Lauren Nelson (l.) is overcome as she's crowned Miss America 2007 in Las Vegas in January. She succeeded Jennifer Berry (r.).
Miss America turns 86 next month, so she can be forgiven if she forgets a thing or two.
But there's one item on her to-do list that she shouldn't neglect much longer: a Do Not Resuscitate order.
True, that's a paper none of us really wants to sign. But we all get a certain amount of time and when that time expires, there's something to be said for leaving with a bit of dignity.
"Dignity" wasn't what came to mind with the announcement this week that Miss America has signed a deal with the TLC network and will incorporate its contestants into a "reality" show.
To be blunt, this sounds like she has fallen into the ocean and is grabbing for anything that floats.
As recently as 1994, Miss America had 26 million viewers. Ten years later, she had fallen to 9.8 million, and ABC dumped her.
CMT picked her up and moved her to Las Vegas. After only 2.4 million viewers watched this past January, CMT terminated its seven-year option.
Enter TLC, which started as the highbrow Learning Channel and now features everything from house-dealing tips to women with lots of tattoos.
TLC will keep the Miss America Pageant in Vegas next January, but will precede it by following the 52 contestants through the preparatory stages. This isn't a new idea. Other pageants have kept things lively by dumping buckets of slimy water bugs on their contestants.
But even if TLC stops short of that Kodak moment, it still shoves Miss America toward becoming one more artificial, tedious, redundant "reality" show where 95% of the audience is only there in hopes something really ugly will happen.
TKPN
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