WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! 🙂

Welcome Back, Junkies!  Don’t ya just LOVE the first night of prelims at Miss America??? Everything suddenly gets real!  And judging by the number of tweets we read about last night’s competition – this year is bound to be a doozie!  Just like we hoped!!! 🙂

Big Congratulations going out to MISS OHIO, MACKENZIE BART for winning Talent and MISS FLORIDA, VICTORIA COWEN for winning Swimsuit on Tuesday Night!

Makenzie’s ventriloquism with her puppet “Roxy” stole the show last night and received strong applause from the audience!  She sang “SupercalifragilisticExpialidocious” – which is hard enough to do as a regular human being, let alone with a puppet!  And Victoria is just super-crazy photogenic… and most of us would die for her delightfully proportioned body… Plus, she’s from Florida… Those girls just exude ‘uber-cool’ from all that easy access to the beach (lol!) 🙂  From what we hear, they were both well-deserved wins! 

I wish you could’ve heard the exceptionally huge sigh of relief that came from the Junkie household when we discovered the Tuesday night winners… SO MANY TALENTED LADIES performed last night and SO MANY BEAUTIFULLY FIT BODIES were on display – it’s crazy to have to choose a winner!

Before we get tonight’s picks – let me address a couple of questions we’ve been receiving from Junkies across the country…

1.  Are the Prelims Streamed?  Answer – Nope.  Afraid there’s a whole hulabaloo regarding music streaming rights and performance fees that Miss America would have to pay if they did stream… So – rather than pay performance rights, Miss America has decided not to stream.  Sorry.  If you’re an entertainment attorney, feel free to contact Miss America and help them figure out how they can afford the performance fees so all of us can watch prelims – Personally, I’d be willing to pay money each night of prelims in order to see them – and by the number of people who continue to ask us that question, we’re guessing you would too! 🙂

2.  Will the Parade be Streamed like it was last year?  Answer – No Clue.  We haven’t seen a link on any of the parade advertising, which leads us to believe it might not be available – but we’re still holding out hope.  The parade is SOOOO FUN and where Nina really shined for us… Junkies promise to let you know as soon as we discover an answer either way. 🙂

ALRIGHT!  Back to tonight’s picks!!!  After going 2 for 2 last night, The question is, can we keep the streak going tonight?

Answer – LOLOL!  Who knows??!!??

Especially because tonight…  GUESS WHAT???

WE HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!!!

This is a super competitive year and both areas of competition are STACKED AGAIN tonight!  Please know that I am EXTREMELY CONFLICTED about picking winners tonight… Frankly, I can see one of two things happening…

1. Points split all over the board… This is what happens when half the judges like “State A” to win the prelim and half the judges like “State B” to win the prelim, but all the judges like “State C” to finish second.  Guess what happens?  “State C” wins the prelim.  Entirely possible in both SS and Talent tonight.

2.  Judges favor the girl they loved in interview… If you nail your interview, judges are likely to see you in a positive light throughout the competition, which means you get an extra point or two in SS and/or Talent because you made a strong impression on them.  Entirely possible in both SS and Talent tonight.

Ok – Enough stalling… Here’s the lineup again… Sigma competes in Talent and Mu competes in Swimsuit tonight…

 
Ready or not – Here we go!!!

Wednesday Talent Picks: Texas, Kentucky, Mississippi
Bubble State – California

Wednesday Swimsuit Picks: Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana
Bubble State – Connecticut

Frankly – Tonight’s Swimsuit competition should be off the hook!  I’ve changed my picks a dozen different times already!  LOL!!!  There are seriously 4 other girls we could’ve listed for SS tonight!  And Talent will simply depend on what the judges prefer… Last night they went for “Entertainment Value” rather than a classic/typical Miss America-type Talent.  However, they could go a completely different direction tonight!  Who Knows??/

And there you have it! Can’t wait to see who the judges choose tonight!  GOOD LUCK LADIES!!!  ENJOY – HAVE FUN!!!

Here we are!  The Big Day has come!!!  It’s time for the first round of predictions for Miss America 2015!!!

Couple of things… If this is your first chance to read the Pageant Junkies blog, you might wanna start with this post from yesterday… It tells you how we do, what we do, and why we do it too 🙂

And of course… Here’s the list of states that will be competing tonight!  For Tuesday, it’s Alpha in Talent and Sigma in Swimsuit!  Feel free to click on the spreadsheet itself for a larger view 🙂

Now – before I make my picks, I gotta say – We’ve been researching all of these ladies since early summer… and you know what?  I feel like this year, the competition is STRONGER THAN EVER!!!

