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ATLANTIC CITY - Miss Arkansas Savvy Shields,a 21-year-old from Fayetteville, Ark., became Miss America 2017 on Sunday night before an exhilarated crowd at historic Boardwalk Hall.

Shields, a blond-haired fine-arts major at the University of Arkansas who apparently enchanted the judges with her dimpled smile and talent, winning that portion with a dance routine set to "They Just Keep Moving the Line" from the NBC musical series Smash.The pageant, which year after year appears to have to claw and scratch its way to relevance - and tries to keep its TV ratings up despite competition from poplar Sunday Night Football and other programming - this year said the Miss America Organization actually reflects an "evolving America" when welcoming its first opening gay contestant.

Miss Missouri, Erin O'Flaherty, 23, of St. Louis, competed as the first openly lesbian contestant and was the first woman to win a state title after coming out - others before her came out after winning their respective tiaras.

Last year - while 27 million people opted to watch football - 7 million viewers tuned in to the pageant when entertainer and Miss America 1984 Vanessa Williams made a grand return to receive a public apology from Miss America Organization officials. She was forced to give up her crown when nude photos of her were published in Penthouse magazine without her permission.

Williams had made history as the first African American Miss America, but had to relinquish her title two months before her reign would have ended after the photos, taken years before she entered the pageant circuit, surfaced.

Williams' return created an enormous buzz in the entertainment industry, garnering coverage everywhere from TMZ to Vanity Fair. Even ABC, the network which airs the pageant, began promoting it days in advance with the same sort of "shocking twist in the first ten minutes" promises that it uses for its other frothy reality shows like the Bachelor.

This year's buzz surrounding Miss Missouri didn't pack seem to pack quite the same punch as the Vanessa Williams story, but had women's studies scholars debating the relevance of the 95-year-old pageant in a world where a female is a contender to be president in the November election.

"Honestly, I'm surprised Miss America is still in existence," said Katherine Jellison, a women's studies scholar at Ohio University who said she wouldn't be tuning in Sunday night. "To me, it's kind of a relic that gets brought out every year."

But Sherry Dauber, 78, of Absecon, who brought her granddaughter, Ella Dauber, 23, of Shewsbury, to the pageant on Sunday night, disagrees with Jellison.

"Look around . . . look around at this crowd," said Dauber, who has been attending the pageant for more than 20 years. "Obviously these people see relevancy to the pageant. It's a piece of Americana that I hope continues forever."

And the take by not-necessarily-pageant girl Ella Dauber?

"It's . . . interesting," Dauber said. "Something different to do on a Sunday night, I guess."