It’s been a tumultuous year for the Miss America Organization. Ahead of the 2019 pageant in Atlantic City, here’s everything you need to know about the changes–and the drama!–affecting “Miss America 2.0.”
By Amanda Coyne
Miss America 2.0 is here! After that fat-shaming email scandal and leadership changes on changes, the scholarship program is making a major pivot, changing the competition and reframing its reputation.
But…what does that even mean? As new CEO Gretchen Carlson and the organization remain embroiled in controversy over alleged bullying of current Miss America Cara Mund, and concerns from longtime supporters about the competition’s direction,
the nearly century-old institution is attempting to completely rebrand–Miss America is attempting to shed its stereotypical “pageant” label, and prioritizing brains over beauty (or, at least, ‘balance’ the two). So, then, will the show still be fun? Will there still be glamorous gowns and talents that range from kitschy to… cray? Here’s what we know so far about the fresh faced event, set to air at 9 p.m. EST on ABC Sept. 9
First off, don’t even call it a pageant anymore!
Despite its young female contestants walking in glitzy gowns and showcasing 90-second talent presentations, Miss America is no longer branding itself as a pageant. It’s a competition, at least officially. Contestants are now “candidates,”also, versus, well, contestant—or titleholder. though I don’t think Miss America gets a vote in Congress. But maybe she should?
There’s a whole new stage.
Miss America will play out on a new set, redesigned to make the show feel more “intimate,” according to guidance sent to state pageant directors—though it’s still going to be in Atlantic City’s cavernous Boardwalk Hall. The yet-to-be-announced judges will also be in a new location, though we don’t know where; in year’s past they’ve been in the orchestra pit and sitting across the stage from contestants. (It’s believed this is so they’ll be able to interact with the candidates more.) My most burning question: Will the love-to-hate-it Loser’s Lounge, where eliminated contestants sit onstage and force a smile be gone? I guess we’ll only find out when the show begins.
I mean, who isn’t ready for a musical number like this?!
And new hosts!
As the swimsuit goes, so does Chris Harrison–and those borderline skeevy bikini comments. After seven years straight with the Bachelor franchise’s frontman serving as host, the competition is switching to Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba. “I’m humbled to have the chance to be part of an evening that will give young women the opportunity to further their education and crown a new Miss America,” Inaba said in a press release.
And instead of a traditional co-host, the show will instead have Ross Matthews providing commentary backstage, taking a page out fellow Drag Race judge Carson Kressley’s book–Kressley was one of the play-by-play commentators for Miss USA 2018 and Miss Universe 2017.
And there’s a new SASH too.
Upon their arrival in Atlantic City last week, the 2019 state titleholders they received their I.D. sashes! New sashes! Instead of the rhinestoned white sash with blue serif font declaring “Miss State,” they’re now black sashes with a bold Century Gothic font simply declaring the contestant’s state—no “Miss” title. This is causing some pearl-clutching in the pageant community, but you can’t make a new Miss America omelette without breaking a few eggs. Or something like that.
Will Miss America get a new sash to match? We might have to wait until the crowning moment to find out.
Yes, it’s bye, bye bikini.
In June, Gretchen Carlson announced to the world that there would no longer be a swimsuit competition. Carlson said the competition was going to focus more on what the contestants had to say, and stop judging physical appearance. However, that announcement came at the beginning of state pageant season—too late to implement the changes for the women who are now competing for the Miss America crown. In other words, they all wore bikinis to earn their tickets to Atlantic City, but won’t be strutting in swimwear on the Boardwalk Hall stage
And that left everyone (well, at least pageant superfans) asking, well, “What the hell are we replacing it with?”
The answer is, technically, nothing. There’s no new phase of competition. But the on-stage question segment is getting a “Miss America 2.0” upgrade. It’s usually been restricted to one question and thirty seconds to answer (because why give a 24-year-old a whole minute to explain how to fix the situation in Syria?). Now, however, contestants–er, candidates–will get to showcase their interview skills in an extended Q&A segment, as well as a final on-stage public speaking segment designed to help the judges pick a winner. This seems to be an attempt to offer the audience a glimpse into what the private 10-minute interview, conducted in the days before the final competition, is like.
And talent trounces all, basically.
Talent is what has always set Miss America apart from other pageants (in the Miss USA pageant, for example, there is no talent round). And just because Miss America officials aren’t calling it a pageant anymore doesn’t mean they’re taking (arguably) the best part away. The talent competition remains a key part of the event, and the guidelines have not changed. Routines are still 90 seconds, and talents range from opera to ventriloquism to speed painting.
What is changing, however, is how heavily it’s weighted. In recent years, it’s made up 35 percent of a contestant’s score. Now, it makes up a whopping 50 percent of the “composite score.” (All contestants compete in preliminary interview, on-stage question, talent and gown competitions, each weighted differently—these are combined for the composite score, which which determines who gets into the top 15 on the final night of competition and makes up 25 percent of their final night score.)
Hopefully this means we will get more top-notch talents–and fewer of the screechy singers and barely-passable piano players who typically manage to slip in because they’ve had killer swimsuit bodies or top notch interviews.
But there will still be gowns!
Despite talk of the candidates wearing “whatever makes them feel confident,” per Carlson’s press tour on the swimsuit cut, the evening wear competition theme is still “red carpet glamour.”
While we saw a formal jumpsuit on the Miss America runway in 2016, it’s a safe bet we’ll see a lot of bedazzled fishtail gowns, maybe even with capes.
Miss America’s screentime is not confirmed, though.
After allegedly suffering bullying and being shunted to the sidelines after Carlson took over, how much will we get to see of the reigning Miss America herself? Now, the outgoing titleholder hasn’t got a ton of airtime in recent years, but Cara Mund said in an open letter to former Miss Americas that her farewell and runway walk—a cherished tradition that caps each titleholder’s year—is being capped at a mere 30 seconds. Will she be featured in the introduction sequence or chat with Ross Matthews between competition segments, or will we just get to see her crown her successor?
And even amid all these changes, many details about the competition’s structure are still unclear. Will we still get a top 15, top 10 and top 5? Now that swimsuit is gone, what phase of competition will come first? (In recent years, Miss America has stuck pretty consistently to a swim, gown, talent, Q&A run-through.) A lot of information on the nuts and bolts of the two-hour broadcast is still TBD, as in to be determined not tiara being donned. So perhaps, instead of the standard pageant drinking games, just chug whenever you feel like it–Miss America 2.0 is empowered like that!