When Nashville-based CMT first aired the Miss America Pageant last January, most of its promotional energy went into simply informing viewers that the 86-year-old show had moved to cable after spending most of its existence on broadcast television.
This year, Country Music Television's marketing push will play up the fact that for a certain audience, the Miss America Pageant, which airs Monday at 7 p.m., is nothing short of American Idol and the Super Bowl rolled into one.
That's a selling point CMT hopes advertisers and viewers will pick up on.
In 2006, CMT's original broadcast of the Miss America Pageant drew in just
3.1 million viewers, about a third of even its most paltry ratings on its former home of ABC. Through multiple airings on CMT and on sister network VH1, though, Miss America reached about 36 million viewers, one of CMT's biggest audiences ever, according to the network.
As opposed to something like the Super Bowl, in which 30-second ad-slots sell for millions of dollars, cable networks such as CMT draw in viewers — and the accompanying ad revenue of program sponsors — with their ability to reach many different viewers at different times.
In hopes of adding to that aggregate number of viewers, CMT has rolled out nine original programming hours (including the two-hour pageant itself) around this year's show. Elements of that programming will then repeat on CMT and on sister networks VH1, MTV and Logo, a new Viacom channel targeting gay and lesbian viewers. Advertisers tend to buy across those platforms, rather than taking out ads specifically for Miss America.
According to figures provided by CMT's advertising sales department, sponsorship revenue for this year's show from companies such as Campbell's Soup, Sprint-Nextel and Trident Gum more than doubled, though the network would not release specific dollar amounts. CMT increased its number of primary sponsors from four last year to six this year. In addition to running ads, sponsors have an on-site presence at the pageant in Las Vegas — its new home after moving last year from its longtime base of Atlantic City.
TNS Media Intelligence, a media research firm, estimated revenue at the network has increased 7% to $136.8 million from January-November in 2006 compared with the same time the year before.
Audience can participate
Putting not too fine a point on the show's competitive element, CMT this year launched a $1 million pick-and-win game in the style of NCAA college basketball pools where fans could make their winner predictions online.
"There very much is an athletic competition nature to it," Andy Holeman, CMT's vice president of consumer marketing, said of the pageant itself. "People get really invested in their picks for who will win, so something like (the Pick & Win Game) gives fans a chance to get in on the action."
The athletics analogy apparently crossed the line, however, when objections were raised to a proposed TV commercial for the show that would have Miss America 2006, Jennifer Berry, getting the traditional Gatorade-cooler victory dump.
Still, the notion of granting the audience opportunities for access and involvement in the show — whether through watching lead-up programming about the life of a Miss America contestant or voting for winners online — is a theme that runs through much of this year's pageant, Holeman said. CMT even began offering Bert Parks' iconic serenade, "There She Is, Miss America," as a ringtone for sale on its Web site earlier this month.
From a production standpoint, that means judges will be featured more prominently, taking a cue perhaps from American Idol's lively panel of judges, while text-voting results from viewers will be incorporated into the actual broadcast. Blaire Ashley Pancake, a Chattanooga native and University of Tennessee grad, will represent Tennessee in the competition this year.
"We like to think that CMT is the bridge that can give fans access to the show," Holeman said, adding that the network had to balance a kind of reality-show feel with the long-standing traditions of the show itself.
For Sherri Forrest, executive director of the scholarship organization that runs the Miss Nashville competition (a title now known as "Miss Athens of the South"), CMT has given Miss America much more exposure and publicity than it ever would have gotten on network TV in recent years.
But she hopes the network doesn't take the fan interaction too far, turning the pageant into a run-of-the-mill reality show.
"I'm really anxious to watch this year," Forrest said. "I think they did a good job last year and am excited that they'll be showing even more this year."
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