Miss America Homeless Again

Thu., Mar. 29, 2007 7:51 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Donald Trump, one. Rosie O'Donnell, zero.

Just a day after Trump inked a deal ensuring that both Miss USA and Miss Universe will be getting crowned on NBC until 2010, cable network CMT announced that it is opting not to televise the Miss America Pageant next year.

Having also been dropped by ABC in 2004 due to declining ratings, this marks the second time in three years that the 86-year-old cultural institution—dubbed "the prestige" by O'Donnell during the height of her Miss USA-fueled feud with Trump—is without a TV home.

To add insult to injury, CMT could have been all about swimsuits and eveningwear until 2011.

"While CMT deeply values its relationship with the Miss America Organization, the network has organized the Organization of its plans not to exercise its option to televise the Miss America Pageant in 2008 and beyond," the country music net said in a statement.

The Miss America Pageant had a rather lackluster run, ratings-wise, the past two years on CMT, which moved the ceremony to Las Vegas, pulling in 3.1 million viewers in 2006—a boon for a first-run special on the Nashville-based network but not good compared with the 9.8 million who watched in 2004, the pageant's final year on ABC.

Not to mention the Academy Award-like 33.1 million-strong audience that tuned in to NBC in 1988.

Then, only 2.4 million showed up in January to watch Lauren Nelson of Oklahoma get crowned Miss America 2007.This year's telecast was also augmented by a pageant boot camp reality special on CMT and a Website stocked with behind-the-scenes video clips and other multimedia extras.

"We're very proud of the successful programming we've been able to produce with the Miss America Organization," CMT spokesman Brian Philips said. "As a network, CMT is now in a more aggressive position to build off of existing series and launch more original series and music-centric special events."

But as anyone worth his or her pageant salt knows—no matter what happens, you've just got to keep smiling.

"We are embarking on discussions with potential new television partners to further expand our new marketing efforts and to ultimately broaden our viewership," pageant head Art McMaster said in a statement.

Interest never used to be a problem for the national event, which started off in Atlantic City in 1921 as a stunt to keep tourists crowding the boardwalk and didn't get its name until the following year. The first nationally televised Miss America Pageant was in 1954 and for years regularly pulled in tens of thousands of viewers, rivaling the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards in visibility.

Meanwhile, it's apparently a rule now that millions of people watch everything that Donald Trump puts on NBC.

Nearly 7.4 million people watched the Miss USA Pageant, featuring the scandal-plagued Tara Conner handing off her crown to Miss Tennessee Rachel Smith, while 6.6 million checked out the Miss Universe Pageant last July.