Pageant News Bureau - Miss America 2007

Las Vegas, Nevada

Jan. 29, 2007

Photos by Joe Whiteko / PNB

Lauren Nelson of Oklahoma

Give that girl a magic wand ...

We love Miss America. But this pageant urgently needs an intervention.

Maybe Lauren Nelson of Oklahoma, a lovely young woman who was crowned Miss America on Jan. 29, 2007, can force some changes. There are many outstanding people at the state and local levels who could help her do so. If they succeed, their names will be written in indelible ink in the annals of pageantry.

In the annus horribilis of 2005, when the Miss America Pageant was bounced from network television to cable because of weak ratings, it pledged to reinvent itself. And indeed, the Miss America folks seemed genuinely open to new ideas. Even though the move from Atlantic City to Las Vegas was pointless, and the jump from mid-September to late January was downright foolish, these were undeniably drastic measures. They made us hope that Miss America would not flinch from fixing its real problems.

The Miss America Pageant in January 2006 had the advantage of being a novelty -- first time on cable, first time in Vegas, first time in winter. A few million Americans tuned in just to satisfy their curiosity. But, as PNB predicted, January 2007 was the real test. And in January 2007, the grade was far from good.

The grade that we would give it is a "C" -- for complacency. A smug attitude has been the Miss America system's main sickness for the past three decades, and a major relapse was under way in Las Vegas in 2007.

In onstage comments and hallway conversations, Miss America executives and honored alumnae made snide references to the December 2006 sex scandals within the Miss USA Pageant. They declared piously that Miss America would "never" go down that decadent path. Loyalists applauded.

Then, when the ratings were totaled up, and Miss America had sunk to a new all-time low, pageant publicists were back to the hollow crowing of a decade ago. They seized upon a bright spot -- the audience had been more youthful than in the past.

Here's the truth about that young audience: They increasingly don't know one pageant from another. They tuned in to see whether Katie Rees would kiss somebody, to find out whether there was a bottle tucked into Tara Conner's gown. In short, they tuned in to Miss America to see Miss USA. Don't believe it? Take a poll.

One sexy beauty queen who was not criticized at Miss America in 2007 was Vanessa Williams, who was booted from the title in 1984 for appearing in pornographic photos. She went on to a very successful entertainment career, and the old pageant has been trying to woo her back ever since. This year again, one would have thought that Ms. Williams had walked out willingly.

Why do we mention this? Because Miss America's condescension toward Miss USA reached its peak around 1983. It only served to make the Williams scandal of 1984 more painful and humiliating for Miss America die-hards. And Miss USA eventually passed Miss America in popularity.

If it's silly to point fingers while you're on top, it's even worse when you're no longer No. 1. It's a dirty little secret that thousands of women compete in both systems, and they don't go through any moral transformation moving from one to the other. Why not a friendly rivalry? It would be more realistic and good for both systems.

Miss America dodged a bullet in 2005, but if it becomes content again with its "pure" niche in the pageant world, it will wither away. It doesn't have to get dirty. But we want it to build on its strengths and prosper. We love Miss America.

Editor's note: Our commentary about Miss America is not a reaction to how the PNB staff was treated in Las Vegas. It's true, the treatment we received was noticeably worse than in 2006, due to a lack of organization and the kind of us-against-them attitude that we noted in this article. PNB is a truth-telling enterprise, and there is an old Serbian saying, "Tell the truth and run." Still, some pageant officials were unfailingly kind, and many individuals in the vast Miss America family, including especially the contestants, reached out to us. They are the future of Miss America, and we are grateful to them.

THE FACTS:

Lauren Nelson, 20, Miss Oklahoma, was crowned Miss America on Jan. 29, 2007, in Las Vegas. It was the second year in a row that an Oklahoman won the title. The first runner-up was Shilah Phillips of Texas, and the second runner-up was Amanda Kozak of Georgia. Other finalists were Melinda Toole of Alabama and Taryn Lee Foshee of Mississippi. Other semifinalists were Emily Wills of Pennsylvania, Jacquelynne Fontaine of California, Kristen Eddings of Washington, Katie Millar of Utah and Pilialoha Kalai Gaison of Hawaii. The Miss Congeniality award went to Ms. Toole, who beat out Shelley Bryson Benthall of South Carolina and Callee Bauman of South Dakota.

Pilialoha Kalai Gaison of Hawaii