Monday, April 03, 2006

John Katsilometes on the latest plans for the Miss America Pageant, which enjoyed a successful first year in Vegas

In its first visit to Las Vegas earlier this year, the Miss America Pageant hearkened to its roots even as it left Atlantic City. Returned to the contest was the Miss Congeniality award, and the pageant used a throwback theme to draw viewers to its first telecast on cable network CMT.

The formula worked as Miss Oklahoma Jennifer Berry was named Miss America by host James Denton during a telecast from the aladdin Theatre for the performing arts that drew the highest ratings in CMT history.

It went well enough that Las Vegas is the odds-on favorite to host the 2007 contest. Nothing was officially confirmed over the weekend, but I would expect Vegas to be announced soon as the 2007 host (Miss America organization Chief Executive Art McMaster spent much of the weekend in town and was not available for comment Sunday).

Also over the weekend the Miss America organization threw in what it calls "another twist" in the pageant with a seven-episode documentary series titled "Finding Miss America." The show will follow the 52 contestants (that's 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands) through the long and winding road to the pageant.

"Finding Miss America" will air on CMT in the days before the pageant in January. The series will begin with each of the contestants traveling to the host city in the fall so they can be divided into seven groups. Each group will be featured in one of the seven episodes. also announced, for the first time in the pageant's 85-year history viewers will be allowed to cast votes over the phone and at CMT.com to determine the field of finalists.




TKPN
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