| Subject: THE BIG OLD COMPETITION POST |
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Date Posted: 23:28:53 12/30/19 Mon
It is an hour until New Year's Eve!
First of all, I want to give my deepest condolences to the Miss Louisiana Organization and anyone who know the lovely, talented Carley McCord. This is so heartbreaking. I just saw a news article where she tried to contact her husband before the unfortunate event. I can handle when someone lives a full life and just gets tired. I have a very hard time with someone so young and full of life not being able to see it to its potential. My thoughts are with all of you right now.
(This got a little long, so sit back and read when you have some time)
FINALLY! I get some time to post about the contest/competition/The Voice? I had work to do-lol it doesn’t exactly fly taking an almost week off this time of year. But alas, I am done. Well, where to begin with this? I guess at the beginning. The stage wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but such a step down from Convention/Boardwalk Hall. I know we weren’t going to have a runway, that’s too oh I don’t know, pageant-related, but I thought the stage was very plain compared to what we are used to. But hey, it could have been a lot worse. The prelim stage was REALLY plain. I didn’t really care for the opening introductions, specifically, the grouping of the contestants. There was nothing bad about the regular parade of states. I think they tried to make it look fashion forward, but hopefully none of the contestant’s evening gowns got too dirty having to sit on the floor. Calling out the contestants initially was fine. At least they didn’t drag it out. I appreciated that they didn’t go to commercial, that the top 15 just got to do their thing. I did not like how it was dragged out over two or three commercials announcing the top 7. I don’t think I would have minded the judges’ questions if we had a three-hour telecast. The contestants, as everyone could see, seemed so rushed. I thought that Colorado, despite her rapid speaking, might have been our winner at first. She spoke very intelligently and eloquently. And I thought that Alabama spoke very eloquently as well, too. I had Missouri out initially and Oklahoma after those rounds, because I knew GA and VA weren’t going anywhere, I thought CT sounded very genuine, and CO and AL spoke very well. I wasn’t thrilled about the Baby Boomer question, though I am not one. Some of the others I thought were fair questions. The problem with that round is that most of the contestants sounded so rushed that I would have rather had one or two well-answered questions that I could understand.
In the talent competition, Missouri didn’t do as well then as she did during preliminaries. It looked like the lights were down. The stage was dark in preliminaries, but it had some sort of light overhead. Even Karamo noticed how bad it was for her. It seemed like Simone was very careful, especially in the beginning. Connecticut did about the same in her final night performance as she did in preliminaries. Oklahoma did about the same as well. Georgia, to me, was the clear standout talent. Virginia was about the same as she did in preliminaries. I did not like the elimination once again. By that time, you could tell that the first person was moving forward. Sadly, I knew Connecticut was out. I was thinking that she might be the winner. I know that I didn’t necessarily have her on my solid top 15 list, but she really seemed to excel and get excited as the night went along. I hate to bring up “the old system”, but I think if this was in the CMN prime years, Jillian might have won. I said this about her earlier, but I really could have pictured her with sick children. And I was starting to question VA. I thought that something was off about her all night-she seemed kind of nervous and uptight, whereas GA seemed a little more relaxed and eager. I also thought MO had reached the end of the road by that competition, even though her talent was better than some of the others. I thought perhaps OK was headed forward. When MO did, I really thought she was going to win. In my opinion, she did the best job of presenting herself during that SII round, or whatever the hell it was. I once heard a voter talking about a person running for Congress here. The man said, “I wasn’t really considering voting for him until he asked me for his vote”. MO was the only one who really directly asked for the job of Miss America. And by that time, she kept gaining confidence and momentum each round. So much so, I thought that MO and GA were going to be the final two. Again, there was just something about VA that I was surprised that she kept advancing. I thought that GA and MO had more stage presence and seemed to be more relaxed than she was. And I think like most people, I thought it was kind of refreshing when MO kept walking off in different directions. She was real. I hate that term sometimes (it’s been shoved down our throats with Jennifer Lawrence), but there Simone was, just kind of against the uptight trends of the night. Like Gabriela the year before, I could have seen her walking in and speaking to kids. And then there was Victoria, who genuinely seemed to want it. It’s not that the others didn’t, you just could feel Victoria’s wanting this. I thought she was doing everything she needed to do. I don’t know, I had this feeling that although I wanted it to be her, I was kind of starting to see it for VA. And don’t get me wrong, I do like Camille. I also started to think about the “trend”. The age of Miss America has gotten older the past few years, and Camille was older. No one can complain about her looks-she is very regal looking and looked like a Miss America. I was a little surprised that it was MO that was “eliminated”. I just really did not like those eliminations. By that time, I really wasn’t 100 percent sure who had won. I still thought Victoria did more all night and all week to win. But then again, I couldn’t explain it, but I think that Camille was going to win. I want to go back and watch the pageant in its entirety, but there was one thing that kind of concerned me with Victoria, too. Kelly Rowland asked her, “Do you have any interests besides foster care?” I wasn’t a huge fan of that question, either. I don’t know if the judges thought perhaps that she was too focused, if there was such a thing. Or maybe one-dimensional. Earlier, I saw a wonderful special on CBS where they showed stories about children being adopted out of foster care. I still think it would have been a wonderful platform, but it’s not meant to be this year. And if I really think about it, would you want anyone you liked and respected to have to put up with the current climate of the MAO this year?
