Miss USA 2009

Miss USA 2009
Miss USA 2009 Titlecard
Date	April 19, 2009
Presenters	Billy Bush, Nadine Velazquez
Entertainment	Kevin Rudolf, The Veronicas
Venue	Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts, Las Vegas, Nevada
Broadcaster	NBC
Entrants	51
Placements	15
Winner	Kristen Dalton  North Carolina
Congeniality	Cynthia Pate  Wyoming
Photogenic	Jessi Pierson  West Virginia

Miss USA 2009, the 58th Miss USA pageant was held at the Theatre for the Performing Arts in Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 19, 2009. At the conclusion of the final night of competition, Kristen Dalton of North Carolina was crowned by outgoing titleholder Miss USA 2008, Crystle Stewart of Texas.

The event was hosted by Billy Bush of Access Hollywood and actress Nadine Velazquez; Bush returned to host the pageant which he last emceed in 2005. He had previously co-hosted Miss USA 2003 with Daisy Fuentes and Miss USA 2004–2005 with Nancy O'Dell. Entertainment was provided by Kevin Rudolf who performed "Let It Rock" during the swimsuit competition and The Veronicas performed "Untouched" during the evening gown competition.^[1]

The competition was broadcast in High Definition for only the second time in history.

Delegates representing the fifty states plus the District of Columbia competed in the pageant, and arrived in Las Vegas on April 2.^[2] Miss USA Kristen Dalton represented the United States at the Miss Universe 2009 pageant, where she reached the Top 10.

Pageants were held from June 2008 to January 2009 to select the representative for each state. During the final show on April 19, the fifteen delegates with the highest average scores from the preliminary competition were announced. The top fifteen competed in the swimsuit competition. The top ten delegates from swimsuit competed in evening gown. The top five delegates from the evening gown competition (not averaged composite scores from both competitions) competed in the final question round to determine the winner. The judges' composite score was shown after each round of competition for only the third time since 2002.

Results

Placements

Map showing placings by state.

Special awards

Final scores

Delegates

The Miss USA 2009 delegates were:

