Miss USA 2020: Pageant set to be held at Tennessee's Graceland mansion
The famed Miss USA competition is set to be held at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, on Nov. 9.
Organized to be "an innovative event that prioritizes the health and safety of the contestants, audience, and crew," the nationally televised pageant will take place in the Exhibition Center and the Soundstage at Graceland, two concert-and-event spaces located at the Elvis Presley's Memphis complex across the street from the Presley mansion.
The Miss USA event will be preceded on Nov. 7 by its younger sibling pageant, the Miss Teen USA competition. The Miss Teen USA winner then participates in the Miss USA pageant.
Although many details have yet to be revealed, the contestants will travel to Memphis for the competitions and participate in "socially distanced" but traditional pageant activities onstage. They'll arrive in Memphis days before the competition, to take part in various travelogue segments that promote the host city, filmed at such locations as the National Civil Rights Museum and Elvis Presley's Memphis, where they may pause in front of Elvis' prophetically titled 11th feature film: "Girls! Girls! Girls!"
The productions surely will show Memphis in its best light, but the competitions are not the ratings powerhouses they were in years past: Miss USA will be televised live at 8 p.m. Nov. 9 on FYI, a cable network that focuses on "lifestyle programming." Miss Teen USA will not be televised but will be streamed live at 7 p.m. Nov. 7 via the Miss Universe Organization social-media accounts.
“The Miss Universe Organization and the team at Graceland have created an innovative event that prioritizes the health and safety of the contestants, audience, and crew who will join us in Graceland,” Paula M. Shugart, president of The Miss Universe Organization, said in a statement.
“We look forward to crowning a new Miss USA and Miss Teen USA in the historic city of Memphis. While this year’s competitions will look a little different as we adhere to crucial safety guidelines, we are excited to bring the thrill and excitement of the iconic Miss USA and Miss Teen USA competitions to homes across America.”
Created along with the Miss Universe pageant in 1952 as a glitzier rival to the then 31-year-old Miss America competition, Miss USA in recent years has probably been mentioned in the new most frequently due to its association with Donald Trump, who owned the Miss Universe Organization from 1996 to 2015.
In a 2005 interview with radio host Howard Stern, Trump described entering pageant dressing room as one of the perks of ownership. “You know, no men are anywhere," he said. "And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it… You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that."
In 2010, he told David Letterman: "I made the heels higher and the bathing suits smaller."
In fact, several Miss Teen USA contestants later complained about Trump, saying he walked into dressing rooms, insulted them if he didn't think they were "hot," and kissed them on the lips without permission.
The Miss USA pageant was on CBS and NBC until 2015, and often topped the Nielsen ratings in the 1980s. In recent years, however, the competition -- like Miss America -- has appeared on some lower-tier cable networks.
More: Miss Utah Rachel Slawson will make history as Miss USA's first openly bisexual contestant
More: Valentina Sampaio makes history as first openly transgender Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model