The crowning was at least like old times EXCEPT for the fact that for the first time in history, the outgoing winner did not have even have a final walk. For god’s sakes, she served an extra three months. Did she not deserve even a 30 second farewell? They could have maybe actually announced 4 and 3 in the first round to make room for Nia’s farewell. I also thought they waited too long of a pause. Just announce the winner. I think at least on the surface, Victoria took it well. We are only starting to hear bits and pieces about what the week was like for the titleholders. I don’t know if anyone has heard how she feels about her experience, but she couldn’t have done anything more.
I do like Camille and it seems like she is controversial, but I do like her. I would say that she’s going to have to work a bit on seeming nervous and speaking too rapidly, but I am sure she will get it down. During her first press conference, she handled it like a pro. She is very well-spoken and gives good answers. The only thing I didn’t like was her answer about the allegations that Katelynne Cox made. I would have to have to face one of my MAO sisters and more or less come out against her. I don’t think that Camille answered very strongly, but I know I would personally feel uncomfortable having to tow the line at the event of one of my competition sisters. The only other drawback I would see with her is her saying several times now that she has no talent. I knew this would be debated and will for some time to come, but MAO is still putting an emphasis on talent. For her to come out and say that she has no talent and still won is not convincing.
As far as the “competition” itself, I felt like I was waiting for 2 hours for something to get started that ended without it getting started. That in no way resembled anything but a competition show. And most competition shows these days like AGT, DWTS, The Voice, American Idol-it is about talent and not throwing a few short speaking “competitions” where everyone is talking like they inhaled helium to try and get it all out as much as they can. At least come back to where it was last year-the first hour sucked but once evening gown got going and talent, it was much better than this. Things really have to change. If someone is willing to pay for this to be on the air, then there will be a place for it. And the ratings were better than most of us originally thought. But that doesn’t mean that people will tune in next year. I couldn’t even imagine the Hallmark Channel with it’s so-called “traditional values” wanting to take this on and pay for the rights to it. I think it will stay on the air as long as someone else pays for it. But there’s limits, and I predict that in 5 years a telecast ceases to exist. And with the way numbers are down, no money, no sponsorships and poor leadership, Miss America will likely limp to its 100th year and disappear. I do wish this class the best and I am sure that we will start to hear what their years have been like sooner or later. What the public saw on competition night is not going to fly. It gave no entertainment value to anyone. And what executive does not realize that talent shows while solid in the ratings aren't exactly what they used to be? Hell, American Idol is on its second network now. What used to be the biggest show on TV. I half thought that perhaps if Simon Cowell was a judge that maybe people would tune in. But he would have to be paid well to do it, and I highly doubt he would be interested in a speaking competition like this.
I also think NBC dropped the ball. In the beginning we were led to believe that they were going to distribute all talent videos, although some said that it was smoke and mirrors because they didn't want to pay for talent clearances. I have no reason to doubt the latter. But those videos were never edited or released. To be fair, NBC was not paying the MAO, the MAO was paying them. But they did not do much of anything as far as promotion. It's still somewhat on them if the show is a disaster and from public opinion, it was.
Now, what say you? I've read a lot about this, but I am curious to hear some more opinions. Specifically, who did you have winning throughout the night? I changed several times.
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