TRADITION GOES BY THE WAYSIDE...AND HOW'S THIS FOR A TV DEAL!?!?

The Miss America Organization announced today that it's pagent will not be held this year, at least not during it's traditional mid-September spot.

The scholarship pagent, which was originally scheduled during September as a means of extending Atlantic City's tourist season during the pre-casino days, will be held in January, 2006. It lost it's network television contract with ABC after several years of severely declining ratings, but just signed a deal with....COUNTRY MUSIC TELEVISION (CMT)!

CMT, which is one of the MTV networks, has signed an agreement to air the pagent in 2006 and 2007, with options through 2011.

Talk about an odd matching? Maybe have Dwight Yoakam singing "There She Is"?