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Lopez to host Miss America pageant again

Las Vegas ceremony will air live on TLC on Jan. 24

IMAGE: Mario Lopez
Matt Sayles / AP
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TODAY staff and wire
updated 5:20 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2008

LOS ANGELES - Mario Lopez will again host the Miss America pageant.

TLC and the Miss America Organization announced Monday that the 35-year-old "Extra" host will serve as master of ceremonies for the live Jan. 24 ceremony in Las Vegas.

He previously hosted the pageant in 2007.

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TLC's programming vice president, Brent Zacky, said: "Mario and the Miss America Organization's past relationship has proven beneficial and we look forward to having him in Vegas again this year."

Last January, Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund, a 19-year-old aspiring Broadway star, was crowned Miss America 2008 in a live show billed as the unveiling of the 87-year-old pageant’s new, hipper look.

The crowning at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip was aired for the first time on TLC. It capped a four-week reality series, “Miss America: Reality Check,” which followed the contestants as they were pushed to shed the dated look of Miss Americas past and adopt a more updated style.

The show was the latest in a series of attempts to find a new audience after more than a decade of declining ratings. The fading institution was dropped from network television in 2004. It spent a two-year stint on Country Music Television before being picked up in 2007 by TLC, a cable channel reaching 93 million homes in the U.S.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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