Pageant News Bureau - Miss Universe 2004

Up to the challenge

In an internationally televised pageant with strong contestants but remarkably weak production values, Jennifer Hawkins of Australia was crowned Miss Universe on June 1, 2004, in Quito, Ecuador.

The first runner-up was Shandi Finnessey, Miss USA, and the second runner-up was Alba Giselle Reyes Santos, Miss Puerto Rico, who was also named Miss Photogenic by online fans. The third runner-up was Yanina Gonzalez of Paraguay, and the fourth runner-up was Danielle A. Jones, Miss Trinidad and Tobago.

The remaining top 10 finalists were Susana Rivadeneira of Ecuador, Tanushree Dutta of India, Christine Straw of Jamaica, Catherine Daza Manchola of Colombia and Nancy Soto of Costa Rica.

Other semifinalists were Katherine Sorland of Norway, Bianca Nicole Sissing of Switzerland, Telma de Jesus Esperanca Sonhi of Angola, Gabriela Barros of Chile and Rosalva Luna of Mexico. Laia Manetti of Italy was chosen Miss Congeniality by other contestants. Jessica Rodriguez of Panama won the award for best national costume.

Ms. Hawkins is the second Australian to become Miss Universe. (The first was Kerry Anne Wells in 1972.) The new winner appeared to be a crowd favorite in Ecuador, even though she was competing against a field with more than the usual number of Latin Americans.

The pageant had its share of problems in the weeks before the televised finals. Miss Bolivia, Gabriela Oviedo, made some embarrassing if not malicious comments about the ethnic makeup of her country. Some Ecuadoreans, though apparently more angry at their government than the foreign beauties, used the attention brought by the contest to stage demonstrations. Kwame Jackson, formerly of the Donald Trump program "The Apprentice," was fired as a judge at the last minute for fraternizing with contestants.

But the televised contest surpassed any in recent memory for the number of glitches. Hosts Billy Bush and Daisy Fuentes kept mixing up their lines, and Bush in particular appeared nervous throughout the show. In the taped introductions at the beginning of the program (at least in the initial broadcast), the spots for Miss Georgia and Miss Germany were repeated no fewer than four times before technicians corrected the mistake. The nation of Colombia was misspelled in a graphic, and the finalists missed a major cue toward the end of the program.

Worst of all, the sound system failed during the main musical number by guest entertainer Gloria Estefan. Like the star that she is, Ms. Estefan gave it her all as if nothing had happened.

One feature of the show, a female gymnast performing on a rope suspended above the audience, was distracting and thoroughly puzzling. One can only hope that it will not become a tradition.

Still, the choice of Ms. Hawkins seems likely to be well received. The only one of the five finalists not from the Americas, she fit the bill of the classic beauty queen, sweet-faced and curvaceous.

Ecuador, June 1, 2004