First of all, the comment previous to mine is bogus or inaccurate or both. Donald Trump has never had anything to do with the Miss America pageant...only the Miss USA?Universe pageant, a completely different franchise.
Also, traditionally, the finals of the Miss America pageant have ALWAYS been on Saturday nights. So in the past it scored whopper ratings even in that 'deadzone.'
How does Miss America become more relevant? Really wouldnt be hard. The competition finals are much too whirlwind for the reader to care. And, the winner vanishes for the rest of the year, as far as the general public is concerned. So to get viewers back...
1. ELIMINATE ALL THE EARLY GIMMICKRY. Stop all the silly time-consuming stuff at the beginning where the viewers pick a finalist (who we all know wont advance far), the judges add back in one extra finalist (who we know wont advance far). etc. Just start with 10 or 12 finalists. QUICKLY.
2. LET US GET TO KNOW THE FINALISTS SO WE CARE. I mean come on, is a 20-second video showing her talking to us about what makes her interesting, what her hobbies are, etc. all that much to ask? By getting rid of those gimmicks above we just saved about 5 - 6 minutes...20 second videos of the 10 finalists would only add back in 3 or so. We're still ahead and now we can start to pick our favorite.
3. SLOW DOWN THE SWIMSUIT COMPETITION. Good lord you let them go to bikinis but we get to see them in a blink of the eye. Sort of defeats the purpose. Granted, they dont need to be like cattle in an auction. But add 5 seconds to each finalist and you've only added another minute or so. We are still ahead, time-wise.
4. MAKE THE ANNOUNCEMENT SUSPENSEFUL. Again, it feels like we've got to get through the naming of Miss America so everyone can catch a 10:15 train. Make it matter...build a little suspense.
5. MAKE TALENT COUNT MOST -- America just doesnt care who the next young spokesperson for ill children will be, no matter how much they should. They will care about the next great talent (American Idol). By making talent 40 percent of the score, Interview 30 percent and swimsuit and evening gown 15 each, you will attract more talented contestants. That means the show will be more interesting...and we might just hear about Miss America more during her reign and therefore care about who the next one will be.
Really, look at American Idol. It helps you learn about the contestants and pick a favorite as the competition is going along. It has spontaneous fun offbeat moments people talk about the next day. It builds suspense for the announcement of the winner. If Miss America strove again for all of that, and stopped trying to be a perfectly programmed telecast, it could maybe become something people care about once again and get the viewership Idol has.
2.
Roy - 11 years ago
When I was a boy the Miss America Pagent was huge. It had a certain mystique to it. However, at one point in my life I was married to a wonderful woman who was involved in making a young black woman a Miss America. And thus, I got to see the inside of the what was going on. It was disgusting. The state pageants were unbelivable. The politics were really something. The pageant winner was always "bought" by some influential family. Infighting. Intrique. The year after my wife's Miss America's win, we went to the event in Atlantic City. What a trip! We had a booth for my wife's books etc. She was ill. I manned the booth for several hours a day. Surrouned by booths with sequened gowns, shoes... You name it. Totally sureal. During the show, Miss Hawaii came out and blatantly gave Donald Trump the thumbs up. And sure enough, she won the event. So, my point is that this once "important" event in American TV history became a "title for sale". Just like the current contests that the Donald owns. One interesting side comment is that when manning the booth, I became friendly with a model in a booth next to ours. She was a former Miss Arkansas. We chatted and after discovering I was from Chicago, she went on about people she knew in Chicago etc. I told her that I knew the Govenor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. She said, "well Roy, you know that Bill is going to become the President of the United States." I was like no way. She seemed to indicate that she was intiately familiar with him and was sure he would run and get elected. Go figure.
First of all, the comment previous to mine is bogus or inaccurate or both. Donald Trump has never had anything to do with the Miss America pageant...only the Miss USA?Universe pageant, a completely different franchise.
Also, traditionally, the finals of the Miss America pageant have ALWAYS been on Saturday nights. So in the past it scored whopper ratings even in that 'deadzone.'
How does Miss America become more relevant? Really wouldnt be hard. The competition finals are much too whirlwind for the reader to care. And, the winner vanishes for the rest of the year, as far as the general public is concerned. So to get viewers back...
1. ELIMINATE ALL THE EARLY GIMMICKRY. Stop all the silly time-consuming stuff at the beginning where the viewers pick a finalist (who we all know wont advance far), the judges add back in one extra finalist (who we know wont advance far). etc. Just start with 10 or 12 finalists. QUICKLY.
2. LET US GET TO KNOW THE FINALISTS SO WE CARE. I mean come on, is a 20-second video showing her talking to us about what makes her interesting, what her hobbies are, etc. all that much to ask? By getting rid of those gimmicks above we just saved about 5 - 6 minutes...20 second videos of the 10 finalists would only add back in 3 or so. We're still ahead and now we can start to pick our favorite.
3. SLOW DOWN THE SWIMSUIT COMPETITION. Good lord you let them go to bikinis but we get to see them in a blink of the eye. Sort of defeats the purpose. Granted, they dont need to be like cattle in an auction. But add 5 seconds to each finalist and you've only added another minute or so. We are still ahead, time-wise.
4. MAKE THE ANNOUNCEMENT SUSPENSEFUL. Again, it feels like we've got to get through the naming of Miss America so everyone can catch a 10:15 train. Make it matter...build a little suspense.
5. MAKE TALENT COUNT MOST -- America just doesnt care who the next young spokesperson for ill children will be, no matter how much they should. They will care about the next great talent (American Idol). By making talent 40 percent of the score, Interview 30 percent and swimsuit and evening gown 15 each, you will attract more talented contestants. That means the show will be more interesting...and we might just hear about Miss America more during her reign and therefore care about who the next one will be.
Really, look at American Idol. It helps you learn about the contestants and pick a favorite as the competition is going along. It has spontaneous fun offbeat moments people talk about the next day. It builds suspense for the announcement of the winner. If Miss America strove again for all of that, and stopped trying to be a perfectly programmed telecast, it could maybe become something people care about once again and get the viewership Idol has.
2.
When I was a boy the Miss America Pagent was huge. It had a certain mystique to it. However, at one point in my life I was married to a wonderful woman who was involved in making a young black woman a Miss America. And thus, I got to see the inside of the what was going on. It was disgusting. The state pageants were unbelivable. The politics were really something. The pageant winner was always "bought" by some influential family. Infighting. Intrique. The year after my wife's Miss America's win, we went to the event in Atlantic City. What a trip! We had a booth for my wife's books etc. She was ill. I manned the booth for several hours a day. Surrouned by booths with sequened gowns, shoes... You name it. Totally sureal. During the show, Miss Hawaii came out and blatantly gave Donald Trump the thumbs up. And sure enough, she won the event. So, my point is that this once "important" event in American TV history became a "title for sale". Just like the current contests that the Donald owns. One interesting side comment is that when manning the booth, I became friendly with a model in a booth next to ours. She was a former Miss Arkansas. We chatted and after discovering I was from Chicago, she went on about people she knew in Chicago etc. I told her that I knew the Govenor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. She said, "well Roy, you know that Bill is going to become the President of the United States." I was like no way. She seemed to indicate that she was intiately familiar with him and was sure he would run and get elected. Go figure.