Pageant hopes updated look will draw younger viewers

This is not your grandmother’s pageant.

Or so says everyone at the Miss Universe Organization, which hosts the Miss USA Pageant, airing globally March 2.

Organizers are preparing for a high-energy, fast-paced production, an updated pageant for the 21st century.

"That’s what people want to see," said Theresa A. Beyer, vice president of the Miss Universe Organization, from Gary, Ind., where the Miss USA pageant will be held. "The center core is still the competition but we’ve updated this for the new millennium."

Enter the Internet. For the first time, the pageant will be streamed online, with chat rooms, never-before-seen footage and interviews with the 51 delegates on its Web site, www.missusa.com.

A vision of the organization for a couple of years now, Beyer said they decided there was no better time to unveil the show’s new look like now, its 50th anniversary.

"This year we said we gotta go all out," Beyer said. "This is a very contemporary entertainment special."

The reason: Younger viewers are tuning in, and organizers want to keep them entertained.

Fashion and music are integral parts of the pageant, with a music video-style opening number and an evening gown competition that involves catwalks, runway lighting and club music.

Even the swimsuit competition has been updated. Gone is the parade across the stage. This year the swimsuit segment takes the delegates off the stage and into a very unexpected location (that couldn’t be disclosed), where the viewer is treated to a behind-the-scenes fashion shoot.

But the main focus is still on the competition, one that Beyer compares to reality TV.

"If you really think about it, this was one of the first reality-based shows," she said. "Someone walks away the winner, someone walks away disappointed. It’s like ‘Survivor’ and ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ in one."

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