I couldn’t begin to tell you the last time I ever watched one of these. Probably about 40 years ago.
John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” (HBO) did a great (and hilarious) expose on pageants. Not to be missed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDPCmmZifE8
I agree that the Miss America pageant is a dodo that can’t admit it’s extinct.
I haven’t watched one of those in decades. But I have a recollection of Gloria Steinem guest hosting the Today Show, probably in the 80’s, on a day when one of the assignments just “happened” to be interviewing a newly-crowned Miss America. She worked the conversation around to the fact that contestants were required to be virgins, and asked her whether she thought it was fair to withhold a major source of scholarship funding from women just because they weren’t. It was high comedy.