The CW has entered into an exclusive multiyear broadcast partnership for the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Teen USA Pageant. The 73rd Miss USA Pageant will air live on the network Sunday, August 4, and Miss Teen USA will air live on The CW Thursday, August 1. 

Both go for two hours. 

The CW ran Miss USA in September. Before that, it had a host of different homes, including NBC, Reelz, Fox and FYI. 

Miss Teen USA streamed on The CW app and on CWTV.com last year. 

“We are honored to continue our partnership with the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Organization to broadcast these two quality competitions that resonate with legions of fans across the country,” Heather Olander, head of unscripted programming at The CW, said. “We look forward to continuing the storied tradition of these pageants, refreshed with a modern sensibility, on The CW for the next three years.”

Both events will take place in Los Angeles. The hosts, judges and venues will be announced later. 

“The Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Organization is thrilled to partner with The CW Network to bring Miss USA and now the Miss Teen USA to audiences and viewers across the nation,” said Laylah Rose, president and CEO of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. “The Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Pageants have captivated audiences for decades with their unwavering commitment to making a positive impact in their communities. Through our exciting partnership with The CW, a blend of nostalgia and innovation, we are excited to showcase this prestigious competition and remain a beloved staple in family homes everywhere.”

The CW said the next Miss USA will feature modernized rules “that better reflect the goals of today’s women.” It is the first time any adult woman can compete in Miss USA, regardless of age, marital status or parental status.

Noelia Voigt of Utah won Miss USA last year. The CW said viewership peaked at over 1.1 million viewers. UmaSofia Srivastava of New Jersey won Miss Teen USA. 

The new Miss USA will go on to represent the United States at the Miss Universe 2024 competition later this year.

The 73rd Miss USA Pageant is executive produced by Renato Basile. 

Keltie Knight and Adrienne Bailon-Houghton will host The 72nd Miss USA Pageant on The CW September 29. Radio personality Ellen K will be the announcer. 

Knight is E! News chief correspondent and has been on Entertainment Tonight and The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS. 

Bailon-Houghton is a host of E! News and co-hosted talk show The Real. She was the lead singer of R&B group 3LW. 

Judges on Miss USA are designer Nicole Miller, actress Vivica A. Fox, model Emina Cunmulaj Nazarian and beauty entrepreneur Patrick Starr. Commentary will come from Jordan Kimball and current Miss USA Morgan Romano.  

Miss Teen USA streams on The CW app and CWTV.com September 28. 

Both Miss USA and Miss Teen USA take place at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. 

The Miss USA pageant has been on NBC, Reelz, Fox and FYI in previous years before landing at The CW. 

The 72nd Miss USA Pageant is executive produced by Renato Basile of RB Entertainment Inc. Laylah Rose is president/CEO of Miss USA/Miss Teen USA. 

The 72nd Miss USA Pageant will be on The CW Friday, September 29, marking its return to broadcast TV. The telecast goes for two hours. 

Companion pageant Miss Teen USA, also on September 29, will stream on The CW’s app and on CWTV.com. 

The Miss USA host has not been named. 

“The Miss USA Pageant and Miss Teen USA Pageant are time-honored traditions. We are thrilled to be collaborating with [owner] Laylah Rose and [executive producer] Renato Basile for what is sure to be a night of exciting entertainment,” said Heather Olander, head of unscripted programming, The CW. 

Both events take place at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno. The pageants bring together titleholders from each state as they compete to win Miss USA 2023 and Miss Teen USA 2023. 

Morgan Romano of North Carolina, Miss USA 2022, and Faron Medhi of Nebraska, Miss Teen USA 2022, will be in attendance to pass the crown to their successors. The new Miss USA will go on to represent the United States at the Miss Universe 2023 competition at the end of 2023. 

“I am incredibly excited about the collaboration with The CW for the broadcast of the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants. We are eagerly anticipating the opportunity to present viewers with a modern and progressive approach to a 70-year-old tradition, and we’re looking forward to the moment when this year’s deserving champions are crowned,” said Laylah Rose, president/CEO of the Miss USA & Teen USA Organization.

NBC used to air Miss USA, which was owned by Donald Trump, and cut its partnership after Trump made disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants. Trump sold the event in 2015, and Reelz picked up the telecast. The pageant then changed hands again and was broadcast by Fox for several years, shifting again to cable network FYI in 2020. 

“I am excited to be working side by side with the Miss USA/Miss Teen franchise and its new owner Laylah Rose. Bringing together our unique A-list teams is going to make for an exhilarating production,” RB Entertainnent executive producer Renato Basile said. 

Reelz hopes this summer’s launch of On Patrol: Live, from the producers of the former A&E series Live PD, will help lure new viewers to the independently-owned cable network.

