Rod and Jean McDermott will be there watching their daughter, Angela, compete in Saturday night’s 2009 Miss America pageant.

Family, other relatives and friends are cheering for McDermott to win it all this weekend in Las Vegas.

Austin’s McDermott is vying for the Miss America crown held by Kristen Haglung, the Michigan native who won the title a year ago.

McDermott, Miss Minnesota 2008, will compete tonight in the finals of cable channel TLC’s “Countdown to the Crown” reality show, beginning at 9 p.m.

Television viewers can vote online tonight through text messaging for their pick of the pageant’s 2009 contestants, who competed in individual and team contests filmed earlier and designed to prepare them for Saturday night’s pageant finals in Las Vegas.

The four contestants who receive the most votes will advance to the Top 15 of the Miss America pageant.

McDermott, 24, graduated from Austin High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Her platform issue is higher education and her talent is vocal.

Already this week, Miss Delaware Galen Giaccone was named Tuesday night’s preliminary talent winner for her piano performance.

Miss Indiana Katie Stam won the preliminary lifestyle/ fitness competition.

Saturday night’s pageant finals will be televised live on TLC, beginning at 7 p.m.