It looks like the states with the most winners are California, Oklahoma, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Only Oklahoma would be considered perhaps “southern” and even then not in the usual sense and certainly not “Deep South”. Mississippi and Alabama have seven winners between them but not for the last several years.
Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma (x2) and Alabama were the last five winners, in that order.
Embarrassed to say I watched this last night. They announced 53 contestants, not 54, and I particularly paid attention to see who the extras were: DC, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands.