TO CLOSE

The newly formatted Miss America contest has created a mix of reactions from its target audience.
USA TODAY & # 39; HUI

Miss America 2019 Nia Imani Franklin is stormed after being crowned at Boardwalk Hall.(Photo: THOMAS P. COSTELLO, Asbury Park Press via USA TODAY NETWORK)

NEW YORK (AP) – The The Miss America ceremony subtracted swimsuit competition for the first time in 98 years of history and also subtracted one million viewers.

Nielsen said that 4.34 million people attended the annual ABC Sunday ceremony, down 19 percent from 5.35 million viewers last year. The decline in audience has been a consistent trend in recent years.

With Miss America now under the leadership of former Fox News personality Gretchen Carlson, swimsuits have been left behind. Instead, they were replaced by live interviews where participants talked about President Trump, protests by NFL players, and other topics.

Still, the decision was the subject of criticism. A few minutes before the start of the nationwide television broadcast, a comedian warming up the crowd said that there would be no swimsuit competition, attracting big noises of the public.

More: New Miss America is "happy", she did not need to wear a swimsuit to win

Automatic reading

Thumbnails poster

Show captions

Last slide next

This was the lowest number of viewers since 2009, when it was broadcast on the TLC cable channel and reached only 3.54 million people. He returned to the ABC television broadcast in 2011, and his audience reached 8.6 million in 2013.

New Yorker Nia Franklin was crowned Miss America Sunday.

The number of viewers has declined steadily in recent years, from 7.1 million in 2015 to 6.29 million in 2016 and 5.35 million last year.

Backed by two NFL games, NBC won the prime-time week with an average of 9.3 million viewers. CBS had 3.8 million, Fox 3.52 million, ABC 3.45 million, Univision 1.32 million, ION 1.3 million, Telemundo 1.25 million and CW 740,000.

ESPN was the most popular cable network of the week, averaging 2.57 million viewers. Fox News Channel had 2.26 million, MSNBC 1.99 million, the United States 1.38 million and HGTV 1.35 million.

ABC's "World News Tonight" dominated evening television news with an average of 8.3 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.5 million and the "CBS Evening News" 5.9 million.

For the week of September 3 to 9, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewers: NFL Football: Chicago to Green Bay, NBC, 22.12 million; NFL Football: Atlanta in Philadelphia, NBC, 19.03 million; "NFL Pre-Kick Show" (Thursday), NBC, 15.61 million euros; "NFL Pre-Kick Show" (Sunday), NBC, 15.41 million; "NFL Weather Delay", NBC, 12.76 million; "The OT", Fox, 12.33 million; "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.7 million; "Football Night in America", NBC, 10.46 million euros; "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 9.89 million euros; Nick Opening Kick-Off Show, NBC, 8.73 million.

Read or share this story: https://usat.ly/2x3P1Ne