to another organizer, who held the substituted contest to elect the replacement later in Bangkok.^{[153][158][155]} Following the national contest completion, the Phatthalung titleholder has subsequently been removed from the provincial title in late November as a result of taking part in the Miss International 2017 pageant in Japan without informing the organization.^[154] As well, the candidates from Ang Thong, Amnat Charoen, Nong Khai, Phang Nga, and Mae Hong Son were also relieved from the title after taking part in other local pageants during their reign.^[159]

In the 2018 season, two provincial title holders were dismissed and received a permanent prohibition to engage in any exhibition related to Miss Grand Thailand Ltd. when the representatives of Yasothon and Lampang province participated in other contests without completing the year of reign.^[160] There have been no more dethronements by the central organizer since then.