Tomorrow is the 2017 pageant for Miss Universe and Miss France Iris Mittenaere will relinquish her 2016 crown to a new winner. There are 92 contestants in the competition this year and tonight, they are each showing off a costume that represents their nation in the National Costume Show. This presentation includes highly detailed outfits, full of color and reflective of cultures all over the world. The National Costume Show begins at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT and will be showcased in the above live stream video. Nia Sanchez and Nick Teplitz are hosting the event.
Last night was the preliminary competition for Miss Universe and that also live streamed online. This was also hosted by Nick Teplitz, along with last year’s winner, Mittenaere at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino. The scores from the preliminary pageant, along with interview questions, are what help to choose the semi-finalists in the pageant. These semi-finalists will be announced tomorrow night at the live event. If you were unable to watch the preliminary competition, you can check it out in the below video.
For tomorrow night’s Miss Universe pageant, plus-size model Ashley Graham and Steve Harvey return again for hosting and corresponding duties. Graham dished to FOX about returning as a backstage host, saying that, “I think that it’s really important that we continue to show diversity of all sizes, ethnicities, backgrounds and religion. So for me, I’m here to show diversity of size! Because not yet have we had a curvy girl in Miss Universe or even in the Miss USA pageant.” Providing commentary on the night’s events, personality Carson Kressley will team up with runway coach and pageant expert Lu Sierra. As for the judges this year, the people making up the panel are Miss Universe 1998 Wendy Fitzwilliam, TV host and makeup artist Jay Manuel, comedian and personality Ross Mathews, FOX Sports 1 reporter Megan Olivi, YouTube personality Lele Pons, and Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach. Judge Pons is a Venezuelan-American internet personality, as well as an actress, and she recently ranked as number 8 on Forbes’ Top Influencers of 2017 list for the entertainment industry. Pons also recently co-hosted the Latin America’s 2017 MTV Millennial Awards. Music artists Fergie and Rachel Platten are slated as the official performers for the 2017 Miss Universe Pageant.
Each contestant has their own cause or charity they are involved with and last year’s winner, Mittenaere, was a supporter of Smile Train. Upon winning the crown last year, she spoke about her involvement with the organization and her plans to work with them, telling Hollywood Life, “This year I’m going to work with another organization, which is Smile Train. It’s an organization that raises money and uses dental surgery for children who have cleft palates, so it’s very interesting and it’s one of my passions. I’m very excited to go to a lot of countries to do that. You can change the lives of these children. When you see the before and after, you understand everything and why we want to do this.” To get to know more about Mittenaere, her Miss Universe journey and the new round of competitors, tune in at 7 p.m. ET/PT time delayed tomorrow on the FOX network in the USA.