The Miss America Organization and ABC announced today that Chris Harrison will host the “2012 Miss America Pageant” live telecast from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2012 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on ABC. Harrison was co-host of ABC’s live telecast of the 2011 Miss America Pageant with Brooke Burke. The 2011 pageant drew ABC’s biggest non-sports audience in the timeslot since April 2009, reaching 14.6 million viewers nationwide. He first hosted the iconic broadcast on ABC in 2004.
“It is an honor to come back and host Miss America for my third time and second year in a row,” said Harrison. “Hosting Miss America is one of the most iconic hosting jobs in television so I am of course thrilled to once again be at the helm. I was extremely pleased to see the pageant return to network TV last year with so much success and I was happy to be a small part of that.”
Harrison began his television career by covering local sports in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and quickly ventured into entertainment television. In 1999, Harrison landed the job as host of HGTV's Designer's Challenge, which was one of the network's highest rated shows. In 2001 he became host of ABC's hit romance/reality series The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. Harrison also hosts ABC's reality show, Bachelor Pad, an all-star reunion from previous seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, which premiered its second season on August 8. Harrison continues to advance in the entertainment industry through a variety of professional endeavors. He has hosted the live television coverage of the final championship rounds of The 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee on ABC, co-hosted ABC's 2008 American Music Awards Red Carpet Live!, and hosted Road to the 60th Primetime Emmy ® Awards, ABC.com's daily coverage leading up to the 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards.
“We’re thrilled that Chris is returning to host the 2012 Miss America Pageant”, said Sam Haskell, III, Board Chairman of the Miss America Organization. “Chris did a wonderful job for us last year as we celebrated our 90th anniversary with record ratings and we are honored to have him return for another incredible television event.”
“Chris was the perfect emcee for our show and our return to ABC,” said Art McMaster, President and CEO of the Miss America Organization. “Chris understands the depth of our program and he helped successfully set the stage to spotlight 53 incredible young women competing. We are proud to have him host our Pageant again and know that he will add his talents to the production to have another winning telecast.”