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.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More