State authority knew firm had cut ties with Miss America pageant, report says

Updated Jan 27; Posted Jan 27

Gallery: Final Night of the Miss America 2018 Competition, Sept. 10, 2017

By Amy Kuperinsky akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Months before Sam Haskell, the former CEO of Miss America, was booted from his post after his incendiary, misogynistic emails were exposed in a HuffPost report, Miss America's broadcast partner broke ties with the pageant.

But it turns out Atlantic City officials knew the production company had severed its relationship with the pageant two months before the news went public in December.

On Thursday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority -- the state body that has subsidized the pageant with millions of dollars since its return to Atlantic City from Las Vegas in 2013 -- knew about Dick Clark Productions deciding to break with Miss America in October of 2017.

According to the Inquirer report, just days before the HuffPost report came out on Dec. 21, CRDA officials sent Haskell and and Dick Clark a letter critical of the Miss America Organization for not informing the state authority of Dick Clark's decision to split with the pageant.

Haskell left at the end of the 2017 following an upheaval in pageant leadership, and former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, Miss America 1989, became chairwoman of the pageant board of directors.

Part of Miss America's contract with the CRDA is contigent on the production company promoting Atlantic City during its TV programs.

In 2016, the CRDA inked a deal that provided $12 million to the pageant over three years, with stipulations that Dick Clark Productions promote Atlantic City during its productions, including "New Year's Rockin' Eve." But planned New Year's Eve concerts in Atlantic City never materialized.

Chris Howard, executive director of the CRDA, publicly called for the authority to review its contract with Miss America in light of the December report about Haskell's emails, in which the former pageant CEO responds favorably to a suggestion that the pageant script refer to former Miss Americas with a vulgar term.

It wasn't until Dec. 19, a few days before the HuffPost story came out, that the CRDA sent a letter to Dick Clark and Haskell asking them to talk about a possible breach of contract.

Howard brought up the fact that the company severed its relationship with the pageant, but claims the pageant never informed the CRDA of the change. He also said Dick Clark failed to mention Atlantic City during the 2017 Billboard Awards.

In a December email obtained by the Inquirer, Howard told officials that Dick Clark Productions had agreed for host Ryan Seacrest to talk about Atlantic City on the 2018 "New Year's Rockin' Eve" broadcast to make up for not fulfilling the earlier obligation.

CRDA is set to review its contract with the Miss America Organization on Jan. 30. There is one pageant left on the contract -- the 2019 pageant, which is set for September.

Given the fallout from the email scandal, Miss America also faces uncertainty with its network, ABC, which is only contracted to carry the pageant through this fall. Haskell, a former TV executive now derided for his email comments and response to the HuffPost report (he disputed its accuracy), had previously been credited with bringing the pageant back from obscurity and irrelevance when it was exiled to cable TV in the early 2000s.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/01/miss_america_crda_dick_clark_productions.html