Miss America Taps Oklahoma Again

Tue., Jan. 30, 2007 9:40 AM PST by Natalie Finn

The Sooner State might as well change its name to Pageant Province.

Miss Oklahoma, Lauren Nelson, was crowned Miss America 2007 Monday night, becoming the second finalist in a row from the state to win the title.

The 20-year-old Lawton native did a spot-on rendition of an overwhelmed and joyous beauty queen, bursting into tears as she accepted the crown from outgoing Miss America, Jennifer Berry.

Nelson, an aspiring Broadway performer who sang Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart" during the talent portion of the competition, said she'll spend her reigning year promoting ways to keep children safe while they're perusing the Internet. (Take that, Miss USA.)

In addition to a $50,000 scholarship, Nelson also picked up endless possibilities, including the promise of many more paychecks for public appearances. She said in a pre-event interview that, after graduating from the University of Central Oklahoma with a musical theater degree, she plans to move to New York.

Miss Texas, Shilah Phillips, was named first runner-up, while Miss Georgia, Amanda Kozak, placed in the second runner-up position.

The Miss America Pageant, which actually is a weeks-long process with multiple preliminary rounds and a training boot camp, was held for the second year in a row at the Aladdin Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and was televised on cable network CMT.

Actor and Dancing with the Stars finalist Mario Lopez served as host, while the judges' panel was composed of dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen, America's Next Top Model judge Nigel Barker, Hardball host Chris Matthews, singer Michael Feinstein and former Miss America 1981 Susan Powell.

Although the premiere 2007 telecast and the 3.1 million viewers it attracted were a boon for CMT, the numbers are way down as far as the pageant itself is concerned. (An eventual 36 million tiara heads tuned in to various repeats on CMT and VH1, both of which are owned by MTV Networks.)

In addition to moving the show to Monday night to avoid the weekend doldrums and bringing Lopez on board to appeal to a younger crowd, CMT looked to boost interest in the 86-year-old competition this year by playing the reality-show card and getting the audience involved.

The network's Website offered behind-the-scenes footage of the preliminary rounds, the judges' interviews with all 52 contestants (there's also a Miss District of Columbia and Miss Virgin Islands) and various other pageant-centric video tidbits.

CMT also offered the two-hour special Pageant School, which followed the competing lovelies through their four-day training camp in Los Angeles as they were poked and prodded by pageant experts working round the clock to get the young ladies in shape (mentally, emotionally and physically) for the big night.

Taking a cue from American Idol and its fellow fan-based competition success stories, CMT also featured text message voting after the swimsuit, talent and evening gown portions of the show, and viewers were called upon to vote online for this year's Miss Congeniality (after the top three were chosen by their fellow contestants), an honor they bestowed upon Miss Alabama, Melinda Toole. Meanwhile, Miss Missouri, Sarah French, was the viewers' choice for the Miss America Smile Award.

Other ideas to get at-home fans involved included a $1 million sweepstakes for picking the eventual winner and ringtone downloads featuring longtime host Bert Parks crooning "There She Is, Miss America."

The Miss America Pageant—"the prestige," as far as Rosie O'Donnell is concerned—is put on by the Miss America Organization, not to be confused with the recently scandal-laden Miss Universe Organization, which runs the Miss USA Pageant. Speaking of which, let's wish Miss America 2007 a healthy, full-term reign.