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I am looking forward to meeting Abbie over the next few days. Hopefully we get to see her on her tour. I am not sure where she is appearing yet but I will be on the lookout for the morning shows. Now, onto the show!
My first feeling is what I said on Sunday-if you have any complaints about the caliber of the top 5 you are in the minority. If you were unsatisfied with the level of competition in that top 5 you will never be happy with anything. With the exception of TN I could have strongly made a case for the rest of the top 5. I thought it was going to be TX but it could have been any one of them. The cream rose to the top this year, and the judges got it right.
BEGINNING/HOSTS/PRODUCTION
I am not sure why, but I preferred last year's production. Last year's seemed a little classier or something? Maybe it was the hosts. I loathed the introductions. It looked downright cheap. It looked like there was not one other place to go to introduce themselves and someone grabbed a camera. I can't believe it was an issue of money, so I would strongly recommend they do something different in September. Maybe they can have the contestants film them in their home states near an icon or something. Another thing that I did not like was the hints that Terrence was giving. He kept giving away Florida before she was announced, and some of the others had no state clues. I just do not think it is necessary. Let the contestants be genuinely surprised, do them all like that, or not, but part of the announcement is the suspense. What if the wrong contestant thinks it is her? I think last year's overall pageant had more a sense of being traditional. At some points, it dragged on too. The one event was when the formers were introduced and walked down the ramp. Even though it was much longer than it probably should have been, it was nice to give the formers their moment. Some of them probably even shower with the crowns on (ha!) but I thought it was nicely done. There was one point where Nikki was trying to say "Que Sera" and she say "Q Sera rather than K Sera" it was a bit of a gaffe. Otherwise, I think it was somewhat non-eventful.
TOP 10 AND ANNOUCEMENT
I am just keeping it real-there were a few contestants who I was surprised to see there. I am certainly not a judge, and they saw different things than I did. Only their opinion matters at the end of the day. In my opinion, there were a LOT of contestants who outperformed some of the others in the preliminaries. I did not think it was a bad top 10, but more surprising than I originally thought. I think some of it was evident during the rest of the competition, and I will just leave it at that, because I really try and remain supportive of the contestants. The top 10 seemed like the strong ones we were expecting and some who I pretty much knew was not headed for the top 5. I just originally felt like it was a decisive top 5.
FITNESS
Overall, I think this was a very good competition. FL started the competition out strong. TX wasn't as strong a presence but she did have natural confidence and a good walk. WI had a great sparkle about her although I still never had her as high as some of the others. SC seemed stronger than in the preliminaries and had a lot of confidence. You definitely noticed her. CO was a bit better than in preliminaries as well, although she was one of the weaker of the group. OK certainly held her own and seemed natural. GA just didn't seem natural to me, her walk was sort of awkward. MN-she was "okay" not bad. TN had a very laid back presentation, I didn't think she had a lot of energy. OH just killed it-amazing stage presence, great confidence, and that hair! It bounced and she was sassy and fun. She was my tops in this group. I also thought AL was strong. My top 3 in this group were FL, OK, and AL.
"HOT TOPICS"
Either this is hot topics related to culture and the news or it is a platform competition. It cannot be both. Back on that reality show they had in the late 00s (Haglund and Stam's year), they had a competition where they were given a topic and they had to speak extemporaneously. It was explained that sometimes you are expected to speak and do not have any information ahead of time, so you have to sound credible. Not a bad idea at all to have this. But the way that the contestants tried to move it back to their platforms failed miserably, IMO. Also, I do not think it makes sense for contestants to move seats if they are answering in the order they were called out to the top 10. They could pick from a bowl of questions. Actually, that might make it a bit more suspenseful. I remember last year viewers suspecting that some contestants were given topics that would match their platforms or life experiences, etc. A few this year made me feel this way, actually. So, I think it would be a good idea to fine tune this competition. I thought that FL did a fantastic job on her question. She took the topic of technology, talked about it generally, and then moved to her platform. If you were going to transition from the general to platform, this is the way that you did it. Then came TX. This is one where if I believed (which I am not sure, tbh) that a contestant was given a chance to talk about something personal, this would have been it. She completely blew it out of the water. She spoke with conviction, passion, very eloquently stated her story and her family' story. Right then, I thought, "This pageant is over. She just won it with that answer." I think a lot of people watching felt the same. Any hope I had of WI (I really liked her) moving on to the top 10 abruptly ended. She spoke entirely too