In 2002 the pageant was slated for Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria to host its final. ITV broadcast the 2001 pageant from South Africa on digital channel ITV2, with the special airing a week earlier on the main ITV channel. It also sells its Talent, Beach Beauty and Sports events as television specials to broadcasters. As part of its marketing strategy, Miss World came up with a "Vote For Me" television special during that edition, featuring the delegates behind the scenes and on the beach, and allowing viewers to either phone in or vote online for their favourites. The first black African Miss World winner, Agbani Darego of Nigeria, was crowned in 2001. 21st centuryĮric Morley died in 2000, and his wife, Julia, succeeded as chairwoman of the Miss World organisation. The pageant returned on satellite channel Sky One in 1997, before moving to Channel 5 for three years (1998–2000). ĭuring the early 1990s, there was a decline in the popularity of mainstream television broadcasts of the event, after it became "increasingly unfashionable" in the late 1980s. In 1984, BBC1 controller Michael Grade announced that the corporation would cease to broadcast beauty pageants from the following January, after they had shown Miss Great Britain, commenting "I believe these contests no longer merit national air time." Grade added, "They are an anachronism in this day and age of equality and verging on the offensive.'' Thames Television broadcast Miss World between 19, when ITV dropped it. In the 1980s, the pageant repositioned itself with the slogan "Beauty With a Purpose", with added tests of intelligence and personality. More than 18 million people watched the pageant at its peak during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Henceforth, South Africa was banned from the contest until apartheid was abolished. The 1970 contest was also controversial when South Africa sent two contestants (one black and one white). However, in 1970, the Miss World contest in London was disrupted by women's liberation protesters armed with flour bombs, stink bombs, and water pistols loaded with ink. During the 1960s and 1970s, Miss World would be among the most watched programs of the year on British television. The pageant's popularity grew with the advent of television.
In 1959, the BBC started broadcasting the pageant.
This was intended to keep the tension up, and avoid the anti-climax if Nos. Morley announced the Miss World winners in the order No.
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In Miss World 2013 all participants wore a one-piece swimsuit plus a traditional sarong below the waist as a compromise with local culture. Håkansson remains the only Miss World crowned in a bikini. Objection to the bikini led to its replacement in all future pageants with what was accepted as more modest swimwear, and from 1976 swimsuits were replaced by evening gowns for the crowning. However, because of the controversy arising from Håkansson's crowning in a bikini, countries with religious traditions threatened not to send delegates to future events, and the bikini was condemned by the Pope. Morley registered the "Miss World" name as a trademark, and all future pageants were held under that name. The pageant was originally planned as a Pageant for the Festival of Britain, but Eric Morley decided to make the Miss World pageant an annual event. When the 1951 Miss World pageant winner, Kerstin "Kiki" Hakansson from Sweden, was crowned in a bikini, it added to the controversy. The swimsuit competition was intended as a promotion for the bikini which had only recently been introduced onto the market, and which was still widely regarded as immodest. The event was popular with the press, and was dubbed "Miss World" by the media. In 1951, Eric Morley organised a bikini contest as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations that he called the Festival Bikini Contest.