‘No bikinis? No way!’ US TV audiences ditch Miss America pageant for football in ratings bomb

The 98th Miss America pageant has faced-off with the first football game of the season in the primetime TV spot… and lost. Significantly. The number of viewers who tuned in to the ABC’s screening of the beauty competition plummeted 36 percent in ratings compared to last year – which was then a record-low performance. Funnily enough, last year’s dismal attempt, the one that also went up against the very first Sunday of the NFL regular season as well. Apparently ABC just does not learn.

According to showbiz news site The Wrap, ABC’s “Miss America” pageant averaged a 1.1 rating/4 share and had 5.4 million total viewers in 2017. Fast forward 12 months, and the revamped (less sexy) format managed to limp to a 0.7/3 and 4.3 million viewers. In other words, it was comparatively down 36 percent in the key demo and a mere 19 percent among overall audience members.

NBC and Fox – who both had telecasts for Sunday’s football games – dominated the Nielsen figures. NBC totalled an average of 16.3 million viewers in primetime. Those robust numbers are due to a combination of the NBC’s 80-minute pregame studio show and as much of the Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers game that would fit, as the game overruns the  primetime slot. Fox came in second with 7.1 million viewers with its NFL overrun, postgame coverage, a new sitcom, followed by reruns.

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