ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Eager to lure new viewers and desperate to bring back old ones, Miss America has tried just about everything to appeal to viewers in recent years.
She held a call-in poll on the bathing suit competition. She let viewers choose their favorite contestant. And she has tinkered endlessly with nearly every aspect of the annual live telecast from Convention Hall.
Once a prime-time winner, the pageant's Nielsen ratings have set record lows in each of the past three years. NBC-TV, which had carried it for more than 40 years, gave up on it in 1996. ABC hasn't had much success, either.
Network and pageant officials are trying another first this year, and it just may work for the 79th annual Miss America Pageant at 8 pm on Saturday.
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| AP PHOTO A pageant hopeful practices her stuff. |
''Up Close & Personal: The Search for Miss America 2000,'' with Miss America 1999 Nicole Johnson and ''Access Hollywood'' anchor Nancy O'Dell as hosts, gives brief profiles of each contestant. The individual segments showcase the women in their own hometowns, talking about their lives and their values.
The idea stemmed from an ''up close and personal'' experiment in last year's telecast. Videos of the 10 semifinalists, shot in their hometowns, were incorporated into the show. Viewers loved it, according to Robert Beck, CEO of the pageant.
By expanding the idea into a prime-time special airing two days before the pageant itself, ABC and the pageant hope to snag viewers early and give them a reason to tune in Saturday.
''This allows us to show the dimensions of these women,'' Beck says. ''They're multifaceted, they're well-educated, they're leaders and they're active in charity groups and in sports. Nobody knows that.''
The three-hour pageant is airing at 8 p.m., instead of at 9 p.m., in hopes of attracting children who Beck says make up a big part of the target audience. They won't have to wait until midnight to find out who won.
The family orientation doesn't end there. Siblings Donny and Marie Osmond are the co-hosts this year, bringing their apple-pie image to an institution that prides itself on such hokum. ''The mere fact that this is the final one of the century will bring people to the table,'' says Donny Osmond.
The contestants will wear all their own clothes, not pageant-issue ''supersuits'' or production number costumes. ''There are no cookie-cutter patterns in the show,'' Margolis says. ''Each one of these kids is getting the chance to express themselves as individuals. Everything you see them in on the show is their own, so they can let the audience know who they really are."
That even goes for the shagadelic outfits worn by contestants in an ''Austin Powers'' inspired video montage.
The segment, featuring a costumed Mike Myers look-alike frolicking with the contestants on the beach and Boardwalk, is bound to raise some hackles among pageant traditionalists. The sex-crazed superspy isn't exactly the wholesome icon that Miss America and the Osmonds are. Or is it the other way around?
09-15-99
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