fast, rambled, and it was just overall poor. Maybe she felt intimated after hearing the first two, I am not sure. But it definitely killed any chance of a top 5 placement. SC-I thought she did okay until she spoke well beyond when the bell chimed. She probably hurt her chances with that. CO-she sounded a bit rehearsed but I thought she did okay. OK-I thought she played it very safe and tried to answer in a non-controversial way about inclusion. This is a term related more to race related topics but she pivoted back to families. I do think she personalized it well and did the best she could to try and hit it down the middle. GA-I admire her for answering this and tackling it because it is also a lightning rod topic. I also admire her honesty because Twitter/Musk is a powder keg as is the decision to censor online posts. Of any of the contestants, I think she answered the most boldly and without worrying about being safe. MN-this was one which I think failed the idea of this. Equality is many things in our society-gender, wage, sexual, etc. I would even say that as an aspiring professional, she might have addressed medical inequality and some of the things that people still struggle with like insurance companies rejecting treatment, the healthcare that our elected officials get vs. those who get other forms of subsidized care, etc. I do think she answered it well enough under the circumstances but again, it was taking a broad topic and relating it to a specific platform. TN-She was another one who pivoted to her platform where I did not think it was relevant, but she did okay. OH-This is where sadly, I started to see her lose the ability to win the pageant. She spoke almost the same way during her onstage question-with a lot of animation in her voice and a bit of word salad. I do not envy having to explain national debt but I have heard at nauseum politicians say, "Hardworking families have to budget their own money, we need to budget ours too." Had she done something like that it would have been probably okay. AL-This was another question where I felt like she might have had a prior idea or something that was on her radar. That is a compliment, because she answered very directly, having a statistic to back it up. I thought she did very well with that question and might have made a difference in the judges' mind. Honestly, after that competition, I thought TX had won it all.
TALENT
FL wasn't quite as strong as she was in prelims but I still gave it a solid 8. TX was strong-I didn't realize it was slam poetry, I had it as a HERStory but she did very well. She spoke with passion and conviction and was very personal. I listened to her words and she was very effective. I gave it a high 8. WI-she was a very good dancer. Great movement, I felt the emotion, and she just lit up that stage. I gave that a very high 8, close to a 9. I wrote at the time that I hoped it would get her back into the top 5. SC-She started out strong, stronger than she sounded in prelims, but then the end kind of fell apart. It was a 6 overall for me. CO-she seemed off key and it was a performance that lacked energy. It was only a 5 for me. OK-I thought she looked cute and displayed a lot of personality. It was a solid 7 for me. GA-Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as her preliminary performance. She hit a lot of sour notes and got really off key at times. It seemed like she was trying to give it her all but ended up not working. It was a high 7 for me. MN-I would love to never see Proud Mary at a pageant again because nobody comes close to being Tina Turner, you might as well forget it. I thought it lacked energy and I would have almost that she tried to emulate Tina because it would have worked better. 5 from me. TN-She also did a little better in preliminaries but she really came alive when she hit her range. You could definitely hear her training and ability. 9 from me, the best of the top 10 and probably the pageant. These are talents that are rare these days but you used to hear. OH-I thought it was a solid performance, I would have given in a strong 7. AL-also another strong performance. She had a lot of good movement, emotion, and she had a lot of energy. I put it the same as WI-A very high 8, close to 9. I actually had TN, WI, AL, and TX as the strongest in talent with FL right behind them.
GOWN
FL started this out very strong-it was a flawless USA like presentation. Strong 9 for me. TX-She upped her game from preliminaries, she floated confidently across that stage, she had something memorable. 9 as well for me. WI-She had a great look but her presentation wasn't as strong as the others. I wanted to give it more but I gave it a high 7 just because I think she just needed a bit more stage presence. SC-She had a lot of stage presence and a natural, flowing confidence. Strong 8 from me. CO-She looked nice, didn't have a lot of stage presence and then unfortunately slipped a bit. I gave it a 6 and did not really think about the slip-she recovered well and made the best of it. OK-I thought she had a nice presentation. 7 for me. GA-She was just "okay" for me. She had that beautiful gown but she also seemed so laid back and moved very slowly. A 6 for me. The same for me with MN-I gave it a 6. She wasn't bad but certainly not memorable. I also had TN as a 6, although a higher one than the previous 2 contestants. Then came the final 2. OH was very pretty, not as strong as her preliminary presentation, but I gave it a solid 8. AL was also a solid 8 for me based on confidence and stage presence. I had FL and TX as the strongest in gown and then OH and AL, which was pretty much the way this night was going.
