Miss Grand Thailand

Miss Grand Thailand was founded in 2013 by Nawat Itsaragrisil, a television host and producer who had previously served as producer of the beauty pageant Miss Thailand World for BEC-Tero (owner of the television network Channel 3) for seven years until 2012.[6] After ending his role with BEC-Tero, Nawat subsequently 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 was Channel 7 of Thailand,[6] then merely on Channel 7 for the subsequent editions.[2][7][8][9][10] Moreover, the pageant was additionally beamed live to a virtual audience via its official YouTube channel and Facebook webpage for all editions.[11] The winner of Miss Grand Thailand is the country's representative to the international competition Miss Grand International, which was also launched in 2013.[12]

In 2016, Miss Grand Thailand began franchising the provincial competitions to individual organizers, who would name seventy-seven provincial titleholders to compete in the national pageant,[4][13] and one of the most popular sub-events, the national costume competition, was also introduced for the first time in such the edition; which each of Thailand's seventy-seven provinces has created a unique attire for their candidate to compete in the event,[4][14][15][16] the finalist costumes has regularly been chosen to be worn by the country's representatives in the further international pageants.[4][15] Later in 2020, the pageant ended its partnership with Channel 7 due to internal conflicts with one of the acting board executives and switched to broadcasting on One 31 instead.[17][18] Under Channel 7, the pageant was the most popular in Thailand in terms of television viewership, with ratings ranging from 1.479 to 1.886 during 2017 to 2019. It received ratings of 1.886 compared to its rival pageant Miss Universe Thailand's 1.581 in 2017, the last year the latter was broadcast on Channel 3.[19] The figure dropped to 0.750 in 2020, after it switched to One 31.[20] while Miss Universe Thailand achieved ratings of 0.765 that year, under its new broadcaster PPTV.[21]

Since its inception, the pageant was first postponed in 2020, originally scheduled to be held on 18 June,[17] but, the event was postponed to 19 September due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[22] Furthermore, the 2021 edition, basically planned to happen on 21 August,[23] was also canceled entirely because of the spike of COVID-19 infection in Thailand in mid-2021; the provincial pageants could not be held to elect the representatives for the national contest either.[24] Therefore, the organization decided to designate the first runner-up of the 2020 edition to represent the country in the Miss Grand International 2021 competition instead.[25]

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.

Selection of contestants

For the first three inaugural editions of the pageant, the national qualifiers were directly selected by the organization through the audition rounds.[1][2] However, since the pageant began franchising the provincial competitions to individual organizers responsible for selecting provinces representatives in 2016 then each province holds a preliminary competition annually to choose their delegate for the Miss Grand Thailand pageant.[26] Moreover, local pageants are also held in some provinces (i.e., Nan and Khon Kaen) to determine delegates for the province competition.[27][28] The province winners hold the title "Miss Grand (Province)" for the year of their reign and are not permitted to participate in any beauty pageants throughout the year of reign unless with the organization's consent.[29][30]

In some cases, the licensee is accountable for more than one province such as Pattanasak Yong-Rit, who is responsible for the three southernmost provinces, Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat,[31] which is the special area that has been being affected by an ongoing ethnic and religious separatist insurgency since 1948.[32] Nevertheless, the license holder could be changed year by year.[33]

Notable contestants

• Amanda Obdam of Phuket (2016): A Thai – Canadian model who won the regional pageant, Miss Grand Phuket 2016, and then represented the province at the Miss Grand Thailand 2016; in which she went on to place in the top ten finalists.[34][35] Amanda was elected by the organization to compete at Miss Tourism Metropolitan International 2016 in Cambodia, where she won the title.[36][35] In 2020, she won the Miss Universe Thailand 2020 then consequently represented the country at Miss Universe 2020 in the United States and finished at Top 10 finalists.[35] Moreover, she also served as a mental health ambassador of the Thailand Department of Mental Health, unfortunately, she was disassociated from the position after criticizing the government for allegedly engaging in police brutality at the Thai protests against their pro-military government in early 2021.[37][38] However, she was instead invited to become the ambassador of a non-governmental organization, the Mirror Foundation of Thailand, focusing on assisting patients with Psychiatric problems who do not have a living place.[39][40]

