Miss America pageant gets $12M from state in new deal
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on February 16, 2016 at 5:03 PM, updated February 23, 2016 at 9:53 AM
In a meeting Tuesday, the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority gave the green light for $12.5 million in subsidies to go to the Miss America pageant as part of a three-year deal, The Press of Atlantic City reports.
The deal marks an increase in state financial support of Miss America. A previous agreement, which expired after the 2016 pageant in September, brought Miss America back to Atlantic City from Las Vegas in 2013 with a total of $7.3 million in subsidies over three years to underwrite the cost of producing the show.
One stipulation of the new deal is that Dick Clark Productions, which oversaw marketing of the 2016 pageant last September, will have to promote Atlantic City during its other productions — the Billboard Music Awards and New Year's Rockin' Eve, the report says, adding that not everyone on the CRDA board was in favor of the deal. Those voting against the contract included Mark Giannantonio, CEO of Resort Casino Hotel and Howard Kyle, Atlantic County chief of staff.
In November, while the fate of the pageant in Atlantic City was still uncertain, and the CRDA was still in negotiations with pageant officials, the Miss America Organization, also based in the city, announced a three-year deal with ABC. That deal ensured the pageant would continue to be broadcast on network TV through Miss America 2019, which will take place in September of 2018.
After the Miss America pageant left Atlantic City — its home since 1921 — for Las Vegas and the event broadcast moved to cable from network TV, ratings flagged.
In 2013, the pageant, back on ABC, came back to Atlantic City from Las Vegas with a three-year contract that ended in 2015.
CRDA officials have spoken of the pageant's potential to drive tourism and interest in Atlantic City as one reason for supporting the event's future in the struggling casino town. But The Press reports that Atlantic City, not the Miss America organization, paid for $65,000 in security costs related to Miss America because the pageant could not foot the bill.
The 2016 Miss America pageant, which saw the return of former Miss America Vanessa Williams and an apology to Williams from Miss America CEO Sam Haskell for her de-crowning in 1984, managed to retain its audience of approximately 7 million viewers from the 2015 pageant. That was a far cry from the inaugural pageant broadcast in 1954, which drew 27 million viewers, but much improved from the pageant's 2007 showing on CMT, which drew only 2.4 million viewers.
The Miss America Organization, which as a result of a "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" segment, faced criticism in 2014 for a lack of transparency in its scholarship program, partnered with Dick Clark Productions ahead of the 2016 pageant to boost the pageant's pop culture profile. As a result, Miss America could be seen walking the red carpet and presenting honors at various awards shows produced by the company.
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