By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The Miss America ceremony subtracted the swimsuit competition for the first time in its 98-year history, and subtracted one million television viewers, too.
The Nielsen company said 4.34 million people watched the annual ceremony on ABC Sunday, down 19 percent from the 5.35 million viewers last year. Declining viewership has been a consistent trend for the pageant over the past few years.
With Miss America now under the leadership of former Fox News personality Gretchen Carlson, the swimsuits were left behind. Instead, they were replaced by onstage interviews where contestants talked about President Trump, the NFL player protests and other topics.
Yet the decision has been the subject of criticism. Minutes before the nationally televised broadcast began, a comedian warming up the crowd mentioned there would be no swimsuit competition, drawing loud boos from the audience.
It was the pageant’s lowest viewership since 2009, when it was shown on cable’s TLC channel and reached only 3.54 million people. It returned to broadcast TV on ABC in 2011, and its audience has gotten as high as 8.6 million in 2013.
New Yorker Nia Franklin was crowned Miss America on Sunday.
Viewership has declined steadily in recent years, from 7.1 million in 2015, to 6.29 million in 2016 and last year’s 5.35 million.
Buoyed by two NFL games, NBC won the week in primetime, averaging 9.3 million viewers. CBS had 3.8 million, Fox had 3.52 million, ABC had 3.45 million, Univision had 1.32 million, ION had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.25 million and the CW had 740,000.
ESPN was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.57 million viewers. Fox News Channel had 2.26 million, MSNBC had 1.99 million, USA had 1.38 million and HGTV had 1.35 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.3 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.5 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.9 million. Nielsen’s top programs for Sept. 3-9
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Sept. 3-9. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: Chicago at Green Bay, NBC, 22.12 million.
2. NFL Football: Atlanta at Philadelphia, NBC, 19.03 million.
3. “NFL Pre-Kick Show” (Thursday), NBC, 15.61 million.
4. “NFL Pre-Kick Show” (Sunday), NBC, 15.41 million.
5. “NFL Weather Delay,” NBC, 12.76 million.
6. “The OT,” Fox, 12.33 million.
7. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 10.7 million.
8. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 10.46 million.
9. “America’s Got Talent” (Wednesday), NBC, 9.89 million.
10. “NFL Opening Kick-off Show, NBC, 8.73 million.
11. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.1 million.
12. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6 million.
13. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.96 million.
14. College Football: Virginia Tech vs. Florida St., ESPN, 5.65 million.
15. “Big Brother” (Wednesday),” CBS, 5.53 million.
16. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 5.52 million.
17. “Rel,” Fox, 5.49 million.
18. “Big Brother,” (Sunday), CBS, 5.48 million.
19. “Big Brother,” (Thursday), CBS, 5.23 million.
20. “World of Dance,” NBC, 5.17 million.
ABC and ESPN are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More