Another Miss USA Pageant has come and gone.
And, with it, emotions run high and opinions are varied.
So, in keeping with my annual tradition, here are my thoughts on the Good, the Bad and the Indifferent surrounding the annual competition.
I use the word competition because the term beauty pageant has long been eliminated from references to Miss USA.
It's passe.
It may not even be politically correct anymore.
Still, beauty is at the core of any pageant and this year's contestants did not disappoint.
Beauty is subjective, but all 51 contestants were beautiful in their own right.
Only one, though, can win the crown.
And, this year, the judges chose Miss District of Columbia, Kara McCullough, to be the holder of the title and I couldn't be more thrilled.
Kara is not only beautiful, she is also smart, ambitious and qualified to represent our nation at Miss Universe.
The pageant often reinvents itself, as was the case when Donald Trump took it over following the crowning of Ali Landry in 1996.
Beauty was pushed to the forefront - and rightfully so - however, many of the women crowned during his era weren't necessarily the best speakers.
IMG is now emphasizing brains, speaking skills and that something extra.
And, I, for one don't have a problem with that.
There should be no reason we can't crown a Miss USA that embodies both beauty and brains.
One who can hold her own with the media and one who can guarantee getting more bookings during her reign with a combination of arresting beauty and strong intellect.
I think we got that in Kara last night.
She will represent us well and I think is even the frontrunner for the Miss Universe title, but that's just my opinion, as is the rest of this blog.
Keeping in mind that whenever you assemble a panel of judges, differences will arise and opinions will vary. No one is ever going to agree 100% on everything and that's OK. We just have to learn to respect the varied opinions of others and accept the decision of the judges, whether we agree with it or not.
Did I agree with everything that took place last night on the stage?
Hell, no, however, I really didn't have a problem with any of the top 10. Nine of them were on my extended Top 15 list to begin with and any would have made a tremendous Miss USA.
The only contestant I really hadn't noticed was Missouri, the rest I had kept alternating on my list. Just wish the pageant had allowed a Top 15 to compete, as it allows more states to stay tuned and stay involved in the proceedings and it also provides these young women an extra chance to impress the judges and to proudly represent their state on national television.
Don't eliminate the up close and personal videos, but show only the top 5, as true pageant fans can find their way to the Miss USA website or YouTube to view them.
Let 15 compete in gown, as that has proven to be the most popular one for pageant fans whenever they are asked to vote in an unscientific poll regarding their favorite part of the competition. Then let 12 compete in swimsuit and, then, do the short interview they did with each of the top 10 delegates when the group is cut to 10 following swimsuit.
Have all scores combined to then get a top five and have each of them then answer the same question. No need to have two rounds of questions that cut to a final three. Just make the top 10 interview have a little more depth to it and then you're fine.
But, that's just fine tuning the pageant, as I had no real problem with the way the eliminations were done last night except for the initial cut to 10.
Since Miss USA started as a swimsuit pageant, have all 51 contestants appear in swimsuits in the opening number and that will be a good compromise that would allow for more gowns in the semi-final competition.
As for last night's opening number, I loved it, with one MAJOR exception.
The upbeat dance number was great, not allowing each young woman to introduce herself and her hometown was not.
These ladies work long and hard to get on the national stage and they deserve their moment to shine before the eliminations begin.
As for the emcees, Terrence J and Julianne Hough were terrific, both seemed thrilled to be there and moved the show along nicely. My only complaint there was Julianne's hair looked a hot mess all evening long!
As for color commentator, Ashley Graham, if you're going to have that position, use it and provide some juicy commentary. Her presence there just sort of seemed useless to me. I long for the days when Helen O'Connell sat above the stage and gave us insight into the pageant or Ali Landry and Julie Moran actually gave us some dish on the contestants and the competition. That's a much-needed part I think she be brought back.
As for providing dish, here's mine.
TOP 10 - From the moment they were announced and spoke, DC dominated and proved she would be the frontrunner all evening. She did not disappoint in swimsuit, where I ranked her second, behind Minnesota, who impressed in my favorite swimsuit of the evening. Other strong swimsuits were South Carolina, Alaska (did you look at the abs on her?) New York and Tennessee.
Coming out of preliminary competition my top three were NY, Tennessee and DC, only DC advanced to the final five. Part of that was I thought NY could have come right out of the gate in top 10 question and shown a little more of herself, like what Illinois did to endear herself to me and get her a spot in the five. Tennessee dominated prelims, but seemed a little off last night, and while I liked her gown, it was a little safe to me.
At least it was not disastrous like Minnesota's gown, which was way too busy for my taste, tho apparently it didn't hurt her, as she advanced to the 10, also.
My favorite gowns were DC, especially how she worked the gown, Alaska, who seemed a little too nervous to advance to the five, and New York. I also love when a girl buys a gown off the rack and that propelled New Jersey into my five at that point (of course her great personality and top 10 quick interview didn't hurt, either.)
My top five would have been DC, SC, Illinois (wearing a similar gown to Deshauna Barber, last year's Miss USA wasn't a great decision, but I didn't mind it), New Jersey and really any of the others, as I didn't have a particularly strong opinion either way. I had hoped Tennessee or NY would make it, but wasn't sure at that point. I thought Minnesota's gown choice would be her undoing, though, it wasn't.
Minnesota could clearly speak, which then propelled her into the top three along with both DC and New Jersey. DC seemed a little nervous, but a little nerves made her more relatable. Minnesota's answers seemed a little too canned and robotic to me, but that was just my opinion. Illinois continued to impress me and I loved her top five answer and would have actually placed her in the three instead of Minnesota. But, again, everyone has different opinions and that's why there are seven judges and not just one.
I did think the difficulty of the top five questions weren't necessarily all equal, but they were all good questions and none of the contestants had an embarrassing YouTube moment.
Perhaps my biggest complaint with Sunday's pageant was that it was never made clear as to how the People's Choice preliminary vote influenced the top 10 - if it influenced it at all - and the online final night voting which cut off before the allotted time limit in at least two instances and before the top 5 had entirely completed the answer to the question.
There were many pre-pageant favorites who didn't make the cut and I was disappointed. I loved Massachusetts and Utah going in and came to love Colorado, Nebraska and New Hampshire as the pageant week progressed. Despite strong preliminary performances, Massachusetts, Colorado and Nebraska did not advance. Neither did Utah nor NH, but neither wowed me in the prelims anyway.
But, again, my opinions are just that, mine and I can't mandate that six or seven other people are going to have the same views that I do.
With only 10 advancing to finals night, there were bound to be disappointments, that's just a given.
In the end, I agreed with the judges final decision and while many are debating the pageant and its new image, all I can say is that I don't like sob stories or personal tragedies to influence the judging and for the most part it did not. I would place a little less emphasis on that angle, which did take up a little too much time during the broadcast and replace it with a top 15.
Clearly, Miss USA is more than just a beauty pageant, and I really don't have a problem with that as long as the winner chosen is not only well spoken, but beautiful, too.
I think we got that with Kara.
And, in the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder anyway.
