What certainly nobody (especially the candidates) will miss tonight, when the closing gala of the Miss Universe pageant begins, will be Steve Harvey.
The television entertainer will not return as the competition’s master of ceremonies.
Over the years, the comedian has made international headlines for incorrectly crowning the wrong queen (Miss Colombia instead of Miss Philippines) in 2015, making sexist and racist comments and making Miss Harnaaz Sandhu India 2021, who eventually won the crown, will imitate animal sounds instead to present their achievements in winning the pageant.
Now, Olivia Culpo and Jeannie Mai Jenkins will be the presenters chosen to animate tonight’s competition. The decision was made by pageant executive director Amy Emmerich. This was confirmed by a report in Variety magazine last month. The aim of the decision was to promote the empowerment of women.
“My goal is really to make sure I’m leading with a female lens this next round,” she said in statements reproduced by Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. “It’s a rare opportunity to start fresh in a completely new place.”
This suggests that Harvey would have gone through several alerts already. For this reason, this year Miss Universe is full of changes, since another novelty is that it is aimed at Spanish speakers.
Despite the constant mistakes made by Steve Harvey hosting Miss Universe, the Fox channel, which held the broadcast rights, kept the comedian to present the acclaimed pageant for five years. Now, one of the changes occurred when a new contract was signed, omitting the chain.
In Puerto Rico, the competition will again air tonight from 9:00 p.m. on Wapa TV, owner of the competition’s local franchise.
In the United States, the event will be broadcast on the Roku TV channel, a streaming signal that connects to television and a proprietary application. It can also be seen on Telemundo.
“Right from the first conversation, I knew that I was at the right place. Roku always had personality. They are truly consistent with who they are, even with the original programming yet to come. And the new Miss Universe had to take some risks,” added Amy Emmerich.
Roku is also available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.