Las Vegas to host 66th Miss Universe pageant

By: Robert R. Requintina

Updated September 29, 2017, 2:04 PM

After failed negotiations in the Philippines, the 66th Miss Universe beauty pageant returns to Las Vegas in Nevada on November 26, the pageant’s website announced Friday.

Five-time Emmy Award winner Steve Harvey will host the three-hour show which will broadcast live from The Axis at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, the same venue where Miss Universe 2015 Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach of the Philippines was crowned.

Miss France Iris Mittenaere waves to the crowd after being crowned winner in the 65th Miss Universe beauty pageant at the Mall of Asia Arena, in Pasay, January 30, 2017. (REUTERS/Erik De Castro / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

Iris Mittenaere from France will crown her successor at the conclusion of the show. Rachel Peters is the country’s representative to the pageant.

It would be recalled that the Miss Universe Organization offered to the Philippines to stage the pageant for the second time in a row.

The 2016 Miss Universe beauty contest was held in Manila last January 30.

But in June, Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo said the Miss Universe contest will not be happening in the Philippines.

“Baka next year,” said Teo then in an interview.

Teo also said the MUO was pleased at the job the Philippines did for the staging of the contest and offered again the rights to do it here.

President Duterte has earlier expressed apprehensions for the staging of the pageant this year due to the hosting of the second Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Pampanga on November 13 to 14.

Teo also said then that any sponsors have already expressed their intentions to support the staging of the Miss Universe contest in Manila.

https://entertainment.mb.com.ph/2017/09/29/las-vegas-to-host-66th-miss-universe-pageant/