Miss Venezuela

Miss Venezuela (Spanish: ''Organización Miss Venezuela'') is the national beauty pageant of Venezuela, traditionally held in September. It is preceded by two or three months of preliminary events, with the awarding of corporate prizes. The final televised competition generally lasts about four hours and is broadcast live across Latin America by Venevisión and produced by the networks parent company Cisneros Group, with edited versions to the United States and Mexico on the Univision and Telemundo networks. From 2013 to 2015, the national contest was split into two separate pageants: ''Miss Venezuela'' (to select representatives to Miss Universe, Miss Earth and Miss International) and ''Miss Venezuela Mundo'' (representative to Miss World). The pageant is also closely observed by other countries seeking to level competition due to its illustrious record of pageant victories. In 2016, the Venezuelan franchise for Miss Earth was awarded to Miss Earth Venezuela organized by National Directors Julio César Cruz and Alyz Henrich.

Venezuela has gained the most titles in the Big Four international beauty pageants with 23 victories and outstanding record of placements at Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International and Miss Earth, considered the most important pageants in the world. Under the direction of Osmel Sousa, Venezuela has accumulated more Big Four international pageant titles than any other country, including seven Miss Universe winners, six Miss World winners, eight Miss International winners and one Miss Earth winner (The other Miss Earth winner is under Sambil Model Organization).

The latest edition of the pageant was held on 16 November 2022. Accordingly, the new national director of Venezuela is Maria Gabriela Isler, the 62nd Miss Universe titleholder.

Venezuelan winners at the Big Four pageants

A girl wishing to compete in the pageant starts at either the local level, if a regional contest is held in her state, or goes directly to the pageant's headquarters in Caracas. Regional contests generally select three to six candidates (except for the massive Miss Centroccidental pageant, which covers six to seven midwestern states) who will likely represent the state or one nearby: ''i.e.'' a candidate who is a finalist for Miss Carabobo will usually expect to represent Carabobo or a neighboring state such as Yaracuy in the final pageant.

Thousands of entrants apply for the pageant each year. Some young women would try for up to five or six years consecutively trying to get one of the 24 to 32 titles that will enable them to compete in the final pageant. Venezuela's 23 states, capital district, islands and the Costa Oriental region of Zulia State are almost always represented; some years other regions of the country will have representatives in the pageant. Although some major states and regions such as Zulia, Táchira, Lara, Bolivar and Carabobo will hold their own preliminaries, many of the states are assigned by geographical proximity or even random drawing to the final contestants. There is therefore considerably less emphasis on state titles than there is in other national pageants such as Miss USA, although certain areas such as Miranda, Nueva Esparta, Capital District, Guarico, Vargas and Carabobo always seem to achieve high results.

Osmel Sousa, former president of the pageant, always sat on the selection panel regardless of whether it was a final regional contest or the direct "auditions", and it was not uncommon for him to overturn the entire regional results in favor of his own choices. For example, none of the candidates in 2004 for Vargas state were deemed fit for competition, so a candidate from Caracas was appointed Miss Vargas. Winners therefore have often never visited the state they represent. In this fashion, rather than waste five or six candidates from a strong area of the country such as Zulia in a system wherein only one can represent the state, the pageant distributes "spare states" to them so all have an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities in the final night. Traditionally, strong candidates have been pulled from Caracas, Zulia and Carabobo states, although they can come from all over the country; ''e.g.'' in 2003 the Miss Centroccidental pageant sent seven candidates to the pageant, while in 2005 only one proceeded to the finals. In 2000, the casting made in Zulia State (called Miss Venezuela Zulia at that time) sent 7 girls to that year's finals.

The pageant reserves the right to remove any candidate that is deemed not to be performing up to standard, so there is no guarantee that a contestant may participate in the final night of competition. However, such decisions are usually made before the delegates are convened and the various state sashes are handed out. The pageant keeps a "reserve" pool of willing candidates always available to replace any last minute rejected contestant. Many aspirants will also make it into the final 50 or 60, only to be eliminated from the final roster of 26–32 contestants. Such eliminations have no real bearing on how well the contestant will do in the future. Mariangel Ruiz, Miss Venezuela 2002, did not place into the final 120 in 1998; Barbara Clara, second runner-up in 2004, had previously tried for the pageant three times before winning a title at the last minute in 2004.

Reentry into the final pageant is rare, although the rules are arbitrary and not as restrictive as those in other countries. Only one contestant has ever participated in the official Miss Venezuela pageant twice: Maria Fernanda Leon, who represented Guárico in 1999 and Portuguesa in 2002, making the top 10 in her second attempt. Aida Yespica competed in Miss Venezuela World 2001 but withdrew before being assigned a state for the final pageant her year; she returned in Miss Venezuela 2002 for Amazonas state. The majority of the contestants in 2000 and 2001 competed in both the Miss Venezuela World and Miss Venezuela contests of their respective years; they were assigned numbers for the Miss World preliminary, with the most desirable contestants being allowed to proceed to the final Miss Venezuela pageant with state titles. The ten contestants for Miss Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Miss Venezuela for Miss Universe 2000) and the six for Miss Venezuela Mundo 2006 (Miss Venezuela for Miss World 2006) were "recycled" from previous years. This situation was expected to be repeated during the 2007 pageant, in which some contestants were expected to compete again, though it didn't happen.

List of state titles

There is an unofficial formula to determine the states and regions represented in Venezuela. The base number of contestants over the last decade has been 26–28, which can be increased or decreased by pageant's management.

Official states (23)

  * Denotes that state has a preliminary pageant – which may or may not still be held – as of 2005 only Táchira, Zulia-Falcón, Lara, Aragua and Sucre held preliminaries.

