The Miss Universe Organization looks to find a female host as part of its reformation under the leadership of JKN Group and find its new home with The Roku Channel.
The Miss Universe Organization (MUO) revealed that it had ended its partnership with long-time host Steve Harvey for the upcoming 71st Miss Universe competition and is looking forward to casting a female host.
Replacing Harvey is just one of the still developing changes from the MUO, following the acquiring of the organization by Thai-owned conglomerate JKN Global Group in October 2022
The news was confirmed by MUO CEO Amy Emmerich who sat down in an exclusive interview with Variety.
“Among the changes in the move: Steve Harvey, who had hosted for five years as part of the pageant’s deal with Fox (with the exception of 2021, when that pact was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic), also won’t be back. According to Miss Universe Organization CEO Amy Emmerich, a new host — expected to be a female — will be announced in the coming weeks,” the Variety story was reported by Manila Bulletin.
According to Emmerich, one of the new faces in the MUO, the organization is looking at ways to reform and refresh the organization to signal a new era of the international pageant.
“My goal was really to make sure we led with a female lens this next go-around,” Emmerich said in the report. “We should hopefully have that to talk about soon… it was a rare opportunity to be able to kind of restart in a whole new place,” added Emmerich as reported by Inquirer.
Additionally, the 71st edition of MU will be broadcast live from New Orleans on January 14, 2023 by its new streaming platform The Roku Channel after signing a one-year deal.
However, the MUO retained its partnership with Telemundo for its Spanish broadcast of the pageant.
“Now that we have Roku, what exclusively can we do for them during this commercial space that the audience can feel like they’re seeing more of the inside, behind the scenes,” Emmerich said.
Tags: #missuniverse, #pageant, #beautyqueens