ABC is welcoming Miss America back, but on its own terms.
The network will not be paying a licensing fee to air the pageant when it airs next Jan. 15 as part of a new three-year deal, as some have reported. Instead, the network will be paid in a time-buy arrangement by the pageant, an individual inside ABC told TheWrap.
No terms of the deal were announced beyond the number of years.
The pageant will air on a Saturday night — television's lowest viewing night of the week, when ABC, like the other broadcast networks, has been airing repeats — rather than preempting first-run programming on another night.
Still, it's a win for pageant officials, who saw cable network TLC choose not to renew the pageant after it aired in the final year of its agreement in January. ABC aired Miss America from 1997, when it drew 18.6 million viewers, through 2004, when it drew only 9.8 million.
It drew 4.5 million viewers last year on TLC, with Mario Lopez as host. But after two months of negotiations, discussions were ended and Miss America went looking for another TV partner.
While no one would discuss the reasoning on the record, an individual familiar with the negotiations told TheWrap that TLC was looking for a way to better monetize the pageant beyond just selling commercial time in the telecast, and an agreement could not be reached. Also, the Miss America Organization wanted a three-year deal, and TLC was more partial to a two-year renewal.
Besides the changing values of the American viewing public when it comes to beauty pageants, TV watchers have been getting their fill in recent years with regularly scheduled programming on such shows as The CW's "America's Next Top Model" and Lifetime's "Project Runway," among others.
"People don't just want to watch a staged pageant anymore," Tom Weeks, senior VP of Starcom Entertainment, told The Wrap. "They want to see what goes on behind the scenes, and reality shows now fill that desire better for viewers."
Indeed, even ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson said a few months back, "Beauty pageants never evolved. They never reinvented themselves. They just got stale. We're out of that business."
But when Miss America officials came calling after being dropped by TLC, the network had a change of heart, primarily because it is a no-lose situation.
ABC has been successful in televising college football games in primetime on Saturday nights during the fall, but in first quarter, ratings pretty much fall off the map. So getting paid guaranteed money for a Saturday night time period — rather than having to depend on ratings to charge for advertising — is a win for the network, particularly in a one-shot night of programming.
The Miss America Organization will maintain and oversee the creative direction of the pageant, Art McMaster, president and CEO, said in announcing the deal. It will be produced by Tall Pony Productions, with Anthony Eaton and Lauren Harris as executive producers.
The Miss USA pageant, along with Miss Universe, was just renewed for three more years on NBC, but those pageants are co-owned by NBC Universal, along with Donald Trump.