  ** Denotes that state has been represented through the Miss Centroccidental preliminary. Additionally, three states, Carabobo, Falcon and Mérida hold their own individual pageants.

Official regions (3)

* Costa Oriental (Eastern shore of Lake Maracaibo)
* Distrito Capital (Capital District)
* Dependencias Federales ("Federal Dependencies" Venezuelan islands)

Together, these 26 regions form the "base" of the Miss Venezuela contest. However, at times other regions and territories have been represented. If there are 27 sashes, the 27th candidate is Miss Peninsula Goajira. If there are 28 sashes, either Canaima (a national park in Bolivar state) or Peninsula de Paraguaná (a region of Falcon state) is represented. In 2003, additional titles of Península de Araya (a region of Sucre State) and Roraima (a national park in Bolivar State) were created to bring the pageant to its highest ever number of contestants: 32. Surprisingly, in 2008 Península de Araya was used again, and there was no Miss Península Goajira or Miss Costa Oriental that year. In the mid-1990s, the districts of Municipio Libertador and Municipio San Francisco were also represented, the last one only in 1997 and 1998. Also, only in 2003, Guayana Esequiba (part of Guyana that historically Venezuela claims as its own) was represented. Vargas State, the most recent modification to Venezuela's map (1999) was always present in the pageant, but with other names: Departamento Vargas (until 1986), Municipio Vargas (1987 to 1997), Territorio Federal Vargas (1998), and Vargas State since 1999. In 2009, only 20 delegates competed for the crown, the same number that competed on the final night in 2003, so some "traditional" states didn't have a representative.

Regional rankings

* Venezuela's international titleholders represented the following states during their Miss Venezuela competition (indicates year of international victory): Miss Universe: Vargas (1979), Miranda (1981), Trujillo (1986; 2009), Yaracuy (1996), Amazonas (2008) and Guárico (2013); Miss World: Miranda (1955; 1984), Aragua (1981), Zulia (1991), Nueva Esparta (1995) and Amazonas (2011); and Miss International: Monagas (1985), Miranda (1997), Costa Oriental (2000), Carabobo (2003), Barinas (2006; 2018), Trujillo (2010) and Anzoátegui (2015).

Training

There are Miss Venezuela schools and "beauty factories" in which girls as young as 5 years old are trained to be the next potential Miss Venezuela. At both the schools and factories the young girls and women are taught how to walk properly, given beauty tips, and given lessons in proper etiquette.

Once a candidate is shortlisted for the pageant, she begins an intensive training program which can last for six months. She receives coaching in speech, physical fitness, make-up, modelling, and all the other skills required for the competition. Plastic surgery and cosmetic dentistry are optional, and some delegates elect to use padding. As the Miss Venezuela broadcast lasts up to four hours long, with countless musical numbers and dances, rehearsals require weeks of preparation. Contestants also participate in official photo-shoots and also fittings by fashion designers.

The evening gowns worn by candidates are a major source of politicking by Venezuela's domestic fashion houses, with top designers such as Mayela Camacho, Ángel Sanchez, Durant & Diego, Jose María Almeida, and Gionni Straccia selecting candidates that they will dress for the final night, while other, newer designers compete to present designs for the pageant. As a general rule the evening gowns are always custom-designed for each of the candidates on the final night, and always by a Venezuelan designer. By tradition, Nidal Nouaihed dresses the representatives of his home state of Zulia (Miss Costa Oriental, Miss Peninsula Goajira, Miss Zulia); Ángel Sanchez designs the gown for Miss Trujillo; Jose María Almeida designs the dress for Miss Mérida and the national costume for Miss Venezuela to Miss Universe. In 1999, 26 different designers took part in the evening gown competition, one candidate for each one. Also, in 2006, for the first time ever, the designers appeared on stage with the delegates, showing their fabulous creations. For the first time, in 2008, a "best evening gown" prize was given to a designer; the winner was Gionni Straccia for Miss Monagas' dress. He also made the gown for Dayana Mendoza in the Miss Universe finals.

The winners chosen to represent Venezuela in the major pageants undergo continuous preparation before they compete internationally. These efforts are funded by corporate sponsors like Pepsi-Cola, Palmolive, Colgate, Ebel and Lux who were attracted to the pageant by its high ratings.

Participation in international pageants

As of , Venezuela has a total of 23 wins at Big Four international beauty pageants, the most by any country in the world, and consisting of seven Miss Universe titles, six Miss World titles, eight Miss International titles, and two Miss Earth titles.

Miss Venezuela reached the semifinals of Miss Universe each year from 1983 to 2003, and reached the question-and-answer round consistently from 1991 to 2003 (winning in 1986 and 1996), constituting the longest streak of Miss Universe finalists by any country. This streak was ended in 2004, when Ana Karina Áñez was not included in the semifinals at Miss Universe 2004. Venezuela has also held Miss Universe and Miss World titles simultaneously in 1981 ( Irene Saez and Pilin Leon), and Miss Universe and Miss Earth titles simultaneously in 2013 (Gabriela Isler and Alyz Henrich). Henrich's Miss Earth victory made Venezuela the only country in the world to have won each of the Big Four pageants multiple times. Venezuela also holds the distinction of being the first, and so far only, country to win back-to-back Miss Universe titles when Dayana Mendoza, outgoing Miss Universe 2008, crowned Stefania Fernandez as Miss Universe 2009.

Success in other fields

Competing in the pageant can get a contestant noticed and launched on a successful television or print career. At least a dozen well-sought models come out of the pageant. Virtually all of Venezuela's female top models and television personalities are alumni of the pageant, including Maite Delgado (who competed in 1986 against future Miss Universe Bárbara Palacios and became the primary annual emcee of Miss Venezuela's live shows in recent decades), and Dominika van Santen (Top Model of the World

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