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Changes Afoot
The 1980s
Andy Gibb performed for the audience and the Junior Misses participating at the
1980 national finals. One year later, the format known as "theater in the round"
was introduced for the finals and its television broadcasts. Mary Frann returned
for the finals in 1985 to co-host with Bruce Jenner. The outreach program "Be
Your Best Self" became the official platform of the America's Junior Miss
program in 1987. America's Junior Miss 1980 Julie Bryan Moran hosted the finals
in 1988, the program's final time as a yearly event on a major television
network. The national finals were moved from the Mobile Civic Center arena to
the theater section in 1989. Among the Junior Miss participants in this decade
who would become well known were Georgia's Julie Moran, who would anchor the
syndicated TV program "Entertainment Tonight" and 1986 Junior Miss Debra Messing
of Rhode Island, whose acting career led to earning one of the leading roles in
the sitcom "Will & Grace". At the end of the Eighties, the name of the program
was changed to "America's Young Woman of the Year" to renew interest, but it was
later realized that this new identity was unlike the long established brand of
America's Junior Miss that interested many participents. The name "America's
Junior Miss" would be restored in 1993.
The 1990s
In 1994, the America's Junior Miss finals once again became a national event on
television. One of the guests this time was actor Brian Austin Green of the TV
series "Beverly Hills 90210". One year later, the NBC Television Network stopped
televising the finals. The judging criteria for the local and national levels of
the program would be revamped in 1995. With help from David G. Bronner of the
Retirement Systems of Alabama and Raycom Media, viewers got to see Alabama's
Junior Miss Tyrenda Williams become the first black America's Junior Miss in
1997 and earn $30,000 in scholarship out of a total of $97,500 for the winners.
The number of stations airing the national finals would increase from 50 to 177
in 1998. The 1999 finals, hosted by 1976 Junior Miss Deborah Norville aired
tape-delayed on the The Nashville Network, which would air the event live in
2000 and 2001.
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