ABC Strikes Three-Year Extension for 'Miss America Pageant'

Will return to Atlantic City in 2014

By Tim Baysinger -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/14/2013 5:20:17 PM

ABC and the Miss America Organization have a reached a three-year extension for the network to carry the Miss America Pageant. ABC has carried the event since 2011.

It was also announced that the pageant will return to Atlantic City, N.J., where the contest first began in 1921; it had been staged in Las Vegas the past six years. A live event in September is being planned at the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall.

Anthony Eaton and his company, Tall Pony Productions, will continue to produce the Miss America Pageant.

This year's edition on Jan. 12 drew a 1.6 rating with adults 18-49 and 7.08 million total viewers, its largest audience since 2004.