MISS AMERICA 2020

How many of you watched the 99th anniversary of the Miss America 2020 2.0 pageant, which occurred Thursday night at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut?  90% of this affair has previously occurred at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.  Chances are, you didn't even know it was held, as the media never really picked it up.  You'll find out why by the end.

To the right is Nia Franklin, Miss American 2109.  I remember when this was a huge event early in September.  A lot has changed, thus 2.0:

• participants are now candidates, not contestants
• there is no swimsuit exhibition
• there is no evening gown competition

• everyone who appears must have something of social relevancy to offer
• preliminary competition now is based on:
• interviews (35%)
• talent (50%)
• social impact (15%)
• but there are two more stages, and chemistry/presence plus social impact really come into play

• past judges had reputation and credibility to offer--the three judges this year were nobodies

This is to portray the woman of today and tomorrow.  Not the crass carnival of the past.  It was also mostly boring.  

In a way you can blame/credit/praise Gretchen Carlson of Bombshell (got an 86 Rotten Tomatoes rating from audiences, where Carlson is played by Nicole Kidman) fame.  Naomi Watts was it in The Loudest Voice in the Room.  Russell Crowe will probably win the Emmy for his Roger Ailes.performance.

Having graduated from Stanford, with year at Oxford, she offed Roger Ailes of Fox in 2016, and went on to become chairwoman of the Miss America Organization in 2018, where she promptly removed the swimsuit competition. Thus came Miss American 2.0, where contestants are not judged at all for physical appearance.

The candidates also were not as good looking as in the past.  Who am I to make any judgement of beauty?  Well, there is a general universality in looks, as indicated in my posting last week, this comparing Judy Garland with some of the other up and coming female stars of those days:

Judy was not particularly held in high respect at MGM then, for she was competing with Ava Gardner, Lana Turner and Elizabeth Taylor, real beauties, which Garland wasn't.

Also too, two of the three girls I dated in high school went on to enter the Cherry Blossom contest, and third became Miss Teen Hawaii.  Sure, that was more than 60 years ago, but, find the Miss America 2019 TV show and you'll agree with me that more than half were below average in looks.  

That was the first year when the swimsuit competition was discarded.  That must have concerned the promoters, for the girls this year seemed better looking.  Oh, by that way, this is Gretchen when she became Miss America 30 years ago.

First runner-up Victoria Hill (right) was impressive.  She had great stage presence, with an operatic voice.  

Miss American 2020, Camille Schrier from Virginia, said:

"I kind of figured that I would never get on that stage because I was a woman who did not want to get into a swimsuit on stage. And I didn't have a performing talent, which is really ironic now," she said, adding how she's the first Miss America to win with a science experiment, a presentation she brings to schools.

Her talent?

Dressed in a lab coat, she gave a colorful chemistry demonstration of the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide.

She is 24 and a cum laude graduate of Virginia Tech with dual BSs in biochemistry and systems biology.  She is studying to obtain a doctor of pharmacy degree.

So here is Miss American 2020, Camille Schrier:

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