Miss America scored for TLC. The show averaged 3.63 million viewers Jan. 26, according to Nielsen Media Research. That was up 52% from last year, when the pageant ran on CMT and brought in 2.4 million viewers, and up 18% over 2006 on CMT when it averaged 3.07 million total viewers.
The pageant, formally titled MissAmericaLive!,was the No. 1 show on cable for the night with viewers 18-34 (1.25 million), women 18-49 (1.44 million), women 25-54 (1.06 million) and women 18-34 (924,000). All of those demos were up at least 88% over last year.
It was No. 2 in viewers 18-49 and 25-54 (1.9 million and 1.6 million, respectively). This was the pageant’s first year on TLC, which bolstered it with a reality show in the weeks preceding Saturday’s telecast. That, plus a dearth of other options due to the writers’ strike, likely helped to boost interest in the show. The telecast’s median age was 37, almost seven years younger than it was last year.
Miss America is one of the first big programming events on TLC under new programming chief Angela Shapiro. It moved to cable on CMT two years ago after posting its worst ever broadcast performance on ABC the year before.
