Hot on the high heels of TLC’s “Toddlers & Tiaras,” the six-part series “Little Miss Perfect” (9 p.m., WE) joins a growing list of pageant-related fare.

Like “Toddlers,” “Perfect” unfolds without narration and overt judgment. The director has kept the musical score to a minimum and avoids the audio gimmicks that have become reality TV’s equivalent to the old sitcom laugh track.

With reality projects, the real power resides in the editor’s booth, and the decision to include scenes of exasperated, heavy-handed (and just plain heavy) stage mothers, flamboyant dance coaches and eye-rolling nonparticipating siblings speaks volumes.

The absence of heavy-handed manipulation does allow a great deal of ambivalence to seep in. At first, “Perfect” seems like just another nonfiction effort trying to approximate the crazy, colorful and self-deluded characters from a Christopher Guest (“Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind”) mockumentary. The sight of a 9-year-old dressed up as Marilyn Monroe standing on top of a milk crate containing a high-powered fan to blow her dress above her knees is both ghastly and utterly cliche. Her brother escorts her off the stage as “JFK.”

But when that same 9-year-old has to correct her own mother’s grammar after she crafts a sign (“Diamonds is a Girl’s Best Friend”), you know we’re entering more pathetic territory.

While every adult in this series seems to be overcompensating for something, one pageant mom stands out in particular.

“I had a completely different lifestyle,” says Jean of her own childhood. “There were no trophies and no fun things.” She then tears up and runs away from the camera. Only the most heartless viewer could find this scene funny.

A strange mixture of the hopeful and the banal, the tasteless and the poignant, “Perfect” is too often like the stage mothers: more bleak than amusing, but too superficial to be terribly interesting.

• The Rev. Samuel Kyles, present in the room when Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, returns to the Lorraine Motel in the film “The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306” (7 p.m., HBO2).

• “American Masters” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) profiles Jerome Robbins, acclaimed ballet choreographer and a force behind Broadway hits “West Side Story,” “Gypsy” and “Peter Pan.”

• The new series “Against the Elements” (7 p.m., Science) looks at extreme weather.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Three finalists get the nod on “American Idol” (7 p.m., Fox).

• Death in the construction trade on “Life” (8 p.m., NBC).

• The team uncovers a murder plot in diplomatic circles on “Lie to Me” (8 p.m., Fox).

• A path back to the island beckons to some but not all on “Lost” (8 p.m., ABC).

• Elton John, a producer of “Spectacle” (8 p.m., Sundance), interviews Diana Krall, the wife of regular host Elvis Costello.

• The deputy mayor’s son dies at a posh party on “CSI: NY” (9 p.m., CBS).

• A murder trail leads close to home on “Law & Order” (9 p.m., NBC).

• Sam learns much from a politician in a vice bind on “Life on Mars” (9 p.m., ABC).

• Ellen and Patty bicker over case strategy on “Damages” (9 p.m., FX).