Miss Universe 2020

Location and date

On 3 March 2021, the Miss Universe Organization announced that the competition would be at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, United States, on 16 May 2021. Denying rumors that the pageant would be canceled or that the first runner-up in the previous pageant Madison Anderson from Puerto Rico would be crowned Miss Universe 2020.^[6]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was postponed three times between November 2020 and May 2021. This edition was the third time in the pageant's history that the event was held after the calendar year ended; this previously occurred during Miss Universe 2014 and Miss Universe 2016, when both took place in January of the following year.^[7][8] The 2020 edition in May of the following year makes it the latest edition in the competition's history. Due to the pandemic, this edition only allowed 1,750 spectators, around a quarter of the venue's seating capacity.^[9][10]

Selection of participants

Contestants from seventy-four countries and territories were selected to compete in the pageant. Due to the pandemic, numerous national pageants were postponed or canceled entirely, resulting in multiple former runners-up or participants from previous national pageants being appointed or casting processes taking place instead. Twenty-eight of the delegates were in this condition and they were: Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Cameroon, the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mauritius, Panama, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, and Ukraine.

Placements

§ – Voted into the Top 21 by viewers

Special awards

Format

Due to restrictive measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Miss Universe Organization implemented specific changes to the format of this edition. The number of semi-finalists was increased to twenty-one—the biggest since the pageant's inception in 1952. The results of the preliminary competition and closed-door interviews determined the twenty semi-finalists. The semi-finalists were selected in a round-robin system instead of the continental format used between 2017 and 2019. Internet voting returned, with fans being able to vote for one candidate to advance into the semi-finals, making the number of semi-finalists twenty-one. The twenty-one semi-finalists then competed directly in the swimsuit competition and were narrowed down to ten afterward. The ten semi-finalists competed in the evening gown competition, and the five finalists were later announced. The five finalists competed in the question-and-answer round and the closing statement.^[26]

Selection committee

• Sheryl Adkins-Green – American marketing executive^[27][28]
• Arden Cho – American actress^[27][28]
• Christine Duffy – American businesswoman^[27][28]
• Keltie Knight – Canadian television host^[27][28]
• Brook Lee – Miss Universe 1997 from the United States^[27][28]
• Deepica Mutyala – American entrepreneur^[27][28]
• Tatyana Orozco – Colombian businesswoman^[27][28]
• Zuleyka Rivera – Miss Universe 2006 from Puerto Rico^[27][28]