The Miss Venezuela contest is the national beauty pageant of Venezuela and has been held since 1952. It is responsible for selecting the country's representatives to the Miss Universe, Miss International, Miss Earth (beginning 2010) pageants (amongst others).
Under the direction of Osmel Sousa, Venezuela has accumulated more international titles than any other country, including six Miss Universe winners, six Miss World winners, six Miss International winners and one Miss Earth.
The pageant is traditionally held in September, preceded by two or three months of preliminary events, including the awarding of corporate prizes. The final competition telecast generally lasts about four hours and is broadcast live across Latin America by Venevisión, with edited versions to the United States and Mexico on the Univision network.
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 26 to 32 titles that will enable them to compete in the final pageant. Venezuela's 23 states, capital, and two regions of Zulia State are 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, Distrito Capital and Carabobo always seem to achieve high results.
Read more about Miss Venezuela: Contestants, State Titles, Training, Participation in International Pageants, Success in Other Fields, Miss Venezuela and Other Countries, Further Notes of Interest, Order of Succession, Titleholders