The whole last week has been a hurricane week for Miss USA and Miss Universe president Paula Shugart. Reason being Donald Trump’s distasteful cooments about the Latinos in his Presidential campaing speech. Amidst all the storm of controversies going on around the Miss Universe pageant, Shugart was clouded with a week-long media ambush as one by one, performers, co-hosts, and broadcast networks dropped their support off the 64-year-old organization and its annual beauty pageants.
In an interview withe Entermtainment Weekly, Paula sets it straight she will follow her role and duties, despite of all the ongoing controversies. Paula clearly states that the Miss Universe organissation is a standalone company that operates on its own. “We’re a little company that happens to have been caught between two behemoths. (Trump and NBC)”, says Paula. When asked if the MU organisation has started their search with other broadcasters about airing the pageants, Paula said, “We’re starting to. We’re doing many, many different things at once. That’s going to be a big focus for us as well. I kind of liken it to when the Golden Globes aired during the writer’s strike [in 2008]. Obviously, they couldn’t do their typical Golden Globes show, but that event went on and it was different the year of the strike. That’s kind of the approach I’m taking to this.”
She indicated that they are currently fishing options to air the Miss USA pageant. Paula also says that the backing out of the co-hosts, Thomas and Cheryl was not unexpected as the two were under contract at NBC. “On the judge front, the nice thing is that we’ve had contestants and former title holders come out of the woodwork, who are rallying around the organization because we’ve really changed their lives and they know what the contestants are going through. So I have a feeling it’s going to be a good celebration. A lot of our formers will be involved. We’re actually getting really exciting about it,”, says Paula.
On being asked,if there is a possibility that Miss Universe might not happen in January 2016, Paula confidently said that she doesn’t see that happening as the pageant has a huge fan following around the world and that she will deal with it after Miss USA.