The decision to leave the pageant's longtime home in Atlantic City was made after extremely careful deliberation and with the highest level of respect for the countless friends, volunteers and fans of the pageant. |
The Miss America Organization is thrilled with the strong numbers for our first year with CMT. CMT has proven to be a wonderful partner for us and preparations for next year are already underway as we look to build on this year's success. |
the pageant's continued vitality and growth. |
There's really one major difference between this tax return and last year's, and that is the difference in television income. That just flowed all the way to the bottom line. |
This is a re-branding year for us. |
Unless people taped it, they were going to miss it. We missed a lot of people. CMT has been great. They've really promoted it. |
We consider ourselves the first reality TV. Last year we realized our once-a-year show wasn't cutting the cake. We saw reality shows like American Idol passing us by. We feel America has got to get to know our contestants. |
We had hundreds of volunteers, and the thing worked like clockwork. |
We needed to find a better partner, one that better understands our values, |
We needed to find a better partner, one that better understands our values. CMT's audience is the heartland of America; that's the same type of loyal audience 'Miss America' has enjoyed; they respect the traditions and values of this organization. |
We never got that kind of promotion before. It's great exposure. We needed to get out there more than one night a year. |
We tried all these games and gimmicks. We're now looking back and realizing it probably was not the best thing to do. You can fool with the show, but at the end of the day, it's still a pageant. And when people tune in, they want to watch the pageant. |
We're not ruling anything out. |
We're trying to promote these young ladies as tomorrow's leaders. We're going to push scholastic achievement, creative accomplishment, healthy living and community involvement. |
We've been playing games with the show these last few years. |