Miss America 2018: Did Cara Mund (North Dakota), Jennifer Davis (Texas) win?

The Miss America 2018 Pageant aired on ABC Sunday night, and of course this was a chance for the network to do a good bit of what it does best: Celebrate all sorts of over-the-top ridiculous. The pageant took place in Atlantic City, which really seems about right given that this is the land of such excess and over-the-top crazy stuff. Even though the pageant was trending on social media for much of the night, we also do wonder if it really was getting all that much attention with so many other important things going on in the world.

Over the course of the night, there were talents performed, questions answered, and all sorts of other “intense” moments. In the end, though, the top 7 were Miss Alabama (Jessica Procter), District of Columbia (Briana Kinsey), Louisiana (Laryssa Bonecquisti), Missouri (Jennifer Davis), New Jersey (Kaitlyn Schoeffel), North Dakota (Cara Mund), and Texas (Margana Wood). Alabama and Louisiana were both eliminated at this point, and this gave us the top five for the home stretch the rest of the way.

In the end, though, it was Cara Mund of North Dakota who took home the prize! Jennifer Davis of Missouri was the runner-up, and it’s rather cool to see a state like North Dakota actually represent the whole country. Other than Fargo, it doesn’t get a lot of time in the spotlight. She gets the title for the next year and the opportunity to take part in some other officially-sanctioned events. For viewers out there, they get a chance to either be excited or to complain about it.

Are there changes that the Miss America Pageant could make? Sure, given that the entire proceeding is ridiculous and very much outdated. Yet, at the same time we do very much feel like it’s almost meant to be outdated at this point. It works as entertainment for some just because it really shouldn’t work. Even if the organizers did change a few things around, there would probably still be people after the fact who complain about the results.

For now, congratulations to Mund for taking this home, and to the Miss America Pageant for making it through another year. Ultimately, though, our final review of the Pageant is that it found itself completely overshadowed by a wide array of other things that were going on in the world, with one of the biggest ones being Hurricane Irma and then also Sunday Night Football and other primetime programming. We’re curious to see given all of these variables how the show performed, and if it ended up making all that much of an imprint in the ratings at all.

What did you think about the Miss America 2018 Pageant, and did the right person win? Share now in the comments, and of course check back to CarterMatt for more TV news. (Photo: Miss America.)