Modernizing Miss America: BIG MISTAKE

Try and stay with me here (this isn't as big of a stretch as you'd initally think)- Saturday's 2008 Miss America pageant taught me A LOT about the dangers of modernization.

Much like the idea behind organizations incorporating blogging in an effort to stay up-to-date with expanding communication technologies, this year's Miss America pageant tried to spruce up their image. With a radically different format (think American Idol meets The Appentice meets the worst in reality TV), the pageant featured, among other embarressing things, a DJ spinning music on stage, a pathetic script and 52 ill-prepared and confused contestants.

The organization's decision to change the show is understandable. For years, the show has been on a constant downward spiral in terms of viewer popularity and commercial appeal. ABC dropped the show in 2004, followed by CMT, who cancelled their potential six-year contract with the organization after just two years. Here's a look at the show's decline:

1988- 33.1 million viewers (NBC)
2004- 9.8 million viewers (ABC)
2006- 3.1 million viewers (CMT)
2007- 2.4 million viewers(CMT)
(source: E!News Online)

Despite the show's so-called hip makeover, it's my guess that the number of viewers this year will be even lower, which brings me to my point- modernization is a tricky game that can prove fatal for organizations who are built on tradition.

It's honorable that the Miss America Organization allegedly wanted to update the show in light of the times- showcase more "real" women instead of the big-haired, plastered-smiling mannequins that have come to represent the pageant in years past.

Somewhere along the way to its image overhaul, however, the show lost it's class and sophistication- the very qualities that people have admired for 87 years (unless you're a guy, in which case you were happy to see this year's sexed-up swimsuit portion).

So, a word of caution to all looking to update their organization: if you lose your foundation, you will crumble. Miss America tried to target my age demographic with its gimmicky reality series, awful porn-like background music and "hard-hitting" questions (my favorite being: "Do you think Jamie Lynn Spears should be fired from her Nickelodeon show for getting pregnant?"...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?). They failed miserably. To be quite honest, I was offended that this was their perception of what people my age would like to see on TV.

Modernization doesn't have to be tacky. I'll be the first to admit that I thought blogging was cheesy. However, I'm learning that if done correctly, blogging (and all modernization techniques) has the potenial to catapult an organization successfully into the 21st century.

And with that, I wish the PR execs at The Miss America Organization the best of luck in crafting next year's pageant- if they don't get fired before then.