State	Name	Hometown	Age1	Height	Placement	Awards	Notes
Alabama	Rachel Philippona[3]	Dothan	20
Alaska	Jessica Irene Nolin[4]	Palmer	22
Arizona	Alicia-Monique Blanco[5]	Phoenix	22	5'8"	2nd Runner-Up
Arkansas	Chanley Painter	Conway	24	5'9"	Top 10
California	Carrie Prejean	San Diego	21	5'10"	1st Runner-Up		Dethroned as Miss California USA 2009
Colorado	Patrice Williams	Colorado Springs	22	5'7"
Connecticut	Monica Mary Pietrzak	Manchester	25	5'11"	Top 15
Delaware	Kate Banaszak	Middletown	24
District of Columbia	Nicole Annabelle White	Washington, DC	20	5'8"			Previously Miss District of Columbia Teen USA 2004
Florida	Anastagia Pierre	Fort Lauderdale	20	5'9"			Previously Miss Florida Teen USA 2004; Later Miss Bahamas Intercontinental 2010 and Miss Bahamas 2011
Georgia	Kimberly Gittings	Lilburn	20		Top 15
Hawaii	Aureana Tseu	Mililani Town	25	5'7"			Previously Miss Hawaii Teen USA 1999
Idaho	Melissa Weber	Boise	27		Top 15
Illinois	Ashley Bond	Chicago	24
Indiana	Courtni Shabana Hall	Crawfordsville	23	5'3"			Previously Miss Indiana Teen USA 2004
Iowa	Chelsea Lynn Gauger	Ankeny	20
Kansas	Courtney Courter	Olathe	23	5'9"
Kentucky	Maria Elizabeth Montgomery	Danville	19	5'10"	4th Runner-Up
Louisiana	Lacey Minchew	Baton Rouge	25	5'7"			Previously Miss Teen America 2002 (represented Georgia).
Maine	Ashley Underwood	Benton	24	5'8"			Survivor: Redemption Island contestant
Maryland	Gabrielle Carlson	Marion Station	24
Massachusetts	Alison Cronin	Weymouth	21				Previously Miss Massachusetts Teen USA 2005
Michigan	Lindsey Tycholiz	Sterling Heights	26
Minnesota	Erica Nego	Plymouth	24		Top 15		Later Miss Universe Ghana 2011
Mississippi	Jessica Lauren McRaney	Terry	23				Previously Miss Mississippi Teen USA 2004
Missouri	Stacey Smith	Florissant	23	5'9"
Montana	Misti Vogt	Kalispell	23	5'11"
Nebraska	Meagan Winings	Atkinson	23				Previously Miss Nebraska Teen USA 2004
Nevada	Georgina Vaughan[6]	Las Vegas	21	5'10"			Previously Miss Nevada Teen USA 2006
New Hampshire	Christy Dunn	Laconia	26
New Jersey	Kaity Rodriguez	Clifton	24
New Mexico	Bianca Matamoros-Koonce	Albuquerque	23
New York	Tracey Chang	New York City	26	5'7"
North Carolina	Kristen Dalton	Wilmington	22	5'7"	Winner		Mother was Miss North Carolina USA 1982; sister was Miss North Carolina Teen USA 2008 & 2nd runner-up at Miss Teen USA 2008
North Dakota	Kelsey Erickson	Grand Forks	22
Ohio	Natasha Vivoda	Champion	21
Oklahoma	Lauren Lunday	Altus	25
Oregon	Sylvie Tarpinian	Eugene	24
Pennsylvania	Lindsey Nelsen	Dallastown	21	5'7"
Rhode Island	Alysha Castonguay	Woonsocket	22	5'6"			Previously Miss Rhode Island Teen USA 2002. Previously Miss Teen America 2003 and Miss Teen Galaxy 2005.
South Carolina	Stephanie Murray Smith	Goose Creek	21	5'7"	Top 10		The Amazing Race 17 Contestant along with her then-fiance Chad Waltrip[7]
South Dakota	Jessica Rowell	Sioux Falls	22	5'7"
Tennessee	Kristen Motil	Franklin	24	5'9"	Top 10
Texas	Brooke Daniels	Tomball	22	5'9"	Top 10
Utah	Laura Chukanov	Salt Lake City	22	5'9"	3rd Runner-Up
Vermont	Brooke Werner	Granville	22
Virginia	Maegan Phillips	Quantico	22		Top 15
Washington	Tara Turnure	Seattle	23				Her sister, Tracy Turnure, succeeded her as Miss Washington USA 2010.
West Virginia	Jessi Pierson	Milton	21	5'7"	Top 10	Miss Photogenic
Wisconsin	Alexandra Wehrley	Pewaukee	21	5'8"
Wyoming	Cynthia Pate	Casper	22			Miss Congeniality

Historical significance

• This is the first win from North Carolina since Chelsea Cooley won Miss USA 2005. This is the 2nd time North Carolina has won the title.
• California finished 1st Runner-Up for the 4th time since Shannon Marketic won Miss USA 1992.
• For only the 2nd time since 1980, Arizona bested 2nd Runner-Up. Jineane Ford assumed the Miss USA 1980 title as 1st Runner-Up after the winner, Shawn Weatherly, won Miss Universe 1980.
• Utah and Arkansas had its best finishes since 1982. Terri Utley of Arkansas won Miss USA 1982, while Utah finished 2nd Runner-Up.
• Kentucky had its best finish since Tara Conner won Miss USA 2006.
• Texas had its 4th consecutive placement in the Top 10.
• Since Rachel Smith won Miss USA 2007, Tennessee has placed in the Top 10 for the second time.
• The last four states to win Miss USA (2005–2008) -- Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina—all had their delegates place in the Top 10 in 2009.
• South Carolina and Idaho had its best finishes since 2004, West Virginia since 1984, Virginia since 2007, Georgia since 2006, and Connecticut since 2002.
• Minnesota has placed in the Top 15 for the 2nd consecutive time.

Judges

Preliminary judges

• Cara Petry
• Chip Lightman
• Lori Levine
• Nick Light
• Randall Winston
• Rich Thurber
• Seth Mayeri

Telecast judges

• Alicia Jacobs - Access Hollywood & KVBC News Ent.
• Brian Graden - MTV Networks Music Channel
• Claudia Jordan - Deal or No Deal Celeb. Apprentice, Miss Rhode Island USA 1997, host of Miss Universe 2009.
• Eric Trump - Trump Organization
• Holly Madison - American model, Television personality
• John Miller^{[disambiguation needed ]} - NBC Universal
• Kelly Monaco - Dancing with the Stars winner
• Kenan Thompson - Saturday Night Live
• Perez Hilton - Celebrity gossip
• Robert Earl - CEO of Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino
• Shandi Finnessey - Miss USA 2004
• Willie Geist - "Morning Joe" of MSNBC

