The ghost of Jon Benet Ramsey looms large over the child beauty pageant world on display in the new Learning Channel series “Toddlers and Tiaras.”

Going behind the scenes, the series captures the super-competitive pageants, where contestants are sometimes as young as two years old. Each hour-long episode follows these pint-sized beauties parading around in heavily sequinned dresses-and their often overwrought, overzealous parents-as they submit to spray tanning, hair extensions and “Lolita”-style makeup. One father takes the pageant life to heart. He sews up his daughter’s gowns, works with her on dance routines and then, when she doesn’t win the crown, storms out of the hotel ballroom.

Grotesque as it all sounds, the pageant world has tried to modernize. In some instances, the preschoolers are allowed to appear wearing less makeup. In others, boys are permitted to compete alongside girls. But since the children can barely comprehend what is happening to them, the stage moms and dads are the real stars of the show. The mother of a four-month-old girl named Marly says, “When she was born, I said to my husband, ‘Yeah! We’ve got a pageant girl!”

TODDLERS AND TIARAS

Tuesday, 10 p.m., TLC