There she is … … in pageant school

Every year, it seems, there’s a new plan to reverse the long downhill slide of the Miss America pageant and return it to must-watch status.

A half-century ago, 27 million viewers – almost 40 percent of the television audience – tuned in for three hours of bathing suits, ball gowns and baton twirling.

In recent years, the length of the broadcast has been cut by a third. The easily ridiculed talent competition was largely eliminated, confined to the three finalists. Bathing suits got more modest, then less modest and paired with bare feet.

In 2001, producers came up with a “Survivor”-type idea, where eliminated contestants voted to decide who would remain on the beauty island.

None of that stopped a skid in viewership that cost the pageant its broadcast network contract. Country Music Television picked up the program last year, and while only 3.1 million people watched the live show, it was seen by 36 million people, counting replays – making it the most-watched telecast in CMT’s history.

The big idea for 2007: back story. Thus, “Pageant School: Becoming Miss America,” a two-hour reality show meant to bring the contestants to life as they master the intricacies of the competitive charm and beauty circuit.

“Pageant School” premieres tonight and repeats frequently over the weekend (airing also on sister networks MTV and VH1) leading up to Monday’s pageant. The hope is that viewers will find contestants to identify with, champion and disdain – then tune in to find out who wins the real competition.

There’s nakedly ambitious Miss Delaware, Jamie Ginn, 24, the oldest contestant and one of the few brunettes, who points out that she gave up a “huge” salary as a chemical engineer to compete; Miss South Dakota, Callee Bauman, who exhibits a wry, self-deprecating sense of humor; plus dozens more characters to reveal hopes, fear of wearing short-shorts and lust for the crown.

“Unlike a lot of reality shows, we were dealing with a huge cast,” says Paul Villadolid, CMT’s vice president of programming and development, who helped create “Pageant School” and oversaw all production.

“We have 52 contestants. We wanted to come up with a way where each could have their moment in the sun. We also wanted to give them some real, constructive advice.”

An interactive Web site (www.missamerica.cmt.com) lets viewers learn more about the contestants – Miss Kansas’ favorite book is Ecclesiastes; Miss Arizona’s favorite food is Skittles – and participate in a $1 million choose-the-winner sweepstakes. (You can also download a ringtone of the classic Bert Parks theme song “There She Is, Miss America.”)

With the new emphasis on showing the contestants as ordinary people, flaws and all, “I do think you lose a little of the mystique,” says Sam Haskell, chairman of the Miss America Organization.

But that’s less important, he says, than giving viewers something to relate to. And a reality approach, he adds, is not that much of a reach, for in the old days “you could take a Mississippi belle or a Kansas farm girl and make her a star overnight.”

Focus groups told researchers they thought past contestants, many of them products of years in state pageant systems, looked “dated.” So executives aiming to attract the 18- to 34-year-old demographic brought in a sexier swimsuit line and sent out letters advising contestants to tone down the makeup and update the style.

“You don’t need people in the back of the house to see all that makeup. We have television cameras, we’ll take care of that,” executive producer Sarah Brock says.

Pageant organizers also have embraced advances in technology. During Monday’s broadcast, viewers will be able to cast votes, online or in text messages, for Miss Congeniality, an honor previously awarded by other contestants. (Contestants also have a say, but aren’t allowed to vote for themselves.)

There also will be text message voting on viewer favorites in the swimsuit, evening gown and talent competitions. The results will air during the broadcast, although the contestants and the judges won’t see them.

If the pageant and its packaging have changed, the motivation for contestants seems fairly consistent: Last year, the Miss America organization made available more than $45 million in cash and scholarship assistance at the local, state and national levels.

The winner of Miss America takes home $30,000, but she’s often pocketed thousands more along the way.

“I see it as a training ground for the rest of my life,” says Heidi Voight, Miss Connecticut. “I was living in a studio apartment with a hamster and no light when I first started competing.”

And if the reality-show treatment reveals contestants to be all too human, that doesn’t bother Christina Hall, Miss New Mexico.

“There’s this image of Miss America as this flawless, untouchable creature,” she says. “It used to be reserved for the daughters of the wealthiest, most powerful families of every state. It’s not that way anymore.”

CMT’s Villadolid agrees.

“In a lot of pageants these women are reduced to models,” he says. “I think that what ‘Pageant School’ has done is it has really humanized them. They’re shown as approachable, down-to-earth, smart women.”