The Miss America Pageant may have lost its glitter, its buzz, and even its prime-time television showcase, but it was a big winner for Country Music Television, which aired the show last Saturday
night. In its first outing on CMT--having lost its slot on the big-time networks due to falling ratings--the pageant drew an estimated 3.1 million viewers. That's less than a third of the audience
that Miss America attracted to ABC in 2004, but it represents the largest number in the history of CMT, which aired the show live from Las Vegas. The upside of being on cable, says Art McMaster,
president of the Miss America Organization, is that the pageant will be rebroadcast five times on CMT before shifting to VH1 for additional airings. "We could never convince our [broadcast] network to
be on more than one night," he says.
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