Miss America 2017: Atlantic City pageant down in the ratings

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Miss Arkansas 2016 Savvy Shields is crowned Miss America 2017 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. (Tim Hawk | For NJ.com)

Tim Hawk | For NJ.com

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By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
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on September 13, 2016 at 3:42 PM, updated September 13, 2016 at 8:13 PM

The Miss America pageant dropped slightly in the ratings for the 2017 pageant, which aired live on ABC Sunday from Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall.
The Wrap reports that the pageant's ratings are down 13.3 percent from the last Miss America among viewers in the 18-to-49 demographic, with 6.2 million viewers. In 2015, the pageant drew approximately 7 million viewers. Both times, the pageant aired opposite the Sunday Night Football season opener on NBC.
Miss America did attract more viewers over the course of its broadcast, as is the trend when people tune in for the final crowning moments. Savvy Shields, Miss Arkansas, was crowned Miss America 2017 after performing a jazz dance routine to music from the former NBC series "Smash" and answering a question about Hillary Clinton. Early on in the competition, as contestants squared off in pageant preliminaries, Miss Missouri, Erin O'Flaherty — the first openly gay Miss America contestant — was the competitor who claimed the most media coverage. She did not, however, make the group of 15 semifinalists who competed during the televised pageant.
The Atlantic City-based Miss America Organization announced that the pageant gained 1.3 million viewers in the 18-to-49 demographic from the first half-hour of the pageant to the final half-hour, moving from 5.6 million viewers 6.9 million viewers for Shields' crowning.

Miss America 2017: 'Savvy' Miss Arkansas wins crown, 6-figure salary

The 2017 Miss America pageant was broadcast live from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Shields, 21, a senior fine arts major at the University of Arkansas, receives a six-figure salary, $50,000 scholarship and an appearance contract with Dick Clark productions that will make her a presence at awards show red carpets.
The pageant also saw a slight decline on social media. Though claiming the week's top spot in Nielsen's Twitter TV Ratings last year, this year the pageant came in second place in TV series and specials for the week to NBC's "Commander-in-Chief Forum" (sports programming is measured on another chart) in the Nielsen Social Content Ratings — which measure both Twitter and Facebook activity.

Savvy Shields being crowned as Miss America 2017

 

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

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