Last week, as Bellew was watching the televised show, a volunteer turned to her and said: “If I didn’t know the girls, I wouldn’t watch that for two hours.” Every former Junior Miss and volunteer in the room agreed.Īmerica’s Junior Miss is not the only distressed pageant. Yet even the program’s most devoted fans admit the show’s format was stilted. The contestants, she said, delivered the best reality they could. “They tell us they want more backstabbing,” Bellew said, “but ugliness and viciousness is a problem for us. This year, Junior Miss relied heavily on local taxpayer support, with the city and county of Mobile providing a third of the program’s $1-million budget.Īfter experimenting with a behind-the-scenes “reality” TV concept last year, the program was told it needed more cutthroat competition. Yet the show’s popularity has dwindled since its heyday in 1965, when it began a 23-year run on national television and was sponsored by Coca-Cola and Kodak.

None of its winners had to turn in her crown after nude pictures popped up somewhere.

Its contestants were girls just graduated from high school - not the more worldly women you would find over in, say, Atlantic City, at the Miss America contest. “We decided to draw a line in the sand.”Īmerica’s Junior Miss was a pageant meant to honor an age of innocence. “We didn’t want our girls eating bugs or taking their clothes off,” Bellew said.