TOP 5 AND ANNOUCEMENT
To me, the whole night was about AL, FL, OH, and TX. They were all completely strong across the board. The only time I scored less than an 8 for any of them was OH in talent but that was a solid 7 for me. All of these contestants came to win. Then there were the rest of the top 10. There was such a division between the top 4 and the rest of them that I had a hard time figuring out who was going to be the final pick for the 5. I practically had SC and said she would be 4th RU if she got in. I also thought WI had a shot if they forgave her hot topic answer. The only possibility I had was TN besides them but she only really excelled at talent and wasn't memorable in other areas. There was also the possibility that I thought OH was going to miss the top 5. I couldn't put my finger on it on Sunday night, but looking back now it was her speaking, which we will address next. I thought there was a possibility that SC and WI could have taken the final two with FL, AL, and TX. But thankfully, the judges got this one completely right.
FINAL QUESTION
Overall, there was not one bad answer in this group. TN reminded me a bit of Abbie Rabine with "Champion Your Challenges" and that kind of answer. I think she rambled a bit but was good enough. AL-I think she had a good answer, and she once again, had a lot of specific examples. I watched back a second time, and I really think that her communication is very direct and she has a lot to say in each answer. TX-I wrote "perfect!" in my notes and it was very passionate. She speaks so well. FL-She was well-spoken, clear, and also packed a lot into her answer. OH-Once again, she spoke a bit too overdramatically but she did give a clear answer. I do not think anyone lost it in this competition, but I think it solidified that OH was not going to win.
My predictions were:
4th RU-TN
3rd RU-OH
2nd RU-AL
1st RU-FL
Miss America-TX
I guess I wasn't surprised when OH was called out first but I was surprised that TN placed that high. When it came down to AL and TX, I still had TX winning. However, something clued me in that Abbie was going to win. If you look off to the side, you will see that Heather took out her camera and took a picture. I can't explain it, I just kind of "knew." I am sure that even if Abbie had finished first runner-up that she would have been proud of her home state but I just kind of felt like maybe she knew? I have long heard the judges know ahead of time who won but I cannot confirm. Does anyone know if that is true? During the wait, AL and TX were both so sweet to each other. It was very touching to me because I felt like both of them genuinely seemed to support each other. I actually thought AL looked a bit more nervous and TX was full of joy. And, she was full of joy when she was called out as first RU.
I guess the big question is: what does TX have to do to win Miss America? Shirley Cothran was there for her 50 year celebration (and if anyone cares, she is on my top 10 list of least favorite Miss Americas and I will tell you why if you care to know lol) and I thought that Annette was going to finally break that long streak. TX sends at very least top 10 contenders every year. I always said they would have to change the style from the old style Miss TX and they have. Yet, they still can't come through. 2 years ago with Averie, she wasn't as strong in competition as Ellie was last year and Annette this year and I can understand why she didn't win. (I saw her as a real contender when she won Miss TX) The only thing that was a weaker area for Ellie was her talent and it was certainly passable and she did her best with it. This year, there were zero holes in Annette's competition. I do not think there was one more thing she could have done to become Miss America. I am sure she's going to be okay but I hope that she doesn't spend any time second guessing herself.
Some of my favorites during the week who I did not know much about before this week was AZ-I thought she had a great platform and personal reasons for picking it; HI-She was warm and someone you felt you could connect with plus a great competition; IN-just so darned cute; MD and MO-both spot on this week and I hope we see them in other systems; MI-a great young woman with a future in the NBA, I wish we could have gotten to know her more in the top 10; NJ-shone all week, very comfortable with herself; SD-I loved her platform because it showed us how much she loved nature, she was very stylish, too; and VT-I loved her talent and her platform. This was in addition to some of my favorites like KY and LA who I knew coming into this competition.
[> Subject: (mini rant) TX is a victim of vote of the heart/final ballot. I just hate that the judges have the opportunity to place the highest scoring girl in last place because they do not like short girls, girls with tattoos, girls with natural hair, girls without super long extentions, etc. (end rant) I agree with production - PageantVision is not as good as JC, but JC is spendier & everything will alwqys be better than the 100th 🫨 Thank you for coming back each year. See you when we next gather for this institution ❤️
[> [> Subject: I was wondering about that. The contestants were said to be started with a clean slate the night of the competition, but did they use a final 5 ballot? That part is unclear. Interestingly, I think that is why FL finished behind TN if that is the case. I get OH after her speaking skills but FL was absolutely flawless all night and based on her performance deserved top 3. I think that would generally be agreed upon by anyone who watched. When they went by who had the most points you had great winners. There have been so many changes I couldn't even tell you when they did it last but it seemed like it was in AC when they moved back for a while.
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