Miss USA 2018: A quick review of the finals

Posted on by

Sarah Rose Summers of Nebraska was crowned as Miss USA 2018 by Kara McCullough, Miss USA 2017 at the end of a glittering show. Sarah is the first Miss USA from Nebraska, a state which is usually weak in the pageant. In fact, only 7 women applied for Miss Nebraska USA out of which Sarah was chosen as the winner. Sarah is a former Miss Teen USA contestant (Miss Teen Nebraska USA) and has been mentored by Shandi Finnessey and Susie Castillo, who also mentored Hailey Colborn, who won Miss Teen USA just few days ago.

Miss USA 2018 Sarah Summers

Here’s what we liked and what we disliked about the show.

What we liked

  • The production value of the show was great! We liked the stage although for some it was too basic in terms of core design. We loved how the girls got the chance to walk straight to the audience and the focus was on each of them for a good amount of time.
  • We liked the hosts Vanessa Lachey, Nick Lachey, Carson Kressley and Lu Sierra. Carson and Lu largely seemed honest in their opinions and their commentary was very engaging.
  • IMG seems to be finally getting it right because the show was better than the recent two editions. The focus was on the girls and the competition. The number of Audio-visuals was less. The organization no longer decides the questions for the Top 5 and it is left on the contestants, which is so much fairer. In fact the show was quite on the lines of how it used to be in the “Trump Era”.
  • Till a good extent, we liked the selection of semi-finalists, finalists and the Top 5. We loved the selection of Sarah Summers as the winner. The girl did well in the swimsuit and evening gown rounds, but she totally killed the two interview rounds with her energetic, spontaneous and lively personality! Her winning reaction was amazing and the other girls seemed ecstatic to see her win! She will be fun to follow and can do well at Miss Universe. We expect a Top 15 or Top 10 finish from her at MU.

What we didn’t like

Best and the worst evening gown at Miss USA 2018

  • We missed Miss District of Columbia Bryce Armstrong in the Top 15. She had totally nailed the swimsuit and evening gown rounds in the prelims. Perhaps MUO knew that she would make it to the Top 5 if she makes Top 15? Perhaps they did not want a winner from District of Columbia for third year in a row? We will never know if it’s true or not.
  • After the swimsuit round, we were surprised to see California and Maine in Top 10. We thought they were weak in the swimsuit competition, which in our opinion was dominated by Tennessee, New Jersey and Georgia. In the evening gown competition, South Dakota, New Jersey, Nebraska, Tennessee, South Dakota and Georgia stood out for us. To our surprise, only South Dakota and Nebraska made it further. We were shocked to see high praises for North Carolina from Lu Sierra. We though she was quite okay. We were disappointed with exclusion of Tennesee and Georgia from Top 5. Also, how did Florida make it to the Top 5 in spite of giving one of the weakest performances in evening gown round!
  • In the Top 5 round, the contestants were to give questions to each other. Now two of the five finalists gave tricky and complex questions while the rest three gave relatively easy or moderate questions. And guess what, the two ladies who tried to screw the chances of their competitors by throwing complex questions were out of the contest. Poor Miss Nebraska had to face one of the two questions and though she could not answer the question completely, the judges could see her confidence and pushed her to the next round, which was great. Thankfully, Miss Florida who tried to screw Nebraska’s chances had to bow out of the contest due to a weak answer to an actually easy question. We hope that MUO makes guidelines for questions to be asked in the final round, in case the same format is to be used in Miss Universe.

All in all, we liked this edition of Miss USA. After 2 years, the show was fun to watch and memorable like old times. We hope Miss Universe 2018 will be equally likable!

Images: Miss USA

Author: Andreas Sarkar