Melana Scantlin (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Melana Scantlin (born December 4, 1977, Gladstone, Missouri) is an American television co-host, former beauty contestant, and reality TV participant who has competed in the Miss Teen USA and Miss USA pageants.

Scantlin's first beauty pageant win came in 1995 when she became Miss Missouri Teen USA. She went on to represent Missouri in the Miss Teen USA 1995 pageant broadcast live from Wichita, Kansas in August 1995, and placed in the semifinals. The event was won by Keylee Sue Sanders of Kansas. Both the Missouri and Kansas delegates were directed by the Vanbros organization.

Scantlin returned to pageantry in 1999 when she competed in the Miss Missouri USA pageant for the first time. She placed second runner-up in the pageant, and improved that placing the following year when she was first runner-up to Larissa Meek, another former Miss Missouri Teen USA. In 2001, she won the Miss Missouri USA 2002 title, becoming the fifth former Miss Teen USA delegate to win the title. She went on to represent Missouri in the Miss USA 2002 pageant broadcast live from Gary, Indiana on March 2, 2002, but failed to place.

Scantlin became widely known in 2003 a participant on the first season of the TV series Average Joe. She was expecting to start off meeting a bunch of hunks, but was instead inundated with mostly plain-looking and/or obese suitors. Later on in the show, three model types of men were brought in to compete against the Average Joes. She chose "pretty boy" Jason Peoples over Average Joe Adam Mesh. After the show, Melana and Jason flew off in a private jet for a romantic getaway. The two made the rounds of TV talk shows, but later started seeing other people.

Scantlin was the first Miss Missouri Teen USA and Miss Missouri USA to appear on Average Joe; she was later followed by former beauty queen and reality TV star Larissa Meek.

In 2004 she became co-host of World Series of Blackjack. Her reality fame led to appearance on various programs, such as Days of our Lives, 20 Most Awesomely Bad Songs of 2004, Sidewalks Entertainment, The Wayne Brady Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Live with Regis and Kelly.

From February 13, 2004 to October 2004, Scantlin was the co-host of the Screening Room, a movie review segment which airs Fridays on WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1993, as a teenager, she appeared in the made-for-television movie, They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping.

Scantlin graduated from Park University in Parkville, Missouri. She was a spokeswoman in the university's television commercials. Scantlin resides in Los Angeles where she hosts E! News Now for E!: Entertainment Television since 2009.

Other

Her seventh great-uncle is George Washington, the first president of the United States. She is also the cousin of lead singer Wes Scantlin from Puddle of Mudd.

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