Oh, sure, there were bikinis, an interpretive dance set to the sounds of John Tesh and a spare black catsuit--but enough about the window-dressings. Back to the scholarship program.
The just-anointed Johnson, 24, is a first-class student of the new party line. She barely finished her runway walk before she was backstage with reporters pushing her "platform": Diabetes awareness.
A diabetic who wears an insulin pump, Johnson said she wants to show that "I'm a real girl--and Miss America should be a real girl."
Real-girl Johnson is a confessed five-year pageant veteran and former Elite model, who earned a master's degree in journalism this year from Regent University. She has worked as a writer and producer for televangelist Pat Robertson's 700 Club.
Johnson's favorite color is unknown--she declined to answer that time-filler question from reporters, imploring them instead to ask her about the "issues."
Pageant brass were pleased with Johnson's performance at the post-midnight meet-and-greet, trading hardy back slaps and "You got a good one" exchanges.
Indeed, Johnson appears the ideal of the all-new Miss America--a young woman who can bring home the bacon (after educating shoppers on the importance of protein in a diet), fry it up in a pan (following a thorough debriefing on the alternatives offered by the Bacon Wave) and wear a two-piece bathing suit.
In case you missed the point, the hosts for the three-hour ABC telecast--newswoman Meredith Vieira (The View) and TelePrompTer-challenged former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason (Monday Night Football)--provided early-and-often reminders that this was no beauty pageant. This was an evening of "self-expression."
To whit, the opening parade of contestants ditched the usual look-alike outfits in favor of, well, whatever. For the first time, the 51 hopefuls got to pick their own clothes--which, in certain instances, meant jeans, a tube top, and an Emma Peel catsuit.
The talent portion of the finals went the more traditional route--a Barbra Streisand ballad here, a Whitney Houston ballad there. (Winner Johnson sang the Frank Sinatra standard, "That's Life.")
About the only the curveball was offered up by Miss North Carolina, Kelli Bradshaw, who chose to dance to a John Tesh symphony (and won first runner-up anyway).
As for Miss Illinois' baton-twirling routine? We'll never know. She didn't make the top 10.
Potential controversy was avoided when Miss Ohio, Cheya Watkins, also failed to make the final cut. It was questioned last week as to whether Watkins was a University of Cincinnati student as she claimed. That matter will now be handled at the state level.
If the stuff about Miss America being a scholarly, high-minded event (think the Peace Corp with evening wear) didn't follow in every Nielsen family home, then it made perfect sense inside Convention Hall, where the preachers had the converted before them en masse. This included a sizeable contingent of young Miss America hopefuls, decked out in their own mini-sized crowns and sashes.
Michelle Orey, 14, a Miss Maryland in the Junior National Teenager competition, said she hopes to be up on the stage in Atlantic City in nine years' time.
For the glory? For the national TV exposure? For the scepter?
Of course not.
Said Orey: "I think the scholarship is the big thing."
Pageant brass would be pleased.