THOUGHTS OF MISS UNIVERSE
2017
It took 39 long years but Mandela's rainbow nation has finally captured its second Miss Universe crown thanks to South Africa’s Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters. In June, Demi-Leigh participated in a video to promote women’s self-defense in the case of a carjacking and then was carjacked herself only a few days later and escaped which prompted her to make more self-defense videos and she would then form her own charity called 'Unbreakable' so this story put her over the top and was presented in a dramatic fashion during the telecast. Demi-Leigh was a favorite from the beginning. Recently, South Africa won the 2014 Miss World crown thanks to Rolene Strauss but the runner-up at Miss South Africa was sent to Miss Universe and even though the Miss World and Universe pageant coincided this year again, South Africa opted to send their winner to Miss Universe rather than the runner-up this time around and it paid off. South Africa's participation in Miss Universe is quite storied as they won their first Miss Universe crown in 1978 thanks to Margaret Gardiner but the Apartheid era led to a ban on South Africa's participation from 1985 to 1994. Leticia Snyman placed as 1st runner up in 1984 and the next Miss South Africa 1985 (Andrea Stelzer) who was affected by this ban ended up country-hopping and Andrea would win Miss Germany 1989 and place in the top 10 at Miss Universe 1989. After Apartheid fell, the Miss World pageant was held in South Africa from 1992 to 1995. In 1995, during the only Miss Universe pageant to be held in Africa in the country of Namibia, South Africa would return to compete again at Miss Universe and would place in the top 10 thanks to Augustine Masilela. Now Demi-Leigh can share her story with the world as Miss Universe 2017 and can use her message to empower women which is right in step with the IMG era of pageantry. This year also saw the return of the Mikimoto Miss Universe crown that was used from 2002 to 2007 and it has returned this year after a fall-out with DIC who made the crowns used from 2014 to 2016 after DIC allegedly failed to make two sponsor payments. I think a lot of people prefer the Mikimoto crowns over the DIC crowns anyway so this is a welcome change. A lot of people likened the DIC crowns to french fries rather than the New York skyline.
This year, the formatting was different in how the semifinalists were selected as they were grouped by region (the Americas, Europe and Africa/Asia Pacific) with 4 from each region advancing to the top 16 plus 4 wildcard spots so while this method may not necessarily feel fair if the best of the best happen to come from one region of the world, it does guarantee some equal representation. There have been years where a continent was shut out such the 1995 Miss Universe pageant where no European delegates placed and in the 2009 Miss Universe pageant where no Asian delegates placed. This change seems to have garnered mixed reactions but after seeing how it worked during the telecast, I understood the need for it. I have written in the past about how the judging panel tends to come largely from the Americas so this method does seem to help eliminate bias but at the same time, some deserving delegates may be left out over others who are chosen but I suppose that was what the wildcard spots were about. It wasn’t exactly clear how these spots were chosen though but I heard it was a combination of the preliminary scores, the organization’s feedback and the online vote to determine the semifinalists. The host Steve Harvey didn’t make a mistake this year but as expected during the night, he did allude to the 2015 incident when he mistakenly announced the runner-up as the winner only to have to correct it minutes later. Ashley Graham seemed more lively this time as backstage commentator especially when interacting with color commentators, Carson Kressley and Lu Sierra who all did a decent job. I loved Carson’s little quips similarly to those that he incorporated in 2006 like ‘Are you a little cold? Because I’m feeling Chile!’ I do miss the days when a former winner or participant would do color commentary but I appreciated that we got some backstage banter at least. Having a mixed panel of judges for both the preliminaries and the finals seems to have been permanently implemented for now and I think it works. Two judges served on both panels (Wendy Fitzwilliam-Miss Universe 1998 and Megan Olivi) and the remaining preliminary judges were: Morgan Deane, Isabelle Lindblom, Cecilio Asuncion and Bill Pereira. For the finals, they were replaced by: Pia Wurtzbach-Miss Universe 2015, Ross Mathews, Jay Manuel, Lele Pons and Farouk Shami, founder of CHI which is one of the main sponsors of the pageant.
Miss Universe 2017 had the most delegates competing ever in its history. 92 delegates competed with 3 countries making their debut (Cambodia, Laos and Nepal). Originally, there were going to be 93 delegates but Sierra Leone’s delegate had Visa issues and couldn’t make it. This record surpasses that previously held by the 2011 and 2012 Miss Universe pageants which each had 89 delegates competing. Sadly, the U.S. ratings for this pageant were the second lowest in the pageant’s history with 4.4 million viewers which was just above the lowest rated 2013 Miss Universe pageant which had 3.8 million viewers but that was also a tape-delayed pageant held in Russia and aired on a Saturday night. Since the lowest rated Miss Universe pageants were both held in November, that month will likely be off their radar for future pageant dates but the pageants held in December (2012 and 2015) had over 6 million viewers so it seems likely that the 2018 pageant might be held in December 2018 but this isn’t confirmed yet of course. Or will they hold it in January 2019 as seems to have been the trend for the past few years??
ACTUAL TOP 16: |
MY PREDICTIONS: |
Winner=South Africa-Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters |
Winner=Thailand-Maria Lynn Poonlertlarp Ehren* |
1st Runner Up=Colombia-Laura González |
1st Runner Up=Peru-Prissila Howard |
2nd Runner Up=Jamaica-Davina Bennett |
2nd Runner Up=USA-Kára McCullough* |
FINALISTS (alpha'l): |
FINALISTS: |
Thailand-Maria Lynn Poonlertlarp Ehren |
Nepal-Nagma Shrestha |
Venezuela-Keysi Sayago |
Venezuela-Keysi Sayago* |
SEMIFINALISTS (alpha'l): |
SEMIFINALISTS: |
Brazil-Monalysa Alcântara |
Philippines-Rachel Peters* |
Canada-Lauren Howe |
Colombia-Laura González* |
Philippines-Rachel Peters |
France-Alicia Aylies |
Spain-Sofía del Prado |
Great Britain-Anna Burdzy* |
USA-Kára McCullough |
South Africa-Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters* |
QUARTERFINALISTS (alpha'l): |
QUARTERFINALISTS: |
China-Roxette Qiu |
Mexico-Denisse Franco |
Croatia-Shanaelle Petty |
Puerto Rico-Danyeshka Hernández |
Ghana-Ruth Quashie |
Spain-Sofía del Prado* |
Great Britain-Anna Burdzy |
Poland-Katarzyna Włodarek |
Ireland-Cailín Toíbín |
Indonesia-Bunga Jelitha Ibrani |
Sri Lanka-Christina Peiris |
Iraq-Sarah Abdali Idan |
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ALTERNATES: Croatia*, Haiti, Canada*, Honduras, Jamaica* |
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HONORABLE MENTIONS: India, Egypt, Panama, Iceland, Australia |
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* = made actual top 16 |
The Prethoughts - Miss Universe 2017
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Some photos courtesy Miss Universe L.P., LLLP