There She Goes ... Is Miss America on her way out?
Miss America
Miss America was DUMPED. The 86-year-old pageant was dropped by Country Music Television, leaving it without a TV home for the second time in three years. CMT, which is owned by Viacom, and has the rights to air the pageant through 2011 told the organization that it won't take its option to televise the contest in 2008 and after. Miss America is awfully unpopular these days, after 50 years on network TV, ABC dumped the program in 2004 when ratings plummeted. Even CMT's attempt to add reality TV elements seem not to have worked. The pageant is looking for a new home. But has its place in American culture passed?
Readying for the Upfronts
The new presidential primary schedule could dramatically alter political media buying. For the first time in years broadcast TV networks would be able to cash in on primary ads. With California moving its primary to Feb 4, and New York, Illinois, and New Jersey planning to do the same, more than a dozen states will hold primaries that day. And because so many of those states are so big and influential, it's effectively a national primary of sorts. This is good news for the national TV networks but not so good for the local stations, which thrive that time of year ...
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