Miss America Prelim Predictions

I still remember like it was yesterday.

I was sitting in my high story office, happy that our sales team had just finished a great fiscal year, when I had this crazy, dim-witted, slightly hair-brained idea…

“I think I’ll send an email to some of my friends I haven’t seen in a while, and tell them the Miss America pageant is about to take place… “

The reason this idea was so crazy, dim-witted and slightly hair-brained, is because I was about to email a bunch of friends who never competed in pageantry. These were ladies who supported me – but honestly – they you couldn’t have paid them to compete. Not in a million years.

In truth, I knew it was a bit of a risk to send such an email out of the blue. Which is why I decided I needed a hook… Something to keep them from politely rolling their eyes and asking if I was “still into all that stuff”. So, in order to keep things interesting, I decided to up the ante by telling them I was going to predict who would win each of the preliminary competitions. I’d pick a few states, then I’d tell my friends why I thought “so and so state” could win the given prelim each night.

That’s when I realized I needed to put these friends on their very own email list. I thought for a moment and wondered what I should name the list… And then it hit me.

Miss America Junkies.

Ever since that day, I’ve been posting picks – and each year more and more Junkies join me in my pursuit of the perfect preliminary prediction.

In case you’ve never seen this before, here’s how it goes…

1. Two awards are given on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night… one for Swimsuit and one for Talent (no on-stage awards for Evening Gown or On-Stage Question). Three nights of prelims times 2 awards each night means 6 awards total. 🙂

2. I’ll select 4 states out of the 17-18 girls who could possibly win.

3. To provide complete disclosure… I’ve only seen 2 of this year’s Miss America contestants compete on stage before. I don’t attend Miss America rehearsals. The way I make my predictions is through online research. If I can find it online, it’s fair game for my predictions.

4. The Prelim list is in the chart above… for Tuesday, we’re working with Alpha in Talent and Sigma in Swimsuit…

Now – before predictions kick off tomorrow, I always like to post a few points to remember for anyone who’s not been a part of Pageant Junkies predictions before…

1. Every one of the predictions I post are my opinions and my opinions only. Sometimes I get it right – and sometimes I’m dead wrong. Of all the years I’ve been making predictions based on online research only, the best I’ve ever done is 4/6… Which pretty much goes to prove, I’m not perfect. ?

2. If your daughter/grand-daughter/sister/best friend’s-baby-sitter’s-car-salesman’s niece isn’t on our short-list as a prelim pick, it doesn’t mean she isn’t talented. It doesn’t mean she isn’t ‘pretty enough’. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t have what it takes… It only means, I’m not perfect (please re-read point #1 above). 🙂

3. Just because we accurately predict a prelim winner – it doesn’t mean she is the next Miss America. PLENTY of ladies have walked away with the Miss America title after never winning a single prelim (and it could very well happen this year as well!). Your favorite contestant can too.

4. This is supposed to be… (wait for it… wait for it…) FUN!!! ? Since predictions are the origin of Pageant Junkies, we have a blast seeing if we can accurately predict a winner simply through online research and Junkie intuition. Please don’t take it personally if the lady you adore is not listed in our posts… It’s truly nothing personal – We’re just trying to have a good time!

5. Finally – In order to prove that predictions ARE fun, I needed to develop a phrase that would encapsulate how I truly feel about each young woman competing. That’s when I stumbled onto this little ditty – and it’s become our signature phrase for ALL of prediction season:

If we say your name, we hope you prove us right!
And if we don’t say your name, we hope you prove us wrong!

And I actually mean it!

Don’t believe me? Ask someone from Iowa (lol! Ok, that’s actually an inside joke for all you Taylor Wiebers fans out there – you know EXACTLY what I mean!). When I’m wrong – I own up to it! And with a smile on my face! In fact, I love celebrating young women who prove me wrong – It’s what keeps me honest and what makes leading the Junkie Nation so much fun!!!

Now – As I said above, I’m not perfect.  All I’m trying to do is interject a little bit of levity into one of the single-greatest competitions on live television today. Miss America is a total crap-shoot (and I mean that in the kindest way possible). Absolutely anything can happen – Which is what makes it so much fun to play!

So – if you’re interested in “playing along” – you’re always welcome to post your predictions on our Facebook page or here in the comments section below… You’re also welcome to send me an email with your picks and we can contrast and compare!

In the meantime, there’s work to be done! We don’t just pull these picks out a hat you know… In fact, we’ve gone through a super tedious and extremely loooooooooooong process of research and evaluation just to get to this point! But – That’s precisely why they call us Junkies 🙂 Don’t take the name if you can’t take the job 🙂 LOL!

If you’d like to see our predictions for Miss America 2017, you still have time! Just join Pageant Junkies Premium, and we’ll make sure you’re on the list! Prelims start tomorrow – and we’re still frantically trying to put together final our list! Once they’re ready, we’ll send our predictions and see how things shape up on Tuesday night! –  Don’t miss it!!!

#BigJunkieLove

Carrie Lakey

To see more of our Miss America mini-series, just click here…

Carrie Lakey is kind of obsessed with Miss America…
So are 18,000 of her closest friends.

As an avid fan of the Miss America Organization, Carrie began
publicly predicting pageant winners over 10 years ago.
Now, she’s galvanizing an online movement of fans
known as “Pageant Junkies”.
Learn more about the Junkie Nation
by clicking here.