In the wake of the summer pageant season, many fans are left wondering, why didn't my favorite contestant win? There are many factors of pageant judging that can affect the final outcome of a pageant, producing results that can sometimes leave pageant contestants and audience members puzzled and cause speculation as to whether the pageant winner was somehow preselected. To better understand how pageant winners are chosen, let's take a look at how pageants are scored and some of the ways that the judges' votes can affect the final results in a beauty pageant.

1. Judging Panel

Each and every pageant has a unique set of contestants and a unique panel of judges. It is due to these circumstances that pageant results can be drastically affected by as much or as little as one judge's vote. Many pageant experts would agree that if you were to recreate a pageant with the exact same group of contestants and the exact same performances, but change the judging panel or even just one judge, the resulting scores in every pageant would change. This is often due to the nature of the fact that all judges are individuals who come from varied backgrounds, therefore, each judge is likely to be impressed by a different set of qualities in each contestant.

2. Preliminary Competitions

The majority of pageant productions begin with an introduction of all the contestants, followed by an immediate announcement of the Top 10 or Top 15 Semifinalists. What audience members usually don't see are the preliminary competitions held prior to the actual pageant stage show. While it is the practice of some pageants to wipe the scores clean at the start of the on-stage competition, others carry forward some or all of the scores that the contestants earned during the preliminary rounds of the pageant. When preliminary scores are kept and added to semifinalist scores in this manner, it can affect the total scoring while leaving the audience in the dark as to how each contestant performed prior to what they are watching on stage.

3. Final Vote

More often than not, there are multiple contenders slated as favorite contestants to win a pageant, and having more than one favorite actually can adversely affect scoring when it comes to final voting by the judges. Let's say for example that there are two equally good contestants, both top contenders for possible winners of the pageant. When it comes to the final vote, if the judges are split in their decision with half the judges voting for one contestant and half voting for another, the actual winner could be a completely different contestant who flies under the radar and has the majority of 2nd or 3rd place votes, giving them the highest combined score from all the judges; as opposed to the other two contestants, who each received only half the votes for the top spot.

As you can see, there are many factors that can affect pageant scoring and the final results of any beauty pageant. Over the years there has been some speculation on whether beauty pageants are fixed, especially when the audience favorite does not win. These situations can be explained by evaluating the total circumstances of how the judges' scores for preliminary and on-stage competitions were applied, along with how the final vote was scored to determine the winner of the pageant. With this understanding, contestants and fans alike can practice good sportsmanship knowing that no matter the final outcome, all the contestants were winners.

No matter what your age, type or category, the Ultimate Pageant Notebook will guide you through each step of the pageant preparation process from start to finish so that you will know exactly what to expect during each phase of pageant competition, and what to do when the pageant is over no matter what the results.