Miss America contest begins
The Miss America pageant returns today for its third year in Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood resort, where 52 women -- one from each state, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands -- will compete for the title, crown and a $50,000 college scholarship.
Preliminary events will be held today, Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the resort.
The public can attend any of the preliminary competitions and the final contest, which will be broadcast live to the East Coast at 5 p.m. Saturday. The finals will be tape-delayed in Las Vegas and shown at 8 p.m. on TLC, which can be seen on Channel 33 on Cox Cable.
Tickets for the final are $125 and are available at Ticketmaster.com or the theater box office. Tickets for preliminary competitions are $75.
The contest has been undergoing a metamorphosis for the past three years, attempting to recapture and hold an audience that eroded in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The Miss America organization has entered a multiyear deal with TLC to air the pageant until 2010.
To coincide with the pageant, the cable channel produced and aired a four-part reality series, "Miss America: Reality Check," in which experts coached the contestants in updating their look.
The goal was to produce an "it girl" that modern women can relate to, according to the Miss America organization. Whether these changes lead to more viewers and renewed interest remains to be seen.
The contestants will be divided into three groups for the preliminary events, which count as a percentage towards contestants' final scores. Each evening a set of women compete in the lifestyle, fitness and swimsuit competition, which counts as 15 percent of their score; evening wear, 20 percent; talent, 35 percent; and an on-stage question, 5 percent.
The remaining 25 percent comes from private interviews with the judges, according to Miss America spokeswoman Danielle Harkins.
This year's talent competition includes dancers, a baton twirler and an Irish step dancer.
Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4564.
