Miss America's survival may
hinge on getting down, dirty

< Prev | 1 | 2

Most popular

Founded in 1921 as a bathing beauty contest on the Atlantic City boardwalk, Miss America took to the air in 1954 and was a ratings darling for decades. It offered a little leg, the trappings of royalty and a live crowning to a viewing public that had almost no other place to ogle pretty, scantily clad young women.

At its peak, more than 80 million viewers tuned in to watch Bert Parks crown some small-town unknown and send her down the runway in Convention Hall. But that was before the communications revolution put cable TV, Internet porn and catty reality shows in everyone’s homes.

Now, Miss America — the TV show — isn’t able to compete, although competitors Miss USA and Miss Universe are still on the air, thanks in part to the fact that they are co-owned by NBC and Donald Trump.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Viewers, it seems, would rather see young beauties get down and dirty than listen to them play Chopin or talk about world peace.

The “Fear Factor Miss USA” show drew 9.2 million viewers, compared to 8.1 million for Miss USA, which followed it on NBC, according to Nielsen Media Research. It’s the third year in a row Miss USA has been preceded by a “Fear Factor Miss USA.”

Each time, the lead-in drew more viewers than the pageant itself.

Time to hang up her sash?
Some longtimers, however, would rather see Miss America hang up her sash than resort to such things.

“If they’re looking at that kind of thing to save the program, then forget it,” said 68-year-old Lois Elaine Smith-Zoll of Vancouver, Wash., who has been involved in the Miss America system as a volunteer and state pageant judge for 39 years. “That’s not what we’re about.”

McMaster has said he’d like to see Miss America become a serial, with several weeks of shows building up to the one where they choose Miss America. The idea: to help viewers get to know the contestants and root for them, which is next to impossible with the pageant airing once a year, for two hours on a Saturday night in September.

Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, said Miss America has suffered because its contestants have become too polished for viewers to relate to.

“A Miss America has to have this image of being this wholesome, holier-than-thou, up-on-a-pedestal woman. In this day and age of reality TV, when people want the nitty gritty and the foibles, that’s diametrically opposed. You really need to get to real women letting their hair down,” Shugart said.

But persuading a network to devote prime-time spots to a franchise that has proven it can’t hold on to viewers — the pageant has been dropped by two networks in the last eight years — may not be possible for Miss America.

“What they’ve been doing no longer works,” said former pageant staffer Angela Osborne, author of “Miss America: The Dream Lives On. “It just can’t continue in its present form.”

< Prev | 1 | 2