Miss Arkansas pageant will air live on KATV

For the first time in its history, the Miss Arkansas Scholarship Pageant will be broadcast on live television this year. The show will air at 7 p.m. June 17 on Little Rock ABC affiliate KATV, Channel 7.

Channel 7 Daybreak anchor Chris Kane and former Miss Arkansas (2009) Sarah Slocum Collins will serve as hosts for the three-hour broadcast, which will be filmed in the newly renovated Robinson Performance Hall in downtown Little Rock, according to a KATV press release.

The show also will be streamed live on KATV.com and the KATV Facebook page.

“The timing is perfect,” KATV General Manager Mark Rose said in the release. “Not only is the pageant returning to the iconic and newly renovated Robinson Performance Hall for the pageant’s 80th anniversary, but thanks to the success of the reigning Miss America Savvy Shields, interest in the pageant is at an all-time high.”

In addition to the talent, swimming and evening wear competitions, contestant interviews and crowning of a new Miss Arkansas, the TV broadcast will feature a tribute to the pageant’s history in the form of archived clips from previous years, put together with help from the Pryor Center for Oral and Visual History at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, according to KATV.

“It will be such a special treat for everyone involved, including the Miss Arkansas organization, the contestants, myself and of course, the fans,” said reigning Miss Arkansas Savannah Skidmore. “I can’t wait for viewers across the state to be able to see how much work has been put into our pageant this year, and just how impressive and talented the 44 girls vying for my crown are.”

The Miss Arkansas preliminary competition is June 13-15, and the crowning of Miss Arkansas Outstanding Teen 2017 is June 16.

Tickets for the 80th Anniversary of the Miss Arkansas Pageant are now on sale through the Miss Arkansas Scholarship Pageant office at 501-321-3506 or through Ticketmaster starting May 1.

KATV is a content partner with Talk Business & Politics, which has a weekly show on the network at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays.