James Denton, who plays a hunky plumber on ABC's "Desperate Housewives," will host the 2006 Miss America pageant, which is heading to the Las Vegas Strip in hopes of boosting ratings and updating the contest's image.

Country Music Television, a Nashville, Tenn.-based cable channel, will air the contest live from the Aladdin Resort & Casino on Jan. 21.

"As a star on TV's hottest show," Denton "brings excitement and class to the pageant," Art McMaster, chief executive of the Miss America Organization, said in a statement Wednesday.

The beauty pageant announced last week that it was moving to Las Vegas after 84 years in Atlantic City, N.J.