Miss America signs with TLC

The Miss America Pageant has a new home -- and, in keeping with the times, a reality series too.

The 86-year-old beauty competition, which lost its TV deal with Country Music Television in March, said Monday it had signed a new agreement with cable channel TLC through 2010.

TLC will telecast the next Miss America show on Jan. 26 from Las Vegas. As a way of building interest in the telecast -- which in recent years has seen a steady decline in audience, down to 2.4 million viewers last January -- TLC will produce a reality series that, it said, will introduce viewers to “52 of the country’s smartest and most beautiful women as they prepare for a competition they’ve dreamed of their entire lives.”