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Back on broadcast TV, Miss America Pageant waves hello to a big ratings gain

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Teresa Scanlan, the 17-year-old Miss Nebraska, took the crown as the Miss America Pageant returned to network TV and won a huge ratings increase Saturday.

An average of 6.6 million viewers tuned in to the two-hour event on ABC, according to the Nielsen Co.

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That’s a fraction of the audience the pageant commanded at its peak decades ago -- in 1988, for example, Miss America scored 33 million viewers -- but it represented a 47% hike over last year, when it ran on cable network TLC.

As viewing declined over the years, pageant organizers tried moving the telecast to cable, which resulted in even lower ratings. This time around, the pageant easily won its time slot on a repeat-heavy night with light viewing overall.

What did you think of the pageant? Does it belong on network or cable?

-- Scott Collins
twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT

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