Miss America show to slim down to two hours

Finding fat on Miss America isn’t easy. Finding it in the pageant telecast should be, though.

That’s what the pageant’s TV producers will be doing this summer, trimming the annual beauty contest’s live prime-time show from three hours to two in hopes of juicing up its Nielsen ratings when it airs Sept. 18.

Miss America Organization CEO Art McMaster, who announced the cutback on Tuesday, won’t say what he will recommend to pageant producer Bob Bain and ABC executives.

“There’s nothing that’s on the chopping block itself,” McMaster said. “It’s just a matter of reformatting the TV show to get it down to two hours. The whole show is being reformatted, from minute one to minute 120.”

Last year’s pageant drew only 10.3 million viewers, an all-time low, according to Nielsen Media Research.

McMaster, who took over as interim CEO in January, says the talent competition will remain a part of Miss America, but the way it’s presented will be changed.

For years, the 10 semifinalists got to perform their routines on the stage during the annual telecast. Five years ago, the pageant cut the number of routines performed live in front of the TV cameras to five.

“In the reformatting of the show, they wanted and we wanted a faster-paced, hipper TV show, in keeping with today’s demands,” McMaster said. “The three-hour show, honestly, dragged a little bit. We feel we can put on a better show in two hours.”