Miss USA sees lowest ratings ever amid Trump controversy
NEW YORK (KRON/AP) – This year’s broadcast of the Miss USA pageant received the lowest ratings of all time following the inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants by Donald Trump, co-owner of the pageant.
Figures show fewer than a million television viewers watched the pageant which had to scramble to find a new home on the little-known Reelz Channel after NBC dumped the show amid the Trump controversy.
That’s down sharply from the 5.6 million people who watched Miss USA on NBC in 2014. In records that date back to the 1970s, the audience for Miss USA had ranged from 4.6 million viewers in 2013 to 38.1 million in 1979, the Nielsen company said.
Trump found himself on the outs with NBC after many Latinos were angered by the Republican presidential candidate’s comments that some Mexican immigrants to the U.S. bring drugs and crime, and some are rapists.
Olivia Jordan of Oklahoma was crowned the 2015 Miss USA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday.