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A modest success for Miss America’s reality experiment

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TLC did better than expected with Saturday’s live airing of the Miss America pageant, although the telecast’s reach was still a long way from its glory days on network TV.

An average of 3.6 million total viewers tuned in to ‘Miss America Live,’ a 50% jump over last year’s ceremony on rival cable outlet CMT, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. The program was the night’s No. 1 cable show among women ages 18 to 49.

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The live ceremony in Las Vegas was preceded for the first time by a four-episode unscripted series, ‘Miss America: Reality Check,’ which followed the 52 contestants as they prepared for the pageant. Friday’s finale logged 1.1 million total viewers.

Nevertheless, the pageant itself is a faint echo of its former status as a broadcast TV perennial. Earlier this decade, the show was still averaging 10 million or so viewers a year.

-- Scott Collins

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