Miss Universe 2006, the 55th Miss Universe pageant, took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, USA. Unlike past events, it was broadcast live on NBC on a Sunday, July 23, 2006, almost two months later than usual. The pageant was co-hosted by Nancy O'Dell and Carlos Ponce.
The 2006 pageant is the first time the United States has been a host since 1998, and the second time for Los Angeles, which last hosted the pageant in 1990. Kazakhstan was represented for the first time, while the following countries returned after some years of absence: St. Lucia (1977), Iceland (1997), St. Martin (2000), Northern Marianas (2002), Argentina (2003), New Zealand (2003), Estonia (2004), Ghana (2004), St. Vincent and Grenadines (2004), and Sweden (2004).
Natalie Glebova of Canada crowned her successor, Zuleyka Rivera of Puerto Rico, at the conclusion of the two-hour show. Glebova's reign would be the second longest ever in Miss Universe history: one year and two months. Rivera's would be one of the shortest reigns of all, just 10 months.
Read more about Miss Universe 2006: Background Music, Contestants, Crossovers, Historical Significance, International Broadcasting
Famous quotes containing the word universe:
“There are acacias, a graceful species amusingly devitalized by sentimentality, this kind drooping its leaves with the grace of a young widow bowed in controllable grief, this one obscuring them with a smooth silver as of placid tears. They please, like the minor French novelists of the eighteenth century, by suggesting a universe in which nothing cuts deep.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)