LAS VEGAS - One year after she left home in search of better fortunes, Miss America has gone totally Hollywood.
She's got her own reality TV show, a catchy new ringtone and she's giving away cash to lucky viewers. She's competing in a "pageant" again, rather than the politically correct and, some say, boring "scholarship program" of the past.
After years of struggling for relevance and viewers, the Miss America Pageant and its cable network host are attempting to market the beauty contest back into the American cultural conscience.
"There was a time when everyone knew Miss America's name, but the brand has slipped a little," said Sam Haskell, a former executive at the William Morris Agency and now chairman of the board of directors of the Atlantic City, N.J.-based Miss America Organization.
"We thought it was time to repolish the brand."
There are few who would argue the aging beauty queen doesn't need the help. After years as a Saturday-night television event, the pageant hemorrhaged viewers in the 1990s, eventually losing its network contract in 2004. Country Music Television picked her up and moved her to Las Vegas last year, hoping the hype would draw new viewers.
The move, though considered by some as a blow to Atlantic City and the die-hard volunteers -- pageanistas -- who drive the operation, generally was viewed as a success.
The pageant was aired a combined 20 times on CMT and its sister-network VH1, the network said. Although just 3.1 million viewers watched the show live -- less than one-third the viewers it last found on ABC -- a total of 36 million people saw the show including the replays. Even the traditionalists couldn't argue with that exposure.
"You can't stay status quo in this day and age or you get left behind," said Maris Schad, a middle school teacher and the volunteer executive director of the Miss Nebraska state pageant. "You've got to find out what the public wants and try and do a little tweaking that catches their interest."
This year's marketing campaign amounts to more than a tweak. MTV Networks-owned CMT, reaching 83 million households, will have run more than nine hours of Miss America-related programming before the 52 contestants take the stage for the Monday, Jan. 29 crowning at the Aladdin hotel-casino, itself also in the middle of a rebranding to the Planet Hollywood casino.
The TV blitz includes "Total Access: Miss America," a behind-the-scenes look at life under the crown, and a "Greatest Miss America Moments" special.
The new lineup also features a reality TV special, "Pageant School: Becoming Miss America," shot in Los Angeles and scheduled to air in the days before the pageant on CMT, VH1, MTV and Logo. The show follows the women through a regimen of training tips imparted by former winners and pageant "challenges" that present unanticipated obstacles, such as the question posed to Miss Nebraska: "If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?"
"I would like to have a photogenic memory," she replied, flashing an unknowing pageant smile.
Interested fans in search of a ringtone can download a version of longtime host Bert Parks' classic "There She Is, Miss America." Others can log online to play the "Pick & Win Game," which promises $1 million to the person who successfully predicts the top finalists and the winner.
"They're going for the crown, you're going for the cash. It's on," taunts the game's slogan.
This is not the Miss America Pageant of old, a deft combination of gams and goodness that began as a bathing revue in 1921 on the Boardwalk and came to symbolize American womanhood. While the barely clothed women were being judged on their "poise" as they strutted the stage, they spoke only of doing societal good and winning scholarship money to further their education.
The pageant distinguished itself from "that other pageant," the Donald Trump-owned Miss USA. Miss America opted to refer to itself as a scholarship program to emphasize substance over superficiality.
"For years it was almost an insult to call it this a beauty pageant," said Gerdeen Dyer, a longtime fan and owner of the industry Web site Pageant.com.
"Now, I'll hear people say flat out, we've got a great-looking girl. I think people realize you've got to make this appeal to the mainstream -- and that's about beauty."
Focus groups told researchers they thought past contestants, many of them products of years in state pageant systems, looked "dated." Executives aiming to attract the 18- to 34-year-old demographic brought in a sexier swimsuit line and sent out letters advising contestants to tone down the makeup and update the style.
"You don't need people in the back of the house to see all that makeup. We have television cameras, we'll take care of that," executive producer Sarah Brock said.
Focus groups asked for other updates, too -- most borrowed from reality TV.
During the pageant, the camera will cut away to show reactions from the judges, including actress Delta Burke and MSNBC news host Chris Matthews. Interviews with judges will be aired to give viewers a better understanding of how the winners are chosen.
Viewers will be able to cast votes, online or in text messages, for Miss Congeniality, an honor previously awarded by other contestants. (Contestants also have a say, but aren't allowed to vote for themselves.)
There will be text message voting on viewer favorites in the swimsuit, evening gown and talent competitions. The results will air during the broadcast, although the contestants and the judges won't see them.
The contest is well-suited for a reality TV update, Haskell said.
"If you think about when Lee Meriwether was crowned in 1954, it was really one of the first reality shows. These were real people in competition, and at the end of the show one of them became a star," Haskell said.
While adding viewer interaction to a fading television genre is an approach with a proven track record, (see: Idol) Miss America may have a significant disadvantage, said Ely Dahan, a marketing professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Polite women don't make good reality TV.
"If you look at "American Idol" and a lot of the other reality shows, it almost seems like they're looking for outrageousness as a characteristic, as opposed to poise, maturity, attractiveness and smarts. I can't see ("The Apprentice" star) Omarosa becoming Miss America."
Others note that Miss America has been here before. In 2001, after the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" craze, producers introduced a quiz show segment. Coupled with a casual wear competition and a Clay Aiken performance, pageant watchers frequently described this as the dark period. The makeover didn't keep Miss America from being dropped by ABC.
She appeared lost, Brock said.
"What it looked like to me was a lack of confidence and a lack of direction," she said.
Brock said CMT is taking the same approach with the pageant as it takes with country music, another institution once declared dated.
"This is not changing its essence, we're just trying to take a different point of view. Sometimes things don't get the attention they deserve," she said.
Dyer, and other fans, welcome the change as a glamor "glasnost."
"Miss America was just so insular," he said. "It was a sort of a network of like-minded people. It had to adapt or wither away. Really, a change is blowing across the desert."