Background music

• Contestants Introduction: "Hot N Cold" by Katy Perry; "That's Not My Name" by The Ting Tings
• Swimsuit Competition: "Let It Rock" by Kevin Rudolf
• Evening Gown Competition: "Untouched" by The Veronicas

Controversy over gay marriage question

During the 2009 Miss USA pageant, Miss California Carrie Prejean, was asked by openly gay pageant judge, Perez Hilton, whether she believed every state should legalize same-sex marriage. She responded that she did not. After the pageant Hilton made negative comments about the contestant and told ABC News: "She lost it because of that question. She was definitely the front-runner before that,"^[8] leading some to believe that the answer directly had caused her to lose the competition.^[9] Prejean stated that Miss California USA officials had pressured her to apologize for her statement and "not talk" about her Christian faith.^[10]

Several politicians and commentators assailed Hilton and defended Prejean for honestly stating her personal beliefs.^[11][12][13]

Following the pageant, Prejean hired a Christian public relations firm,^[11] and appeared in a television advertisement by the National Organization for Marriage.^[14] But on June 10, 2009 Prejean again stated that her question caused her to lose her title when she learned she was fired by Donald Trump. Miss California USA officials state that her answer had nothing to do with her termination, citing continued breach of her contract instead.

New Crown

In keeping with co-owner NBC Universal's "Green is Universal" environmental initiative, the Miss Universe Organization announced that Diamond Nexus Labs would become the official jewelry sponsor for the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants. DNL 's man-made gemstones are "all synthesized in clean labs using environmentally friendly processes". Diamond Nexus Labs will create a custom-designed crown for Miss USA 2009, as well as for the Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA pageants later this year.^[15]

Pageant crossovers

Nine former Miss Teen USA state titleholders competed at Miss USA 2009, the highest since 2007 and the second highest since 2003. For the first time five of the former teens competed at the same pageant, Miss Teen USA 2004. Aureana Tseu will become the first former Teen to represent her state at Miss USA ten years after competing at Miss Teen USA. This is also the first year that a Miss Teen USA 2006 contestant competed at Miss USA.

Nebraska crowned one of their former Teen USA state titleholders for the first time, and Florida crowned only their second. In Rhode Island, consecutive Teen titleholders (Amy Diaz and Alysha Castonguay) won consecutive Miss titles, the first time this has occurred in the history of the two pageants.

Unusually, there were no former Miss America competitors, but Lacey Minchew (Louisiana) won the title of Miss Teen America 2002. Minchew later crowned Alysha Castonguay (Rhode Island) Miss Teen America 2003. The Miss America and Miss Teen America pageants are not affiliated with each other.

The former teens competing at this Miss USA pageant are:

• Aureana Tseu (Hawaii) - Miss Hawaii Teen USA 1999
• Alysha Castonguay (Rhode Island) - Miss Rhode Island Teen USA 2002 (top 10 at Miss Teen USA 2002)
• Nicole White (District of Columbia) - Miss District of Columbia Teen USA 2004
• Anastagia Pierre (Florida) - Miss Florida Teen USA 2004
• Courtni Hall (Indiana) - Miss Indiana Teen USA 2004
• Jessica McRaney (Mississippi) - Miss Mississippi Teen USA 2004
• Meagan Winings (Nebraska) - Miss Nebraska Teen USA 2004 (top 10 at Miss Teen USA 2004)
• Alison Cronin (Massachusetts) - Miss Massachusetts Teen USA 2005
• Georgina Vaughan (Nevada) - Miss Nevada Teen USA 2006

Despite the high number of former Miss Teen USA competitors, this became the first time since 1994 that not a single former Miss Teen USA competitor managed to place.

In addition to the winner, Kristen Dalton of North Carolina competing at Miss Universe 2009, two other contestants went on to compete in Miss Universe, after winning national titles from other countries. They are:

• Anasgagia Pierre (Florida) - Later Miss Bahamas Universe 2011, will compete in Miss Universe 2011 in São Paulo, Brazil.
• Erica Nego (Minnesota) - Later Miss Ghana Universe 2011, will compete against Pierre at Miss Universe 2011.

References

External links

• Miss USA official website