Miss America Pageant Inks 3-Year TV Deal With ABC

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (WOLO/AP) — The Miss America organization has agreed to a new three-year broadcast deal with ABC. The deal announced Monday between the organization and Dick Clark Productions will keep the pageant on ABC through 2018. The pageant is televised from Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall each September. Daja Dial the reigning Miss South Carolina, was the Lifestyle and Fitness winner on day one of three preliminary nights for the 2016 Miss America Competition. Dial, a 22-year-old Clemson student was crowned Miss South Carolina in June; she advanced to the Top 7 of the Miss America pageant. The Miss America pageant began in Atlantic City in 1921 as a way to extend the summer tourist season for a week after Labor Day. It moved to Las Vegas for six years before returning to Atlantic City in 2013.