Junkies base 99% of our research from what we find online – and only 3 short years ago, there wasn’t nearly the massive amount of information that there is now!  And because there are numerous interviews, photos, videos, blogs, etc available at our fingertips, you’d think that would make our job easier!  Unfortunately, it’s done just the opposite!  Even today, we searched again for ladies who might have been flying “under the radar” until this week – hoping we don’t leave the right girls out!

Because I feel like this year’s competition is super-fierce, I only wish I could speak to every young woman competing at Miss America this year.  If I had the chance, here’s what I’d say…

“Ladies – You wanted the “Super Bowl” of pageants – well, you got it!  We’ve been making predictions for nearly 10 years overall – and this just might be the most competitive class we’ve seen in a long, long time!  While that’s absolutely fantastic to realize, here’s what that really means… Unfortunately, some of you are going to be left out of the Top 15 this year.  Perhaps you might’ve made it through during a more ‘normal’ year, but this just isn’t a normal year.  I’m sorry – but this year is really, really competitive… and that’s just the unfortunate reality of the situation.  So, with that in mind, here’s our advice…

Be 100% “in the moment”… take a deep breath and remind yourself that YOU MADE IT to Miss America… Let it sink in that YOU are walking on the Miss America stage – and make the kind of memories that people only dream of making!  Be so completely in awe of this experience that your cheeks hurt from smiling so stinking much!  I promise, you’re better off going into this with the mindset of having the most freaking, amazing, unforgettable time of your life – than trying to reach your goal of making the Top 15.  It’s super-competitive this year – I know that YOU KNOW how crazy-talented and personable these ladies are… You can probably count several of them who would make a wonderful Miss America!  So, do everything you can to breathe it all in, pinch yourself, and simply let the cards fall where they may.  If you do, you’ll be able to walk away thrilled with your performance and proud of yourself.  Oh – and PS — HAVE FUN!!!”

And with that – let’s get to our predictions!
 
TUESDAY TALENT – Iowa, Massachusetts, Ohio
Bubble Talent State – New York

TUESDAY FITNESS in SWIMSUIT – Florida, Mississippi, Missouri
Bubble SS State – South Dakota

Again – TONIGHT IS TOUGH!  There are a dozen other girls we could’ve listed who could win tonight!  Can’t wait to find out who the judges select as the winners!

Who are your prelim picks for tonight???

GOOD LUCK LADIES!!! 🙂

As I type this blogpost, I’m looking out at the Atlantic Ocean from the 67th floor of my hotel room in Atlantic City… 

Interestingly enough, 2 things come to mind…

        – This is best my feet have felt in 4 days…
        – I have no idea who is going to win tonight…

Now, I fully realized some of you might think I’m just feigning ignorance… After all, who goes 6 for 6 when picking the prelim winners and doesn’t know who’s going to win the whole shi’bang???  Ummm… me.  Truthfully… I don’t know who’s going to walk away with the crown tonight.  Usually we have an ‘inkling’ or a reason why we can see it coming – even if our favorite contestant isn’t in the mix.  But this year?  Not so sure.

So – before we give you our Top 15, I’d like to ask everyone to please take a deep breath and remind yourself of two things…  THESE ARE JUST OUR OPINIONS – and – THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN! 🙂  Again, if your girl isn’t on our list – it doesn’t mean she won’t make it… It doesn’t means we don’t like her… It doesn’t mean we don’t think she has what it takes… Truth is – predicting a Top 15 is a whole lot harder than predicting Prelim Winners.  ESPECIALLY since The Junkies just arrived on Thursday and only saw the girls on stage for 1 night of competition (last year, we went 14 for 16 – but we also saw 2 nights of preliminary competition).

So – here’s what we’re going to do… We’re going to give you our Top 15 – and then break down to the Top 5 and the winner with a bit of commentary.  We haven’t done this before – so let’s see how it goes.

Top 15 – In Random Order:

Mississippi
Oklahoma
Georgia
Kansas
California
New York
Minnesota
Virginia
Florida
Tennessee
New Hampshire
DC
Pennsylvania
Maine
Louisiana

We also chose 1 girl from each prelim night that we consider “on the bubble”… Our official picks are still listed above – but here’s 3 more who we think could eek out a Top 15 placement.

