Let's Learn About Judges!!!

Whoooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooo for Competition Day #1!!!!!

For those of you who are newly introduced to this blog and/or my emails - Today is officially the beginning of the selection process for our new Miss America! How does it work? Glad you asked! All 53 contestants are divided into 3 different groups. There are 4 different categories that each contestant participates in... Swimsuit (Lifestyle and Fitness), Evening Wear, Talent and Private Interview. In order to determine the Top 10 or Top 15 finalists, the judges will see each contestant in each phase of competition and give them a score between 1-10. The Top 10/Top 15 girls with the highest scores are named 'finalists' and that's who you see compete live on Saturday night.

Private Interviews start today... and account for 25% of a contestant's total score. Other breakdowns are as follows:

Swimsuit = 15%
Evening Wear = 20%
Talent = 35%
On-Stage Question (during Evening Wear) = 5%

Why is interview so important? Well, we don't want a 'dummy' for Miss America, but more importantly, the private interview sets the tone for how the judges view you for the remainder of the competition (even though it shouldn't). If you have a bad or a good interview, they likely will remember such when it's time to score you in another area.

Now - for the most important part of the competition ---- JUDGES!!!!!!





"But why are the judges so important?" you ask... because one set of judges may have a completely different take on the winner than a different group of judges. It all depends on how THEY score you.

Click on the judges photos if you would like to read the fine print about each Judge... Important items of note include:

1. Joy Behar. Crazy glad I didn't have her for a judge. Wondering if she'll try to dominate the questioning/conversation as opposed to hearing from the girls themselves. I think the only reason she was chosen is because Rush Limbaugh judged the pageant last year and this is the response for all the Lefties who were upset about it. Look for Ann Coulter to judge next year (HA! - Wouldn't she be a hoot!).

2. Dancing With The Stars and Desperate Housewives. Obviously, ABC got to have some infulence this year, since the pageant is on their channel. Hope Tony and Mark have a clue how to judge a pageant.

3. Debbye Turner. A Fabulous Miss America who tried to win in 2 different states over several years before she decided to play the Marimba as her Talent, not the drums. She was fantastic on the drums, but let's face it - you can't crown a Miss America who plays 'wipe out' on the drums as her talent. Very glad she's in this group to guide others and offer insights on her year as Miss America.

Not that the other judges aren't important - but these are my highlights for consideration. Now, they do throw out the high and the low score on each girl, so no one judge can single handily choose the winner (giving one girl all 10's and giving everyone else 1's or 2's), but just know, if you can't charm Joy, I'm guessing you're not going to win this year.

OK - Long Post today during my lunch break --- hope you found it to be worth it!

OH - and thanks to Angela for being the second person in addition to my own sister who's officially 'following' this blog! Good to know i have 2 fans :)

Later!!!

crl