Las Vegas to host 66th Miss Universe pageant

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

Five-time Emmy Award winner Steve Harvey will host the threehour 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.

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 Jan. 30.

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

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

Teo also said that 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 Rodrigo 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 Nov. 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.