Miss America Can't Walk Away from Vegas
Miss America is down, but she's not cashing in her chips.
The 85-year-old pageant will let it ride in Las Vegas, returning to Sin City for the 2007 edition of its once-much-ogled swimwear exhibition.
As announced Thursday, the show is set for Jan. 29 at the Aladdin Resort & Casino. CMT will carry the tiara-related festivities live.
Miss America moved to Vegas and the Aladdin last January--the first time in event history it ventured west of New Jersey's Atlantic City boardwalk. At the same time, the telecast moved to CMT--the first time in event history it didn't air on ABC, CBS or NBC.
Ratings for the inaugural Vegas/CMT edition were paltry by the crown's standards--3.1 million viewers, compared to the 25.3 million who tuned in the pageant as recently as 1995.
Miss America's numbers nosedived in 1996, when the show inexplicably shed 6 million viewers. Her majesty never recovered. By 2004, its last year on broadcast TV, the pageant attracted fewer than 10 million.
Its ability to manufacture household names faltered as well--the dethroned Vanessa Williams arguably was the last--inspiring, in part, the recent CBSNews.com headline: "Suppose They Gave a Beauty Pageant and Nobody Cared."
Donald Trump's Miss Universe, attracting 9.7 million viewers last month on NBC, is now the predominant force for bathing-suit good in prime time.
Still, Miss America isn't going down without kicking up those heels she insists on wearing with her one piece.
Unlike broadcast TV, cable is only too happy to have the sash-clad one--CMT called last January's show "a huge success." And the sash-clad one seems only too happy to have cable, where it'll be promoted with a special on four networks (CMT, MTV, VH1 and Logo).
Vegas is happy to be on board, too.
The house never loses.
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