History The Miss USA pageant was conceived in 1950 when Yolande Betbeze, winner of the rival Miss America pageant refused to pose in swimwear provided by sponsor Catalina Swimwear. Catalina decided to pull their sponsorship off the pageant, and create their own competition. Other owners have included a subsidiary of Gulf+Western Industries, ITT Corporation, and billionaire Donald Trump, the current owner who bought the pageant in 1996. The first Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants were held concurrently in Long Beach, California in 1952; the first Miss USA winner was Miss New York USA Jackie Loughery. There were thirty delegates in the first year of competition, and many states did not compete every year during the first two decades of the pageant's history. From the 1970s, each state and the District of Columbia have sent a delegate each year. Alaska first competed in 1959 and Hawaii in 1960. Both had competed at Miss Universe until this time. The pageant aired on CBS from 1963 until 2002, and for many years was known for having a CBS game show host as pageant host. John Charles Daly hosted the show from 1963-1966, Bob Barker from 1967 until 1987, Dick Clark from 1989-1993, and Bob Goen from 1994-1996. The show's highest ratings were in the early 1980s, when it regularly topped the Neilsen ratings.[5][6][7] Viewership dropped sharply from the 1990s to the 2000s, from an estimated viewership of 20 million to an average of 7 million from 2000-2001.[8] In 2002 owner Donald Trump brokered a new deal with NBC, giving them half-ownership of the Miss USA, Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA and moving them to NBC on an initial five year contract. The pageants were first shown on NBC in 2003. Historically, the winner of the Miss USA title has represented the United States in its sister Miss Universe pageant. From its inception to 2008, seven Miss USA titleholders have gone on to win Miss Universe. In the mid-1960s, it was established when a Miss USA wins the Miss Universe title, the first runner-up assumes the Miss USA title for the remainder of the year. This has happened in 1980, 1995 and 1997. In 1967, the first runner-up declined the title and the crown went to the second runner-up Cheryl Patton. The only instance where a first runner-up assumed the title of Miss USA prior to this period was in 1957 when Mary Leona Gage resigned when it was discovered she was married. Unlike the Miss America pageant, there is no talent section at Miss USA.
Delegates are required to compete in Evening Gown, Swimsuit, and Interview. The modern pageant consists of a preliminary competition, held in the week before the pageant where all contestants are judged in swimsuit, gown, and interview. From this the semi-finalists are chosen, and they are announced during the live broadcast of the final competition. Semi-finalists then compete in swimsuit and evening gown, before some are eliminated and the interview competition is held. The runners-up and winner are announced at the end of the telecast. The judges for the finals are usually different from those who judged the Preliminary competition. From 1975-2000, all delegates who made the initial cut competed in an interview competition in some format, often involving all semi-finalists. As of 2001, this interview portion was taken away and leaving only the "final question" for the top five delegates to answer. The finals judges thus only hear the final candidates speak. From 1979-2002, the average scores of each delegate were shown on the television broadcast and thus the semi-finalists could be ranked. This was changed in 2003 to a "circle" system where judges choose a certain number of delegates to "circle", and those with the most "circles" make the cut. This was the same system that was used prior to the "computer" scoring system implemented in 1979. State Competitions Every year, each state holds a preliminary competition to choose their delegate for the Miss USA pageant. In some states (such as Texas and Florida), local pageants are also held to determine delegates for the state competition. The state winners hold the title "Miss State USA" for the year of their reign. The most successful state is Texas, which has had the most semi-finalists and winners, including five consecutive Miss USA titleholders during the 1980s. Other successful states California, New York, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia.
The least successful states are Montana, which has not placed since the 1950s; Wyoming, which has had only one placement, in the 1980s; and Delaware, the only state that has never placed. The only state which has produced more than one Miss Universe is South Carolina. The Miss Universe Organization licenses out the state pageants to pageant directors, who in some cases are responsible for more than one state. The most well established directorial groups are RPM Productions, created in 1980 (Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina), and Vanbros, created in the early 1990s (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma), both of which have been in existence since the early 1990s. Future Productions direct the most states, six, across the midwest and Rockies. Winners Julie Hayek after winning the Miss USA 1983 title The first Eurasian woman to win Miss USA was Mai Shanley in 1984, and the first African-American to win was Carole Gist in 1990.
Brandi Sherwood is the only woman to have held both the Miss Teen USA and Miss USA titles. She was Miss Idaho Teen USA, Miss Teen USA 1989, Miss Idaho USA 1997, first runner-up at Miss USA 1997 and in May 1997 assumed the Miss USA title after Brook Lee won the Miss Universe pageant.[11] Eight other Miss USA titleholders have also previously competed at Miss Teen USA. These include: Shanna Moakler (1995), (Miss Rhode Island Teen USA 1992), Ali Landry (1996), (Miss Louisiana Teen USA 1990), Kimberly Pressler (1999) (Miss New York Teen USA 1994), Lynnette Cole (2000) (Miss Tennessee Teen USA 1995), Susie Castillo (2003) (Miss Massachusetts Teen USA 1998), Chelsea Cooley (2005) (Miss North Carolina Teen USA 2000), Tara Conner (2006) (Miss Kentucky Teen USA 2002) and Rachel Smith (2007)
(Miss Tennessee Teen USA 2002). Five Miss USA titleholders have also competed at Miss America. These included Miss USAs 1954-1956 (Miriam Stevenson, Carlene King Johnson, Carol Morris), Mai Shanley (1984) and Shandi Finnessey (2004). All were unplaced Miss America, although Shandi Finnessey, Miss USA 2004 and Miss Missouri 2002 won a preliminary evening gown award at Miss America 2003. Many Miss USA winners have gone to careers in the entertainment industry. Those who have been successful in the industry include Summer Bartholomew, Laura Martinez Herring, Shanna Moakler, Ali Landry, Brandi Sherwood, Susie Castillo and Shandi Finnessey
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