Shocker: TV Ratings for the Swimsuit-less Miss America Pageant Cratered
Source - The ratings are in for the new Miss America pageant since they axed the swimsuit competition, and they are not good.
The Miss America pageant aired on Sunday from Atlantic City, New Jersey, and it had the worst ratings its ever had for airing on a broadcast network.
The broadcast was down 36 percent in the key demographic of 18 to 49, and down 19 percent in total viewers, placing the Miss America pageant the fourth place for the night.
The pageant was retooled after former Miss America Gretchen Carlson was brought on to be the new chairwoman of the board of trustees of the Miss America Organization. Carlson announced the controversial decision to cut out the swimsuit competition in June.
“We’ve heard from a lot of young women who say, ‘We’d love to be a part of your program but we don’t want to be out there in high heels and a swimsuit,’ so guess what, you don’t have to do that anymore,” Carlson said at the time.
“Who doesn’t want to be empowered,” she added, “learn leadership skills and pay for college and be able to show the world who you are as a person from the inside of your soul.”
Whelp. Who could’ve seen this coming? They held a beauty pageant that wasn’t about how good you look or what kind of shape your in and people tuned out by the millions? Consider Gretchen Carlson stunned. Just because she won her title in 1989 looking like this:
… doesn’t mean the public really wants to tune in for really attractive, fit adults showing off how good they look. That’s not empowering. I mean, sure, Gretchen believes women have the right to do what they want with their bodies. But no one ever said that empowers them to wear bathing suits on TV. Because there are “a lot of young women who say, ‘We’d love to be a part of your program but we don’t want to be out there in high heels and a swimsuit.'” In the same way that I always say I’d love to be part of the PGA Tour, but don’t want to be out there having to stripe my drives 340 yards, shape my shots into postage stamps greens or drain 50 footers on lightning-quick putting surfaces. So guess what? I don’t have to do that. And the world will still tune in to watch me suck because it’s empowering for me, right?
I suppose not. Somewhere along the way America got the crazy idea that Beauty Pageants were about appreciating beauty. And we never realized that they’re really meant to be about watching contestants learn leadership skills and pay for college. And for some reason, that didn’t resonate with TV viewers. Go figure.
Well, better luck with next year’s pageant, Miss America. And to Gretchen too, as she tries to pull out of this death spiral. In the meantime, we’ll just have to satisfy ourselves with fond memories of empowered contestants from years past, showing us who they are as a person from inside their souls. While looking good in swimwear.
