- Did y'all see the Miss America Pageant?
Did you watch it?
All right. [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
In case you missed it,
this was actually the best part of the entire show.
- The Treasury wants to put the face of a woman
on the $10 bill, beside Alexander Hamilton.
Which woman should get that honor, and you tell me why.
- Oh, my goodness. Thank you for that question.
The person that I would put on the $10 bill
would be Ellen DeGeneres. [cheers and applause]
I think that woman is so amazing.
Not only is she kind, [cheers and applause]
not only is she intelligent,
not only is her entire platform
speaking tolerance and equality for all and kindness,
but she's able to be funny without insulting someone
and I think that is an incredible feat.
Thank you. [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause] - Thank you so much.
[cheers and applause]
- I love her. [audience laughter]
Please welcome Miss Colorado, Kelly Johnson.
- Hi! - Oh, my gosh.
- Well, first of all, congratulations
on being the second runner-up.
I personally think you should have won.
- Thank you so much. - Because, you know,
that was a great answer, just thinking on your feet like that.
But here's the problem: I feel like they gave you
20 seconds to answer that question.
You probably had more nice things to say about me,
so I want-- [audience laughter]
I'm going to give you five seconds.
- Okay. - All right?
Ready, go.
- This is an absolute dream come true for me.
This woman is so intelligent. She's kind.
She tells every-- [buzzer sounds]
- I'm sure there was more.
Let's give her five more seconds.
[audience laughter]
Go. - I think it's so amazing
that she brings families together,
gets them to their jobs with cars,
is a complete philanthropist-- [buzzer sounds]
- Well, we don't have time for all the nice things I do.
- I guess so. - Apparently.
That's so sweet of you, though. That was really amazing.
- Thank you so much. - Everyone sent that to me.
I got it from everyone, going, "I know! I've seen it.
It's amazing."
And then we called you and said, "Please come here,"
so thank you for doing that.
- Oh, my gosh, thank you so much for having me.
It was so funny: after they called me for second runner-up,
I was thrilled but I was shocked.
I didn't think that I would make it that far,
and I was just so blessed by that.
But then they said--when I was backstage, they go,
"You might have a chance to be on Ellen DeGeneres."
And I started crying!
I was like, "Oh, my gosh! She might notice!
It's so great!" It was so great.
- That's when you cried? Not after you were the--
- I think I was just in so much shock, because,
you know, I did a monologue,
so I didn't know if I'd make it that far.
- I know, let's talk about the monologue.
So, the monologue got a lot of attention, too,
because, you know, for the talent portion,
a lot of people twirl batons or roller skate
or play piano-- I don't know what they do, but--
But they do some kind of what the "talent" is.
But you did a monologue. You're a nurse.
And it--why did you choose to do that?
- Yeah, so, a lot of people told me
not to do a monologue for talent.
It's very unique, but I am a nurse.
and I care--that's my talent is taking care of people
and caring about other people, and so I wanted to give
the nurses that don't have that voice, that voice
and that recognition of-- of just somebody going up there
and just being a little bit different and unique.
And I talked about a patient that I took care of
who had Alzheimer's and I know that
that hits home for a lot of people,
and it's not--it's not something that's really easy
for people to talk about, and I just thought, "You know,
"I want to go up there and I want to be authentic.
"I want to be Kelly, and if I'm ever
"going to win Miss America or win Miss Colorado,
I want to do it being myself," and I'm a nurse.
- It was--it was brilliant. [cheers and applause]
- Thank you. [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
- And it's--I think it's--
it was trending on Facebook and Twitter.
It's been seen over 5 million times, I think.
And it was a great monologue.
If you haven't seen it, I think we have it on Ellentube,
but it's really-- and I loved that you end saying
you're not just a-- you know--
You're not just a nurse. - Right.
- I mean, that's a very important job,
and you're doing a very important thing,
and you care about those people, which I loved.
- Well, thank you. I really do care a lot.
And it was just so much fun to perform that,
to see it trend on Twitter and Facebook,
especially being able to bring all those nurses together
and have everybody being standing up for our profession
and giving them the voice that they deserve.
They work so hard and they are lifesavers,
and it was--that was all the message I wanted to give.
It's about them, not about me.
- You did, you raised a lot of awareness for that.
You said you wanted to see my face on the $10 bill.
- [laughs] Yeah. - So we got you something.
- Oh, my God. - Andy?
So there is my face on a $10 bill.
- Yay! [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
I love that. - Whole--whole case full.
- I love that.
- And with the winnings, you were able
to pay off your student loans, right?
- Yeah. - So what's next for you?
- Yeah, I'm so-- It was so gracious
of the Miss America organization.
They were--they paid off my entire student debit,
because of winning second runner-up,
and winning Miss Colorado, which is just so incredible.
I'm so thankful to them, but next is graduate school,
so probably take out more loans, but going to graduate school.
- Well, we want to help with that.
Shutterfly's vision is to make the world a better place.
They want to give you $10,000, so you can do that.
- What? Oh my--
Oh, my gosh, Ellen!