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

The pageant ancillary activities are usually consisted of three main subevents namely the best in swimsuit competition, darling of the host round, as well as the national costume parade, which is considered as one of the most popular events.[48][49][50] All ancillary events is arranged in the preliminary host provinces (e.g. 2013 in Pattani[51] and 2014 in Buriram[2]) except the national costume parade which is later held at the same venue as the final competition. The winner of each event will be announced on stage of the grand final round in Bangkok.[52][49][53][50] Furthermore, some ancillary challenge winners automatically advanced to the finalists round in the final coronation night or even received a job offer from the affiliated company, for instance, the winner of the Best Voice Award in the 2017 edition was placed in the Top 12 finalists regardless of the accumulation points,[54] the Miss Rising Star winners normally gained an offer to sign the contract as an actress affiliated with Ch 7 or One 31 for three years,[2][55][7][22] and the winner of M Pictures Awards in the 2019 pageant also served as an actress under the management of M Pictures Co., Ltd.[56]

Special award winners

List of the main special award winners in the Miss Grand International pageant

Edition	Best in Swimsuit	Best National Costume	Best Evening Gown	Miss Popular Vote	Miss Rising Star	Miss Photogenic	Darling of the Host Province	Ref.
2013	Nakhon Sawan [a]	—	—	Bangkok	Prachuap Khiri Khan	Bangkok	Bangkok	[57]
2014	Nakhon Sawan [a]	—	Suphan Buri	Nakhon Ratchasima	2 Provinces  Nakhon Sawan  Surat Thani	Nakhon Ratchasima	Suphan Buri	[55][58]
2015	Roi Et	—	Chonburi	Bueng Kan	2 Provinces  Chiang Mai  Samut Sakhon	Songkhla	Roi Et	[8][59]
2016	Ubon Ratchathani	Bueng Kan	Phatthalung	Chonburi	2 Provinces  Uthai Thani  Phuket	Songkhla	Songkhla	[60][61]
2017	Sisaket	Chanthaburi	Buriram	Sa Kaeo	Bangkok	Nakhon Si Thammarat	Chanthaburi	[54]
2018	Kamphaeng Phet	Nakhon Si Thammarat	Surat Thani [b]	Sa Kaeo	Sa Kaeo	Sa Kaeo	Nakhon Pathom	[62][42]
2019	Trat	Bangkok	Nan	Loei [c]	Phang Nga	Nakhon Phanom	Nan	[11][63]
2020	Suphanburi	Ratchaburi	Chonburi	Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya	Nakhon Si Thammarat	Ranong	Nakhon Si Thammarat	[22]
2022	Chiang Mai	5 Provinces  Chachoengsao  Lopburi  Phetchabun  Rayong  Surin	Nakhon Sawan	Nonthaburi	3 Provinces  Bangkok  Prachinburi  Sisaket	Bangkok	Ang Thong	[64][65]
2023	Bangkok	Bangkok	Pattani	Loei	3 Provinces  Loei  Lopburi  Sisaket	Loei	Lamphun

Notes

1. ^{1 2} No swimsuit contest separately 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 Best Designer award, honored to the designers instead of the province representatives.[66]

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

Map shows the region group system of the Miss Grand Thailand pageant:

  Northern region

  Northeastern region

  Central region

  Southern region

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][55][8][54] 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.[67] Five contestants with the highest preliminary accumulation points from each region advance to the Top 20 round.[11][67][53][50] The judges then select the top 2 candidates from each region (8 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][67][44][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 5 round and then compete in the question-and-answer portion,[11][67] where all entrants are asked the same question about the ongoing situations in the country to determine the winner.[11][8][54]

All selection process mentioned above is shown in the diagram below.

Color keys

Color keys

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.[83] 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.[83][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][84][85]

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.[83][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.[86] The candidate from Surin province was dethroned due to the aforementioned circumstances as well.[83][87] 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.[83][88][85] 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.[84] 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.[89]

In the 2018 season, merely two provincial title holders were dismissed and received a permanent prohibition to engage in any exhibition related to Miss Grand Thailand Ltd.; namely, the representative of Yasothon and Lampang province forasmuch as both participated in other contests without completing the year of reign. Since then, no incidents of dethronement was encountered.[90]