Miss World

Zhang Zi Lin, Miss World 2007

The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Currently, Morley's wife, Julia Morley, co-chairs the pageant

Alongside with its rival Miss Universe and Miss Earth contests, this pageant is one of the most publicized beauty contests in the world. The telecast of the final competition is the world's largest live annual beauty pageant television event with global viewers in more than 200 countries.

The winner spends a year travelling to represent the Miss World Organization and its various causes .Traditionally, Miss World lives in London during her reign. The current Miss World is Zhang Zilin of China

Miss World started as the Festival Bikini Contest, in honour of the recently introduced swim wear of the time, but was called "Miss World" by the press. It was originally planned as a one-off event. Upon learning about the upcoming Miss Universe pageant, Morley decided to make the pageant an annual event .

Opposition to the wearing of bikinis led to their replacement with more modest swim wear after the first contest. In 1959, the BBC started broadcasting the competition. The pageant's popularity grew with the advent of television.

In the 1980s, the pageant repositioned itself with the slogan Beauty With a Purpose, with added tests of intelligence and personality[11]. However, the competition has been seen as old-fashioned and rather politically incorrect in its native Britain. Despite the global appeal, the show was not broadcast on any major terrestrial British TV network for several years, until Channel 5 aired it in 1998.
[edit] 21st century

Eric Morley died as the pageant entered the new century. His wife, Julia, succeeded as chairwoman of the Miss World Organization.

The century saw its first black African winner, Agbani Darego, in 2001. As part of its marketing strategy, Miss World came up with a "You Decide" television special during that edition, featuring the delegates behind the scenes and on the beach, and allowing viewers to either phone in or vote online for their favorites. It also sells its Talent, "Beach Beauty" and Sports events as television specials to broadcasters .

In 2002 the competition was slated for choosing Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria to host its final. This choice was controversial, as a northern Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, was awaiting death by stoning for adultery under Sharia law there, but Miss World chose to use the publicity surrounding its presence to bring greater global awareness and action to Amina's plight (see Controversies section).
Miss World Organization

The Miss World Organization owns and manages the annual Miss World Finals, a competition that has grown into one of the World’s biggest.[18]. Since its launch in 1951, the Miss World Organization has raised more than £250 million for children’s charities[19]. Miss World is franchised in more than 140 countries. Miss World, Limited is a privately held firm, and thus figures for its earnings, expenses and charitable contributions are not publicly available.

Aside from raising millions of pounds for charities around the globe under the banner of its 'Beauty with a Purpose' program, Miss World is also credited with directly influencing a dramatic increase in tourism in Sanya, China, host of the Miss World finals from 2003-05.

The pageant

In the year preceding the global finals, each delegate must win her national title or a specially designated Miss World national preliminary. Miss World's national preliminaries are conducted by their licence-holders, who hold the franchise to use the "Miss World" name in their country. The annual final is typically a month long event, with several preliminary galas, dinners, balls and activities, culminating in a globally telecast final show in which the field is narrowed to between 15-20 delegates.

The following is a list of winners of the previous ten years. See List of Miss World titleholders for the full list of titleholders.

Year	Miss World	Country	Location
2008	TBA	TBA	Johannesburg, South Africa
2007	Zhang Zilin	China	Sanya, China
2006	Taťána Kuchařová	Czech Republic	Warsaw, Poland
2005	Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir	Iceland	Sanya, China
2004	María Julia Mantilla	Peru	Sanya, China
2003	Rosanna Davison	Ireland	Sanya, China
2002	Azra Akın	Turkey	London, UK
2001	Agbani Darego	Nigeria	Sun City, South Africa
2000	Priyanka Chopra	India	London, UK
1999	Yukta Mookhey	India	London, UK
1998	Linor Abargil	Israel	Mahé, Seychelles