Getty Images
The Miss America pageant is changing things up for the 2020 competition, starting with the preliminary competitions. Read on to find out what the preliminaries consist of, how to watch them, results so far and more.
Miss America Preliminary Date & Time: The preliminaries are taking place over three nights: Sunday, Dec. 15, Monday, Dec. 16, and Tuesday, Dec. 17.
Miss America Preliminary How to Watch: There are live streams of Sunday and Monday night’s competitions available on the Miss America website. Tuesday’s events are also streamed — during the day there is a scholarship program event and at night there is a Miss America tribute show.
Miss America Preliminary Competitions: This year, there is no evening gown or swimsuit competition during the preliminaries or during the final pageant. The women will wear evening gowns for their on-stage interviews, but they will not be judged on them.
The preliminaries consist of private interviews with the judges (20 percent of their preliminary score), an on-stage interview (15 percent of prelim score), their “social impact pitch” (15 percent) and the talent portion, which accounts for a whopping 50 percent of their preliminary score.
Miss America Preliminary Results So Far: Each preliminary competition will have a “winner” selected, as well as counting toward the main pageant event. The scores will be used to determine the Top 15 finalists, who will be revealed during Thursday’s (Dec. 19) live pageant.
The Top 15 finalists’ preliminary score will account for 25 percent of their final night score, so the scores do carry over past the preliminaries. During the live show, they will again compete in on-stage interviews (25 percent of the final score), talent (30 percent of the final score), and present their social impact pitch (20 percent of the final score).
So far, Miss New Jersey Jade Glab is the winner of the on-stage interview portion, Miss Michigan Mallory Rivard is the winner of the private interview award, and Miss Georgia Victoria Hill won the talent portion.
There is also a Miss America Foundation Scholarship program on Tuesday (Dec. 17), which gives out scholarship money in the categories Equity and Justice, Social Impact Initiative, STEM, and Women in Business. There are five finalists in each category.
Miss America Preliminary Judges: There are different judges in the preliminaries than there are during the live show. The preliminary judging panel includes composer Anthony Barfield, model/lifestyle consultant Holly Pelham Davis; and Clinton Foundation executive director Stephanie S. Streett.
The judges during the live pageant include actress Lauren Ash, TV host Karamo Brown, and singer/songwriter Kelly Rowland.
The 2020 Miss America Pageant airs live Thursday, Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
READ NEXT: Miss America Pageant 2020 Results So Far