Can Miss America Get In Touch With Reality?

Pageant Tries a Makeover With Move to CMT

Pop quiz: Name the current Miss America.

Surely you know that Carrie Underwood is the newest "American Idol" and Katie Holmes the next Mrs. Tom Cruise. Betcha you'd recognize Paris Hilton and her little dog, too. But ever hear of Deidre Downs?

Downs was crowned Miss America 2005 last September, a fact only dedicated fans seem to know. The two-hour pageant received such low TV ratings that ABC dropped it -- and no other broadcast network picked it up. No show, no sponsors, no scholarship money.

There she goes, Miss America.

And that is why the 84-year-old pageant is desperately trying to reinvent itself once again with a new look, a new date and a new deal on Country Music Television. The show will be more reality than rhinestone, move from September to January and kick it up on basic cable. Is this a glamorous extreme makeover or the death knell of the scholarship-beauty-talent competition?

"I think that the Miss America pageant has run its course," says Lisa Ades, director of "Miss America," a PBS "American Experience" documentary on the pageant. "I wish I could say that the audience has waned because there are so many opportunities for women and we don't need beauty pageants as a way to get ahead. But the truth is that interest has waned because it's simply not sexy enough."

Or maybe not "reality" enough. Tammy Haddad, a veteran network and cable producer who sits on the Miss America Organization board, says the deal with CMT is the perfect move because it will turn a one-night program into a heavily promoted, multi-night competition event with a traditional values audience. "I think it's an A-plus deal business-wise, and the pageant will be the hit it used to be. In some towns, it is the Super Bowl," says Haddad.

But what if the problem isn't sex or ratings, but identity?

"The leadership and philosophy in Atlantic City has over the past few years been so bad that they're lucky to be on television at all," says Kate Shindle, Miss America 1998. "The problem at the core is the Miss America Organization not knowing what it is. You can have a pageant on the boardwalk, which would appeal to a lot of people, or a multimillion-dollar scholarship corporation. But you can't have it both ways, and they've been trying to for the past few years."

It started out simply enough: In 1921, Atlantic City looked for a way to extend the tourist season beyond Labor Day. It came up with a beauty pageant and crowned Margaret Gorman the first "Miss America." It was silly and fun and slightly risque. It was a way for a pretty young girl with ambition to make some money, and maybe catch the eye of a Broadway producer.

The pageant became more respectable, adding rules and scholarships and talent. In 1944, it crowned Bess Myerson, the first Jew to hold the title. But it wasn't until 1954 -- the first year the pageant was broadcast on television to an audience of 27 million-- that Miss America became an overnight celebrity and made Lee Ann Meriwether an icon of American womanhood. During the late '50s and early '60s, the pageant was one of the top-rated televised events of the year.

"I grew up watching it in the '60s with my family and it was a huge event," says Ades. "I was allowed to stay late to see who the winner would be."