The first night of preliminaries in the revamped, swimsuit-less Miss America competition was held Wednesday, with contestants in Atlantic City, N.J., saying the 98-year tradition was "behind us." ...

Big news in the beauty pageant world: Miss America has scrapped the swimsuit competition. Carlson, a former Miss America, also said that “it’s going to be what comes out of [the candidates’] mouths ...

The Miss America Organization says contestants have always been judged on personality, interactions with the crowd and interviews with the judges’ panel. However, the underlying “beauty pageant” tone ...

"We will no longer judge our candidates on their outward physical appearance," Gretchen Carlson said of the Miss America competition Stephanie Petit is a Royals Editor, Writer and Reporter at PEOPLE.

Miss America is aiming to more progressive with this week's announcement that it will drop the swimsuit portion of the competition and will not judge contestants on their looks. The swimsuit ...