TUNE IN• What: “Kim of Queens”• When: 10 p.m. tonight.• Network: Lifetime, Comcast 37; EPB 52• Tonight’s episode: Alexis Mechell, 17, of Monroe, Ga. (last name withheld by agreement with Lifetime network) has never been in a pageant and comes to Kim Gravel to prep for her first contest. When Gravel takes her to a thrift store to shop for her pageant wardrobe, Alexis is suspicious and skeptical. From this episode, Alexis was cast as a regular on “Kim of Queens.”
Kim Gravel, far left, stars in the new Lifetime series “Kim of Queens.” She’s a pageant coach with 20 years experience whose clients are teens with aspirations of one day being crowned Miss Georgia.When Kim Gravel speaks, her teenage clients and their stage mothers listen. Not just because she’s a former Miss Georgia – and they are all chasing that crown – but because they just never know what’s going to come out of her mouth.
Her methods are unorthodox; her advice uncensored — she told one girl her stage personality needed to be “more ballsy.” She’s spontaneous; she’s insightful. She’s funny and controversial — she secretly took on a client after the teen’s dad had forbidden it.
She coaches teens on how to become pageant winners, polishing their rough edges with the goal that, while they learn to make themselves prettier on the outside, they’ll absorb some life lessons that make them beautiful inside as well.
Gravel (pronounced Gruh-VELL), who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Johns Creek near Alpharetta, Ga., is the star of Lifetime network’s new docuseries “Kim of Queens.” It airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m.