ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE PAGEANT GOES INTERACTIVE, letting its audience help trim the list of 10 semifinalists down to the final five.
Miss America Pageant viewers have long wished they could vote on who wins. This year, they can - by calling in to help narrow the field to five finalists.
``For the first time in our history, '' said Leonard Horn, chief executive officer of the pageant, ``we are ... taking viewers out of their armchairs and putting them into the judges' box.''
As a follow-up to last year's call-in votes on the swimsuit competition, the pageant will allow viewers the opportunity to vote for about 70 minutes during the Sept. 14 telecast on NBC.
Viewers will help choose five finalists from the field of 10 semifinalists. Judges in Convention Hall will take over in the final round.
The calls, which cost 50 cents apiece, will be made to numbers set up by AT&T - one for each semifinalist.
In effect, the audience will sit as the eighth judge, with their collective vote carrying one-eighth of the total vote. After that, only the votes of the seven celebrity judges will count toward who is chosen Miss America 1997, Horn said.
The contestant who gets the most call-in votes will be awarded 10 points. The others will be assigned a score between 1 and 10, based on the number of votes they receive as a percentage of the top vote-getter's total.
Horn said the system will block repeat calls from the same telephone to prevent any one person or household from stuffing the ballot box.
However, blocking multiple calls from the same number does not make the vote more representative of viewers. The sample is still self-selected, and people in households with three viewers have one-third the opportunity to vote as those in households with one viewer.
Pageant officials say they are still trying to figure out how to beat home-state bias. That is, contestants from the most populated states could have a statistical advantage to begin with because of more viewers.
There was immediate criticism of the plan.
``You have young ladies entering this seriously with the idea they're going to be judged by `professional judges,''' said Harry O'Neill, vice chairman of the Roper Division of Roper Starch Worldwide Inc., a national marketing and public opinion research company.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB