Fallen Princesses in Live-Action TV series.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Buffy had an opportunity to enter the top cliques, but declines. After her vampire-bustin' ways freaked the cheerleaders out, the offer was rescinded. We're also frequently reminded in early seasons, once via an actual Flash Back, that before learning about her powers and moving to Sunnydale, Buffy was a popular and slightly shallow cheerleader and even Prom Queen in her last school.
- Head cheerleader Cordelia Chase also dropped out of the top tier when her relationship with Xander led to her hanging out with Buffy. Cordelia then loses her money as well ("...Daddy made a little mistake on his taxes. For the last twelve years."), and ends up a big-time demon-huntress on Angel.
- Degrassi: The Next Generation:
- Ashley Kerwin. In the first season, she's the most popular girl in school, but she must constantly guard against her rival Paige. In the first season finale, she falls from grace. She doesn't become friends with the geeks in the second season — she becomes a total outcast. Everybody shuns her except a creepy goth girl, who becomes her mentor. Under the goth's tutoring, Ashley slowly learns how to cope, and how to discover her "real self," rather than the snob she used to be.
- Holly J is a full-fledged Alpha Bitch. During most of Seasons 7 and 8, she's a complete bitch in social groups, but in one-on-one interactions, she's almost personable (so it seems she only acts like a bitch). Her family suffers a three-season-long Broke Episode, her attempts to cover that up destroy her social circle entirely, and her only friend is her boss at the local coffee shop. It turns out she has trouble letting people get close. Over Seasons 9 and 10, she builds a new social circle but still has very few close friends.
- On Glee, Alpha Bitch Quinn becomes pregnant despite being president of the celibacy club. She is then embarrassed in front of the school, kicked off the cheerleading squad, and forced to move in with her boyfriend after her parents kick her out of the house. And it only got worse when it was revealed that the baby's father was actually her boyfriend's best friend. She later subverts the Character Development that you usually get from this trope — after she gives the baby up for adoption, she does her damndest to get her status back, and her goal of Season 2 is to become prom queen, no matter what the cost — even if it means cheating on her boyfriend and, when she doesn't become Prom Queen, conspiring to get the Glee club disqualified from Nationals out of spite and jealousy. Strangely, she could still count as a Princess in Rags — while she has some of her popularity back, her desire to be popular again stems from the idea that there's no real future for her, and that the best she can do is be the popular girl, get an average job and marry someone like Finn.
- Gossip Girl(2021):
- One of the main characters, Julian Calloway, is the Queen Bee of Constance Billard St. Jude's School. She has minions and an exclusive group of friends as well as the envy of the entire school. She is shown being selfish and rude, but by the beginning of season 2 she has completely changed after being taken down a peg by Gossip Girl.
- Claire Bennet from Heroes used to be the school's most popular cheerleader and kept her friendship with indie kid Zach a secret from everyone. However, after turning against a jock who tried to rape her, she found herself rejected by the cheerleaders and accepted by pretty much everyone else in the school, resulting in her being voted homecoming queen.
- Series 2 of HEX has this happen to Ella Dee and Roxanne Davenport. Ella is initially welcomed into the popular crowd because she's a Badass Longcoat with a tough no-nonsense attitude. Unfortunately, after being dosed with St John's Wort, spending time in a mental institution and after most of the school has fallen under Malachi's sway, she ends up as an outsider with only Thelma and Leon for company. Roxanne becomes this after her affair with Jez is exposed and he is found hanged in the school chapel. A number of students, including Roxanne herself, blame her for his death and she's shunned as a result.
- Skylar Stevens in Jericho (2006) starts out as a spoiled rich kid, and then warms up to local misfit Dale Turner.
- Alain, the youngest prince of Ganma in Kamen Rider Ghost is a rare male example. He was making preparations for the invasion on Earth until his brother's betrayal followed by being framed for their father's killer forced him on the run. His situation was not made any better by the emotional turmoil heaped on him, but he would get better eventually.
- Averted in Lost. Boone comes from a wealthy family and gave off the overall impression of a young man who had never worked a day in his life and had stuff handed to him. From the very start, he takes to island living easily and is probably the most likeable moral character in the series, characterised by his helpful attitude. Played straight with his sister Shannon though.
- Popular's Brooke McQueen fits this quite well. She's a good person but she is afraid of being unpopular. She comes to realize that it's what is inside that counts.
- Subverted in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, "Geek Like Me": Sabrina used magic to make Libby become a geek, intending that this fall from popularity would teach her to become a nicer person the way most Fallen Princesses do. However, she quickly proved that her usual personality was In the Blood, too strong to be changed by magic. Before long, she had given herself a hot new Nerds Are Sexy look, and had made the science club into the same kind of exclusive clique (with herself as the boss) that the cheerleading squad used to be. And she was now picking on Sabrina for not being nerdy enough. This change was no better than the way things were before, so there was nothing for it but to change Libby back.
- Alexis Rose on Schitt's Creek has lost her money and her status as a social media princess and socialite, but unlike the rest of her family, after the first episode she is rarely troubled by this turn of events and adjusts to her situation. She does experience significant Character Development as she learns the ins and outs of dating and working without the safety net of her wealth.
- In Season 1 of Teen Wolf, Lydia was hiding her intelligence and skill to remain popular. By Season 2, after disappearing and running around naked for two days because she was bitten by a werewolf, Lydia loses her popularity to the point where no one from her school (other than her close friends and the people they invited) shows up for her birthday party.
- Caroline Channing from 2 Broke Girls is the daughter of a wealthy investor who was arrested for perpetrating a massive Ponzi scheme. With the family assets frozen, she is left homeless and penniless, eventually forced to work as a waitress in a Greasy Spoon. Now she is trying to build a cupcake business with her fellow waitress Max, using the skills she learned from party planning and business school.
- Veronica Mars doesn't have any superpowers, but when her sheriff father arrests the town's benefactor for the murder of his own daughter, Veronica's best friend, pretty much everyone in her clique of high school elite friends turns against her, resulting in her being date-raped. This in turn leads to her transformation into the Veronica we know. As she pours her energy into solving her friend's murder, she rapidly gains the super detective skills and world-weary attitude of a professional PI twice her age.
