Miss America has fallen on hard times

I haven't watched the Miss America Pageant in years. I'm not alone. What had been an American institution, a time when the entire family gathered around the TV to watch the competition, has sunk to near oblivion.

After the networks dropped the show because of anemic ratings, CMT (Country Music Television) picked it up, but even for cable, the viewership was so low, CMT dropped it.

The latest attempt to resurrect the pageant is on TLC (The Learning Channel), which has turned the competition into a reality show. It could be worse. The pageant could have ended up on one of TLC's sister channels, like Animal Planet.

The promos say, "The Pageant like you've never seen it before." If it involves some sort of mud wrestling, I'm there.

The Miss America Pageant will be televised Saturday, Jan. 26, at 8 p.m. on TLC. The event is taking place at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

Based on these Associated Press photos by Jae C. Hong of preliminary competition, I might give Miss America another chance. In case you want to root for one of these contestants, from top to bottom: Miss Michigan, Miss Washington, Miss Nevada and Miss Virginia.