The head of the Miss America Organization and two other executives resigned Saturday, after unflattering emails surfaced this week that shamed former and current contestants.
CEO Sam Haskell, Chairman Lynn Weidner and President Josh Randle are out, the organization said in a statement.
On Friday, Haskell was suspended over emails from him and others in the organization that ridiculed contestants for their intellect, alleged weight gain, and sex lives. The emails were leaked to the Huffington Post Thursday and their revelation prompted dozens of former pageant winners to sign a petition calling on the group's leadership to step down.
Randle apologized Saturday to 2013 pageant winner Mallory Hagan, whose weight he and others ridiculed in the emails.
After dealing with sagging television ratings over the years, the scandal is the latest and most severe to rock the beauty pageant in which young women compete for college scholarship money in categories that include swimsuits, talent and evening wear.
With the exception of a stay in Las Vegas from 2006 to 2013, the Miss America Pageant has been a staple of Atlantic City, N.J., for decades with the traditional "Show Us Your Shoes" parade along the boardwalk where contestants show footwear representative of their states.
"The Miss America Organization is bigger than a handful of people," said outgoing Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian. "She has been part of Atlantic City's history since 1921, and she will always be part of our history. Moving forward, I hope all the good that she has accomplished over the years is taken into account as incoming decision makers decide the organization's future here in Atlantic City."
