The 67th Miss World beauty pageant, on-going in Sanya, China, has announced that it is changing its format in choosing the winners as it focuses on social media and interactivity.
Dubbed “Head to Head Challenge Rounds,” the Miss World contest said that 20 Groups of Six Countries will go head to head for a place in the Top 40 Round (the number of countries in each group may be adjusted according to the final number of contestants).
The winner of each Challenge Group will automatically qualify for the Miss World Top 40 Round, organizers said.
The bulk of Top 40 contestants will now come from “Head to Head Challenge winners” with 20 candidates; 5 Fast Track Event’s Winners; and 15 Judges selection.
A total of 120 candidates are competing in this year’s beauty contest. Stephanie del Valle of Puerto Rico is the reigning Miss World.
Laura Lehmann, 24, is the country’s delegate to the longest-running beauty pageant which will hold its finals on Nov. 18.
A Filipino-German beauty queen, Lehmann is a former sportscaster for the Ateneo Blue Eagles at the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. She is currently taking up Psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University.
She is a product of exclusive and international schools as she pursued neurological science and Spanish abroad.
Organizers said that the six nations in each group will make their opening remarks followed by a presentation of themselves. This can be a combination of live presentation and pre-recorded VT. The maximum total time for each presentation (including VT) is two minutes.
After the presentations, the contestants will answer questions from the presenter and online community. This process will be part of a group discussion and will last for approximately eight minutes.
Finally, every contestant will answer the question of the day (30 to 45 seconds for each nation to answer).
The public will be asked to choose the winner of each Group via a free vote, organizers said.
Lehmann said that she is excited that the Miss World 2017 pageant is being held in China.