“Bubbles”
Connecticut
South Carolina
Alabama

In addition – here’s who we think goes home with a few specialized awards…

Non-Finalist Interview Award
Alaska

Non-finalist Talent Awards
Wisconsin
Missouri
Indiana
Arizona

And Now – Here’s The Junkies’ Top 5…

Mississippi – She has the ‘classic Miss America look’ about her… The one we originally thought MA would crown this year being back in AC.  She’s smart, has a killer body, is currently in med school, and won a STEM scholarship earlier this week.  If Miss America wants a “Beautiful, Polished, Smart Girl,” she’ll win.

Georgia – Junkies hold the theory that Final Night swimsuit goes to the girl the judges liked the best in interview out of everyone else on her night.  Georgia has one of those ‘looks’ that we think the celebrity panel could really go for… If Miss America wants an “Old-School Hollywood Glam Girl,” she’ll win.

Oklahoma – With 4 prelim awards in a row (Emoly West, Betty Thompson, Alicia Clifton and Kelsey Griswold) and 3 Top 5 placements for Oklahoma, Kelsey Griswold should keep the current OK streak alive… She looks like your everyday ‘girl-next-door’ and is uber-talented.  She could be one of the final 2 holding hands at the end of the night.  If Miss America wants a Talented “Girl Next Door,” she’ll win.
  
California – She’s a Stanford graduate, another STEM scholarship winner and could’ve won Swimsuit on her prelim night.  With a celebrity panel, we think her California-cool-vibe will ooze out of her and put her in the Top 5.  If Miss America wants an Ivy-League caliber, “Social Media Queen,” she’ll win.

Kansas – Even though we think Kansas may be the People’s Choice winner, we also think she could’ve made the Top 15 on her own.  She’s already the media darling and the general public has been extremely receptive to her.  If Miss America wants  “New Kind of Representative” for Miss America, she’ll win.

We believe ANY of these girls would make a fine and fabulous Miss America… But because Junkie Tradition says we need to pick a winner… Junkies say…

Mississippi

There you go!  May the Best Girl Win!!!

Junkie Wrap-Up will be posted tomorrow (eventually…)

JUNKIES UNITE!!!

MAJ

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Let’s get right to it!  Here are you preliminary winners in Talent and Swimsuit from Thursday Night:

Big Congrats to Miss Georgia, Carly Mathis in Swimsuit and Miss Florida, Myrrhanda Jones in Talent!

Carly has a great story – she was overweight as a child and at one point, weighed over 200 lbs!  To turn that around and now be named a preliminary swimsuit winner at Miss America is simply amazing!  Being there first hand, we can tell you Carly ‘owned’ the stage last night… We picked her as our swimsuit winner as we sat in the audience 🙂

In addition – to know that Myrrhanda Jones tore her ACL during rehearsals only to look the the doctor in the eye and tell him she wanted to perform on the Miss America stage tells you she’s strong — but to then come and and win her Talent Prelim is incredible!  Junkies saw the performance – it wasn’t a sympathy vote!  She earned it!  Congrats!

And with Georgia and Florida’s wins… that means the Junkies went 6 for 6 this year – for the first time ever in Junkie History!!!  We’re sooooooooo excited to have done so well – and say thanks to everyone who’s helped offer their opinions along the way!  It’s even more amazing to have our “Perfect Preliminary Predictions” take place while the pageant is in Atlantic City!  What a fabulous memory for all the Junkies to always treasure! 🙂

And speaking of memories… The Junkies LOVED our day in Atlantic City… Walking the Boardwalk, eating fabulous food and dipping our toes in the ocean!  If attending Miss America is on your “Bucket List” may I suggest finding a way to do so next year?  Everyone in AC is so appreciative and so grateful!  We couldn’t be in better hands being “Back Home” in Atlantic City!

Finally – many of you have been asking about whether or not we’re going to post a Top 15 list, etc.  Rest assured – we are and we will!  We’ll be posting our Top 15, Top 5 and our pick to win it all on Sunday night… but that post will have to wait… we have a few favorites who are floating around in our heads – but there are A LOT of strong girls this year!  We haven’t seen anyone specific ‘rise to the top’ just yet 🙂  

In the meantime – enjoy a few photos from our day ‘out and about’ today!  Happy Friday!

MAJ