Producers are hoping all that turmoil - plus a little more skinand some reality TV-style gimmicks - will pump up interest inSaturday night's live, three-hour telecast.
"There certainly has been an increase in awareness. Hopefully,that will translate into viewership," said Bob Bain, executiveproducer of the telecast, which airs at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC.
The past year's turmoil at the Miss America Organization alsoincludes the chief executives's threat to move the 81-year-oldpageant.
The topless picture to-do centered on Miss North CarolinaRebekah Revels, a 24-year-old English teacher from St. Pauls whogave up her crown after an ex-boyfriend told pageant executives hehad topless photos of her.
Revels claimed she was forced to quit by jittery pageantexecutives, and sued to get back the title she ceded to runner-upMisty Clymer of Raleigh.
Clymer and the pageant won in court - but too quickly forpageant executives. If they had their way, Bain said, the judge whodecided the case Sept. 12 would have dragged out his deliberationsuntil the day before the pageant, all the better for drawingcurious viewers.
Instead, the pageant will rely on some new gimmicks:
That last change flies in the face of the Miss AmericaOrganization's we're-a-scholarship-program-not-a-beauty-pageantmantra.
The show's Nielsen ratings - 13.6 million people watched lastyear - crept up in 2001 after six consecutive years of decline. Butno one knows whether the spike was due to changes in the telecastor the fact it aired 11 days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
At the close of this year's telecast, Miss America 2002 KatieHarman, who once groused about not getting enough bookings andbeing billed for clothing alterations, will crown her successor forthe traditional runway walk.
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