Miss Universe 2004

Miss Universe 2004
Date	1 June 2004
Presenters	Billy Bush and Daisy Fuentes
Entertainment	Gloria Estefan
Venue	Centro de Convenciones CEMEXPO Quito, Ecuador
Broadcaster	NBC
Entrants	80
Placements	15
Debuts	Ethiopia, Georgia, Vietnam
Withdraws	Albania, Argentina, Mauritius, Namibia, New Zealand
Returns	Austria, Botswana, Chile, Denmark, Ghana, Kenya, Lebanon, Paraguay, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Turks & Caicos, Uruguay
Winner	Jennifer Hawkins  Australia
Congeniality	Laia Manetti  Italy
Best National Costume	Jessica Rodríguez  Panama
Photogenic	Alba Reyes  Puerto Rico

Miss Universe 2004, the 53rd Miss Universe pageant, was held in Centro de Convenciones CEMEXPO, Quito, Ecuador on 1 June 2004.

Delegates arrived in Quito from May 12, 2004 and participated in three weeks of events, rehearsals and preliminary competitions prior to the final televised competition. Events took place in Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Riobamba and Latacunga.^[1]

For the second consecutive year, Billy Bush and Daisy Fuentes hosted the final televised pageant, with entertainment from Gloria Estefan.^[2]

At the conclusion of the final competition, outgoing titleholder Amelia Vega of Dominican Republic crowned her successor, Jennifer Hawkins of Australia, as Miss Universe 2004.^[3]

Hawkins was the first Australian titleholder since Kerry Anne Wells won in 1972. She was also the first blonde Miss Universe since Michelle McLean in 1992.^[4]

Host city

Quito, Ecuador was announced as host city of the pageant on 19 August 2003. The city paid $5 million for the right to host the event, although it anticipated recouping this through visitors and promotion of the country during the televised competition.^[5]

In March Ecuador's foreign trade minister was forced to reject rumours that the pageant was at risk of being moved to China, and he urged Ecuadoreans to back the pageant.^[6] As an added incentive for tourists, Ecuador American Airlines, official airline sponsor of the pageant, offered 5% off airfares to Quito for travel to the pageant, as well as 10% off for those who booked a month in advance.^[7] The attempted use of the pageant to promote Ecuador threatened to be derailed just prior to the telecast, when a corruption scandal led to growing demands for the removal of President Lucio Gutierrez in the politically unstable country.^[8]

Prior to the arrival of delegates in early May, officials in Quito attempted to renovate areas where they would be visiting, which involved temporarily removing beggars and homeless people from certain areas of the city.^[9] Similar action was taken in Bangkok, Thailand prior to Miss Universe 1992^[10] and in Manila, Philippines prior to Miss Universe 1994.^[11] The event was protested by native Indian activists and environmentalists who accused the government of concealing the nations poverty whilst the pageant was being hosted.^[12]

The delegates, judges, media and tourists were heavily protected by a security detail involving over 5000 police officers.^[13] On 16 May, just hours before delegates were expected to participate in a parade in Cuenca, a pamphlet bomb was deactivated by police. Although it was protesting the economic policies of the Ecuadorean government, police suspected that the bomb, found just six blocks from the parade route, was timed specifically to coincide with the event.^[14]

Results

Countries and territories which sent delegates and results.

Placements

Special awards

Order of announcements

Judges

Telecast Judges

The judging panel for the final competition included:

• Bo Derek - Film actress.
• Bill Rancic - Winner of the first season of The Apprentice.
• Katie Pritz - Today Show's "You Be The Judge" contest winner.
• Wendy Fitzwilliam - Miss Universe 1998 from Trinidad & Tobago.
• Elsa Benitez - International supermodel.
• Jon Tutolo - President of Trump Model Management.
• Anne Martin - Vice President of Global Cosmetics and Marketing of Procter & Gamble Cosmetics.
• Monique Menniken - Supermodel.
• Petra Nemcova - Sports Illustrated supermodel.
• Jefferson Pérez - 1996 Ecuadorian Olympic Gold Medalist.
• Emilio Estefan - Music producer and entertainer.

Note: Kwame Jackson, runner-up on the first season of The Apprentice, was initially chosen as a judge, but he was disqualified because he inadvertently visited the hotel where the delegates were staying and interacted with some of the contestants.^[15]

Delegates

Contestant notes

• Some delegates had previously competed in Miss World, including three women who were runners-up at that pageant:
  • Christine Straw (Jamaica) placed fifth runner-up at Miss World 1998 as well as making the top ten at Miss Universe.
  • Zizi Lee of Aruba, was first runner-up at Miss World 2001 and Oleksandra Nikolayenko (Ukraine) was a semi-finalist. Both were unplaced at Miss Universe
  • Kathrine Sørland (Norway) was third runner-up at Miss World 2002, as well as a semi-finalist at Miss Universe. Odessa Philipps (Guyana) also competed at Miss World 2002.
  • Bianca Sissing (Switzerland), top fifteen at Miss Universe, was also a semi-finalist at Miss World 2003. Another semi-finalist in that pageant was Marie Jose Hnein (Lebanon), who did not place at Miss Universe. Anne-Marie Browne (Antigua & Barbuda), Angeline da Silva (Curaçao) and Lucie Vachova (Czech Republic) also competed at Miss World 2003 but were unplaced in both competitions.
  • Heba El-Sisy (Egypt) later competed at Miss World 2004, along with Stacy Anne Kelly (Cayman Islands), Anita Uwagbale (Nigeria), and Joan Ramagoshi (South Africa). Nigeria placed as semi-finalist in Miss World 2004.
• Yanina Gonzalez (Paraguay), placed third runner-up at both Miss Universe and Miss Earth 2004. Marifely Arguello (Nicaragua) and Liesel Holler (Peru) were unplaced at Miss Universe but made the semi-finals at Miss Earth 2004.Marifely Arguello from Nicaragua would also win Miss Expo World later that year. Ferehyiwot Abebe (Ethiopia) and Silvia Gabriela Mejia (El Salvador) were unplaced at both pageants.
• Oleksandra Nikolayenko (Ukraine) was invited to judge the Miss Universe 2005 finals in Thailand and later became director of the Miss Ukraine Universe pageant.
• Andrea Fonseka (Malaysia) is the daughter of Josephine Lena Wong Jaw Leng, who was Miss Universe Malaysia 1970 and competed at Miss Universe 1970 and placed Top 15,Top 10 Best in Swimming Suit & won Expo Queen award. She later take over the Miss Universe Malaysia franchise and become director since 2010.
• Zita Galgociova was initially chosen to represent Slovakia,^[16] but she was replaced with her first runner-up Zuzana Dvorska because she was under the minimum age.
• Maricar Balagtas (Philippines) was Miss Globe International 2001 winner.

National competitions

•  Georgia,  Ethiopia^[17] and  Vietnam competed for the first time.
• Nations who returned from the pageant after years of absence were  St Vincent & the Grenadines (last competed in 1991),  Austria (1999),  Denmark (2000),  Botswana (2001),  Turks & Caicos (2001),  Lebanon (2001),  Paraguay (2001),  Chile (2002),  Ghana (2002),  Kenya (2002), and  Uruguay (2002).
• Countries that sent delegates to Miss Universe 2003, but did not send one to the 2004 pageant were:  Albania,  Argentina,  Mauritius,  Namibia, and  New Zealand.

International Broadcasters

These are some of the networks outside the United States (telecasted on NBC and Telemundo) that showed the 2004 Miss Universe pageant live (or recorded earlier) in their respective countries and territories:

References

External links

• Miss Universe official website