Miss America Makeovers
The Reinvention of Miss America Continues with Makeover Week
The contestants participate in a trivia challenge and receive beauty makeovers during the second week of this modern version of the Miss America pageant on TLC.
TLC's new program which seeks to modernize the antiquated Miss America pageant, Miss America: Reality Check, continues this week with a much-anticipated beauty makeover.
As the girls gathered in the main hall of the estate, host Michael Urie announced, “This week is about beauty and brains,” and instructed the girls to change into their swimsuits and meet at the pool in 30 minutes.
Brains First?
Most of the girls wore bikinis rather than two-pieced bathing suits as Michael introduced this week’s first challenge, saying, "Beauty queens get a bad rap when it comes to one thing: intelligence! And trust me, that Miss Teen debacle didn’t exactly help your cause.”
The girls competed in their teams to answer trivia questions. The trivia topics included American history and popular culture, with questions such as, “How many states signed the original US constitution?” If the question was answered correctly, that contestant was instructed to go to the back of her team’s line. If she answered the question incorrectly, she had to jump into the swimming pool. The team with the last contestant standing won an advantage for the next challenge. The advisory board watched to see how the girls reacted under pressure.
Some of the girls who answered trivia questions incorrectly were very hesitant to jump into the pool because they didn’t want the water to wash off all of the makeup they were wearing.
When Miss District of Columbia, an asthma sufferer, resurfaced from jumping into the water, she had an asthma attack, but recovered quickly and cheered her team on.
Miss Colorado and Miss New Jersey were the two finalists for the trivia challenge.
Team “Brown-Eyed Girls” won the challenge.
Beauty Makeovers
“All of you could use some fine tuning, but a few of you need an overhaul,” Michael told the girls when they had all dried off. He announced that all of the contestants would be having new head shots taken after participating in a makeover.
Consultants Kim Vo and Napoleon Perdis gave hair and makeup advice to all 52 of the contestants. Because Team “Brown-Eyed Girls” won the brains challenge, their hair and makeup was done by the consultants personally, an announcement that was met with squeals of excitement from the team members.
To the surprise of the advisory board, Miss Illinois was the only contestant who decided not to take the advice of the consultants. While some of the girls admired her decision to be independent, others worried she might be at a disadvantage.
The rest of the contestants had their hair and makeup made over. Jeanne took Miss Illinois aside to tell her that all eyes would be on her because she turned away the professional assistance that was offered to her.
Miss Alaska lost twelve inches of hair when her long braid was cut off at the base of her neck.
Miss Utah said that she participates in the military, marathons and pageants because she loves a challenge, but admitted that of the three, pageants are the most challenging to her.
New Head Shots
Before the photographer began her work, Mark advised, “Everything you’ve been taught about what to do in front of the camera...forget it. This is the new Miss America and it’s about capturing who you are. Don’t be a cookie cutter Barbie doll.”
Most of the contestants felt very natural in front of the camera, but posing was a struggle for Miss Utah.
The Advisory Committee Rehashes the Week
Mark said that Miss Utah made fun of the contest by overdoing her hair and makeup at the pool on purpose, which Dina found insulting. Jeanne was impressed with Miss District of Columbia’s ability to gracefully overcome her asthma attack but thought that Miss Florida had a “diva moment” when she balked at getting into the water. Dina said Miss Indiana was embracing change. The panel agreed that Miss Alaska had the most drastic makeover.
Miss Illinois expected to be in the bottom three due to her decision not to participate in the makeover.
Miss Indiana, Miss District of Columbia and Miss Illinois were named the top three contestants. Miss Washington, Miss Utah and Miss Alaska were named the bottom three contestants.
