ABS-CBN International presents ‘The People’s Queen’
What happens when you bring five beauty pageant hopefuls to live in a mansion for six weeks with two over-the-top coaches and a team of fashion and media specialists? “The People’s Queen,” the glamorous new reality show that is taking the pageant world by storm, becomes available globally this month.
“The People’s Queen” is being called a cross between “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and “America’s Next Top Model.” The show follows Cecilio Asuncion and Voltaire Tayag as they challenge five of the top Filipino pageant hopefuls in their quests for international titles.
Cecilio and Voltaire are not simply shaping the perfect beauty queen, they’re creating The People’s Queen.
“The pageant community is looking to redefine its role in an era of female empowerment and gender equality,” Asuncion explains.
His history with the pageant system extends to before he was even born. His grandmother was Miss Manila. Today, Asuncion is the Director of Slay Model Management, the world’s first all-transgender model agency and National Director of Miss Supranational USA. He judged the Miss Universe 2017 pageant in Las Vegas and hosted this year’s Miss Teen USA pageant in Shreveport, Louisiana.
“In today’s pageants, the real competition is an internal one,” he continues. “It used to be that women reshaped themselves to fit the crown, striving to match the idealized version of a Barbie doll beauty queen. Today’s judges want to see the real, unfiltered woman beneath the lashes and beautiful gowns.”
“In order to triumph, pageant contestants are required to dig deep within their souls, confront unresolved personal issues and overcome self-doubt,” says Tayag, another pageant veteran. He was a fashion designer before turning his passion and expertise into becoming a pageant journalist and trainer. A stickler for traditional training techniques, Tayag often butts heads with Asuncion and his less conventional training methods.
The five pageant hopefuls in “The People’s Queen” are Nikita, a biracial beauty confronting her bullied past; 25-year-old Katrina, who spent years focusing on the needs