Make it a reality show. Start taping the contestants weeks before the actual contest so we have a sense of their personalities and can pick favorites. Invent some kind of voting system so the women can form alliances and vote each other off. Have contests between teams of contestants to eliminate them. Let the audience vote on who gets eliminated.
Nudity and oil wrestling are also good ideas.
To me, Miss America is a rather embarrassing artifact of the past.
I can remember having cared who won this pageant. When Miss Oklahoma Jane Anne Jayroe won in 1967, I was elated, as if my team had somehow come through. I don’t think the pageant has changed, but I have. Impossibly gorgeous plastic people just don’t interest me much anymore, and the pretense that this is a “scholarship competition” is annoying. Although scholarships are certainly involved as prizes, scholarly achievements don’t figure in the judging, as far as I can see. A perky bustline and a glossy bouffant hairdo will get you that crown, but an encyclopedic knowledge of Christopher Marlowe, plus fifty cents, will get you a cup of coffee.
I also see absolutely no reason for a Miss America or a Miss America Pageant, or, frankly, any beauty pageant to exist.
Hey, but I’d tune in for full-frontal nudity.
bouffant hairdo? 50 cents for a cup of coffee? What year is it in your world?
1967?
I think it’s about time for the Sexalympics – judged for appearance, costume, creativity, endurance, arousal, and form. Multiple categories, including fantasy and athletic, hetero, homo, pairs, groups, whatever. Teams from every country! Yeah.
Arena-style gladatorial combat. With less-lethal weaponry, of course. Combined with the swimsuit competition, of course.
Destruction Derby (each contestant responsible for overseeing the design and preperation of their vehicle, as well as driving them in the derby)
Pokemon Duels
Laser Tag (combine this with the evening gown competition)
LARPing (face it, it’d be entertaining to watch)
LAN Tournaments (“If I am elected MIss America, I promise to pwnz0r camping bitches, and bring world peace.”)
Thumb Wars
Dodge Ball (using ADBAA rules, of course)
And don’t forget strap-ons! 
Apparantly, an encyclopedic knowledge of Christopher Marlowe is worth about $2.50.
Add that to the 50 cents and you’ve got enough for a small (or whatever they call it) cup of joe at Starbucks.
I was trying to make a little joke by throwing some anachronisms into my post (my point being that the Miss America Pageant is archaic). Apparently my joke was so little as to be undetectable. 
We could do away with the swimsuit contest…
not the contest, just the swimsuits.
I’d watch that!
The concept of Miss America has become antiquated and the nature of television has changed dramatically over the years.
A few decades ago when there were just 3 channels, the Miss America Pageant was literally the hottest show you could be watching.
Now, instead of watching women in swimsuits, you have the option of watching hot, naked “girl-on-girl” action on Cinemax.
Times sure have changed.
All in one show? Wow, I’d watch that! Heck, I might even participate! I think you’re onto something here.
“Mensa Presents: the Miss/Mister America Nude Wrestling Orgy Quiz Show.”
If this was said earlier, I apologize. I must have missed it.
Make it celebrities competing.
Who wouldn’t want to watch Aniston, Elektra, Witherspoon, Alba, Simpson etc etc compete to see who is actually more popular/hot/talented.
Sure most of them would never for for it but that would be cool to see.
You forgot Final Fantasy cosplay.
Three words:
She-males, She-males, She-males.
They’ll probably make it a reality show or something. Behind the scenes type stuff. Story focusing on contestants that grew up in the ghetto or battled cancer. Add some drama so people pick their favorites.
It’s a scholarship competition, so the pool of potential competitors is among the most desireable of potential draws: hot co-eds. Require contestants to be enrolled at an accredited institution of higher learning, then drop all other rules and any pretense of it being anything but a Beauty Contest. Institute audience polling, reinstate on-stage measurements. Run it on a 10-second delay to censor any flashing (which may be “officially discouraged”), then run the uncensored version on pay-per-view. It’ll either be instant gold, or be immiediately drowned out by the shrill screeching of NOW members and booming condemnation of the Religious Right.