The series, which will follow police officers on patrol in real time, will provide the 15-year-old Reelz network with important and appealing live programming on Friday and Saturday nights, CEO Stan E. Hubbard said. On Patrol: Live comes two years after A&E canceled its ratings-strong Live PD in the wake of protests against the police after the murder of George Floyd.

Former Live PD host Dan Abrams will serve as host and executive producer for On Patrol: Live. Reelz has yet to set a specific premiere date for the series, which will join other police-themed series such as Cops and Cops Reloaded on the 40 million-subscriber service.

Hubbard recently spoke to Multichannel News about the strategy behind creating On Patrol: Live, as well as the value of live programming for linear cable networks in a crowded multiplatform television industry. An edited version of the discussion follows.  

MCN: Why do you feel a live law-enforcement show fits well with the Reelz brand?

 Stan Hubbard: Our brand has evolved like all brands, but we are about real people, real stories and real celebrities. Some of our top shows like Autopsy: The Last Hours of …, where we dig into the last hours of a celebrity's life, do really well for us. So bringing in some law enforcement programming is a natural fit. When Live PD, Cops and all programs like it were dropped a couple years ago by most of the networks, it opened up some different opportunities. For the last year or so we've had Cops and Cops Reloaded on Reelz. We've more recently added Jail to the mix; that fits nicely in our brand. Based on the success of those programs we're a top-10 growth network. Then, when you get viewers coming for those things, they stay to watch our other programs that still define who we are. I think On Patrol: Live is a perfect fit for what we're doing and for us it's perfect programming in today's environment where live is what keeps viewers from drifting off to streaming and other platforms on a regular basis.

MCN: Why do you think the time is right now to bring a live law-enforcement show back to TV, and are you concerned about receiving any backlash? 

SH: When we brought Cops, Cops Reloaded and Jail to the network, we didn’t receive any backlash. What we heard from viewers were thank yous for bringing this back and not being afraid of it. We’re in 2022 and we as a country are divided politically, socially and culturally in so many ways. I hope at some point we get over that, but there are going to be some voices that say, what you are doing isn’t right, and there are going to be voices that say thanks for bringing it back and helping me find your channel. I think we’re a responsible network and a responsible company, and we do what we think is right. We did other things that people told us we shouldn’t have done and it worked out just fine. We picked up the Miss USA Pageant [in 2015 after NBC dropped the Donald Trump co-owned pageant] when it needed a home 11 days before it was going to air. We picked up the [A&E-dropped] Kennedys series [in 2011] when everybody said it was too hot to touch, but once it aired it wasn’t a really big deal and it was a really good program. 

MCN: What will viewers see with On Patrol: Live? 

SH: With the show, the viewer gets to participate in being with those officers as they are doing their job, given what policing has become in 2022. We're going to get out there and show it, and it’s going to be transparent. We're adding some interesting elements to the show with some viewer ride alongs and responses. It’s not gonna be a woke program — we're not trying to bow to anybody. This is going to be a real live look at the state of policing in 2022 and beyond.

MCN: Do you see an opportunity to extend the Reelz brand beyond linear TV? 

SH: We’re streaming now. You can go to Samsung TV and other distributors and get our app, but it’s not the live network. As an independent, we can’t risk trying to go around our distributors. If we were one of the big six programming companies, we could do it. As an independent, Reelz is trapped in linear TV. We know what helps distributors keep their linear subscribers and keep viewership on their system instead of going off to streaming is live TV. We’re not going to compete for NFL football or pro hockey, but we are bringing six hours of really-high-profile live TV every week to those systems, and I think it's going to help subscribership. It’s going to give people a reason to stick around on their cable, satellite and telco systems. I'm hopeful that we're gonna find some more distributors who want to melt down some of the tiers they have us on or others that don't carry us. We’re probably punching above our weight for an independent, but we’re going to do it. ￭

Reelz channel’s coverage of the 2015Miss USA Pageant drew 925,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.

The Donald Trump-owned pageant, which Reelz picked up two weeks ago after NBC and Univision dropped the TV rights over remarks presidential candidate Trump made disparaging Mexicans, also drew 296,000 adults 18-49 and 296,000 adults 25-54, according to Nielsen.

The event also drew a unique audience of 2.4 million Twitter users, topping all TV shows for the evening, according to Nielsen 

Reelz reported that the Miss USA Pageant, which was won by Miss Oklahoma Olivia Jordan, drew 2.5 million viewers including the live telecast and an encore presentation. The network also said the event was the most watched telecast ever on Reelz for women 18-34 and ranks as the highest premiere night in network history behind the Kennedys miniseries.

“The last two weeks have been a whirlwind for Reelz and we are proud to have had the opportunity to partner with the incredibly capable Miss Universe/Miss USA organization,” said Stan E. Hubbard CEO of Reelz. “Their capability and the value we bring as an independent network produced an extraordinary night of television that America tuned in to watch.”