The finale of the Miss Universe pageant is a week from tonight on NBC. It will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We began our annual preview of the pageant here. I noted several of my favorite contestants, but didn’t get past the letter “B.” I may have to ditch the alphabetical approach.
With the contest drawing near, there are lots of sources of information. At the top of the list is the official Miss Universe site, where you can do a number of things. You can check out photos of all of the contestants, and vote for your favorite. The contestant with the most online votes automatically advances to the semi-finals. If you go to the pageant’s YouTube channel, you can watch videos of the contestants. Then there are sites devoted exclusively to pageantry, like Missology, which offer in-depth coverage.
The news services know a good photo opportunity when they see one, so Yahoo News, for example, has hundreds of pictures that you can browse. And Fox Nation has gotten into the act with its “Pic of the Day” featuring three contestants. No hard feelings, Fox: we all know where conservative web site pageant coverage started!
The betting odds are taking shape, and Miss USA, Alyssa Campanella–no relation to Roy, as far as I know–is the current favorite. The last thing I want to be is unpatriotic, but I try to be objective when it comes to pageants, and I’m not on the bandwagon. Miss Campanella’s photos, etc., are here and her video is here; you can draw your own conclusion:
Next in the betting odds is Miss Australia. Now we’re talking; I included a photo of her in our previous post. In third place, currently, is Miss Canada, Chelsae Durocher–no relation to Leo, as far as I know–who is another worthy competitor:
Do you notice a trend here? Is there a weirdly Anglophone bias in the betting? What happened to pageant hot spots like Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Brazil, not to mention all those Europeans? Consider me skeptical.
Next in line is Miss Mexico. The reigning Miss Universe is Mexico’s Ximena Navarette, a classic beauty queen. Does the current Miss Mexico, Karin Ontiveros, have the same potential? You be the judge:
For now, let’s stop with Miss Ukraine, the current fifth-place contender:
Those are some very strong competitors, but personally, I think the bettors are missing some excellent contestants. We will try to find time to highlight them over the next week, as well as watch for sudden shifts in the odds.
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