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It started as the ''Festival Bikini Contest '', in honour of the recently introduced swimwear of the time, but was called Miss World by the press. It was originally planned as a one-off event. Upon learning about the upcoming Miss Universe pageant, Morley decided to make the pageant an annual event. Opposition to the wearing of Bikini s led to their replacement with more modest swimwear after the first contest. In 1959 , the BBC started broadcasting the competition. The pageant's popularity grew as the popularity of television grew. Along with the rival Miss Universe pageant, Miss World has grown to be the most sought after and prestigious title in beauty pageantry. It is the most widely attended and broadcast such event, with over a hundred delegates in competition (Miss Universe, by comparison, welcomes approximately 80 delegates). The road to the Miss World crown is a long one. In the year preceding the global finals, each delegate must win her national title or a specially designated Miss World national preliminary. The annual final is typically a month long extravaganza, with several preliminary events, galas, dinners, balls and activities, culminating in a globally telecast final show in which the field is narrowed to between 15-20 delegates. The winner spends a year travelling the globe representing the Miss World organization in its various causes. MW has an explicitly altruistic agenda, and has raised over 250 million pounds for various global charities. CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING THE PAGEANT The Miss World pageant seems to have been the target of many controversies since its inception.
In the 1980s , the pageant repositioned itself with the Slogan ''Beauty With a Purpose''. The contest added tests of Intelligence and Personality . By the 1990s , the pageant was reaching two billion viewers from almost every country in the world. The competition has been seen as old-fashioned and rather Un-PC in its native Britain. Despite the global appeal, the show was not broadcast on any major terrestrial British TV network for several years, until Channel Five aired it in 1998. 21ST CENTURY Eric Morley died as the pageant entered the new century. The century saw its first black African winner, Agbani Darego , in 2001. In 2002 the competition was slated for Abuja , the Capital City of Nigeria . This choice was controversial, as a northern Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal , was awaiting death by Stoning for Adultery under Sharia law there, but Miss World chose to use the publicity surrounding its presence to bring greater global awareness and action to Amina's plight. THE 2002 NIGERIA CONTEST In the year leading up the finals in Nigeria, several European title holders lobbied their governments and the EU parliament to support Amina's cause. A number of contestants followed the lead of Kathrine Sørland of Norway in boycotting the contest (despite the controversy Sørland would go on to become a semifinalist in both the Miss World and Miss Universe contest), while others such as Costa Rica were instructed by their national governments and parliaments not to attend the contest. Among the other boycotting nations were Denmark , Spain , Switzerland , Panama , Belgium and Kenya . There was further controversy over the possibly suspended participation of France and South Africa , which may or may not have been due to the boycott. For her part, Lawal asked that contestants not suspend their participation in the contest, saying that it was for the good of her country and that they could, as the representative of Sweden had earlier remarked, make a much stronger case for her on the ground in Nigeria. Despite the increasing international profile the boycott was garnering in the world press, the contest went ahead in Nigeria, with many prominent nations sending their delegates. Osmel Sousa of Venezuela , one of the world's most influential national directors, famously said "there is no question about it (the participation of Miss Venezuela in the contest)." The trouble did not end there, however. A ''ThisDay'' ( Lagos , Nigeria ) newspaper editorial suggesting that Muhammad , the prophet of Islam , would probably have chosen one of his wives from among the contestants had he been alive to see it, resulted in riots that started on November 22 in which over 200 people were killed in the city of Kaduna. Because of these riots, the 2002 pageant was moved to London , following widely circulated reports that the representatives of Canada and Korea had fled to their home countries. A Fatwa urging the beheading of the woman who wrote the offending words, Isioma Daniel, was issued in Nigeria, but was declared null and void by the relevant Saudi Arabian authorities. Upon the pageant's return to England, many of the boycotting contestants chose to attend, including Miss Norway, Kathrine Sørland, who was ironically tipped in the last few days as the number one favorite for the crown she had previously boycotted. The eventual winner of the pageant was Azra Akin of Turkey , the first predominantly Muslim country to hold the title since Egypt in 1954. Akin was followed by Ireland's Rosanna Davison , daughter of the "Lady in Red" singer Chris De Burgh . In 2004 the crown was decided for the first time by a global vote, resulting in the victory of Peru's Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia and the return of the title to Latin America after nine years. FURTHER NOTES Miss World – The Final is the World’s largest live annual TV event with global viewing figures topping two billion across more than 200 countries (Real data from every country broadcasting the event is impossible to obtain, and therefore, not furnished). Miss World is the largest, longest running and arguably the most prestigious of all global beauty contests. The only international pageant to have over 100 countries participate, Miss World is considered less "predictable" than many of its international rivals, because of its diverse judging panels. This unpredictability is also due to Miss World's subjective judging criteria. Recent voting changes have created the World's largest public vote, with telephone, online and text voting since Miss World 2004. Miss World has raised millions of pounds for charities around the globe under the banner of its ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ programme, and is credited with directly influencing a dramatic increase in tourism in Sanya, China, home to Miss World for the past three years. THE MISS WORLD ORGANISATION owns and manages the annual Miss World Finals, a competition that has grown into one of the World’s biggest and most loved events. Since its launch is 1951, the Miss World Organisation has raised more than £250m for children’s charities. Miss World is franchised in more than 140 countries and commands the World’s largest annual live TV audience. TITLEHOLDERS SCORETABLE ''As of 2005'': TRIVIA
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