Traditional competitions are flailing helplessly behind more sensational contests such as Miss USA, which teamed up with “Fear Factor” this year to show bikini-wearing contestants covered in 55-gallon drums of live worms and fish oil.
The 84-year-old show, which had 85 million viewers in 1985, will air this year on cable’s Country Music Television. Miss America, perhaps the nation’s most successful pageant, was dropped by ABC last year after its television audience fell below 10 million. Last month, as Bellew was watching the show, a volunteer turned to her and said: “If I didn’t know the girls, I wouldn’t watch that for two hours.” Every former Junior Miss and volunteer in the room agreed.Īmerica’s Junior Miss is not the only distressed pageant. Yet even the program’s most devoted fans admit the show’s format was stilted. The contestants, she said, delivered the best reality they could.
This year, Junior Miss relied heavily on local taxpayer support, with the city and county of Mobile providing one-third of the program’s $1 million budget.Īfter experimenting with a behind-the-scenes “reality” TV concept last year, the program was told it needed more cutthroat competition.” Yet the show’s popularity has dwindled since its heyday in 1965, when it began a 23-year run on national television and was sponsored by Coca-Cola and Kodak.
