Miss USA 2017 Contestants: Meet the 51 Women Competing in the Pageant

Miss USA 2017 Contestants

The 2017 Miss USA Pageant airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT time delay on the FOX network, with Terrence Jenkins and Julianne Hough as the hosts. Model Ashley Graham will, again, serve as the backstage correspondent at the event as well. There are 51 contestants in the competition this year, unlike last year, which had a 52nd contestant voted into the pageant via social media by fans. Alexandra Miller, Miss USA 2015 Olivia Jordan's successor from Oklahoma, was the lucky woman voted to be Miss 52. This year, however, no Miss 52 competition has been announced. The reigning Miss USA is Deshauna Barber and tonight she will have to relinquish her crown to a new, lucky winner. This year's competition takes place at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and this is the 66th edition of the event. The preliminary competition was held on Thursday night, May 11, 2017 and was hosted by reporter Alex Wehrley, who is a former Miss Wisconsin USA, along with reigning Miss USA Barber. As for the main event tonight, there is a great deal in store, with Brett Eldredge, Pitbull and the cast of Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson: One as the set performers. When it comes to this year's judges, the panel includes Halima Aden, Carson Kressley, Brook Lee, Nancy Lublin, Jeannie Mai and Janet Mock. Aden is a Somali-American IMG model and she was the first woman to compete in a Miss USA state pageant while wearing a hijab and burkini. Many remember Carson Kressley from the ground-breaking show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He was also recently on The New Celebrity Apprentice with host Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kressley is an Emmy Award winner, a fashion expert and a New York Times best-selling author. Judge Brook Lee is a model, a television host and a former pageant queen who was a Miss USA in 1997. She was also Miss Universe. Lublin is the Founder of Dress for Success and the CEO of Crisis Text Line. As for Jeannie Mai, many fans know her as a co-host on the Emmy Award-winning talk show The Real. And finally, Janet Mock is an author, television host and an advocate, who shares her story about being a trans woman. But, now let's get into the women participating as contestants. To check out each one of these year's competitors, click through our gallery of each of their best photos from the preliminary swimsuit competition. (Getty)