Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020, when the organization announced it was licensing operation of the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants to Crystle Stewart, Miss USA for 2008. The pageant was owned by Donald Trump from 1996 to 2015 and was previously broadcast on NBC. In September 2015, WME/IMG purchased the pageant from Trump. In 2020, for the first time, the FYI network broadcast the competition. In October 2022, JKN Global Group acquired the pageant from WME/IMG. The current Miss USA is Morgan Romano of North Carolina, who was crowned on January 27, 2023, at Gogue Performing Arts Center in Auburn, Alabama during the Miss Alabama USA 2023 preliminary competition. She took over the title from R'Bonney Gabriel after winning the Miss Universe 2022 pageant. History The Miss USA pageant was conceived in 1950 when Yolande Betbeze, winner of the Miss America pageant, refused to pose for publicity pictures while wearing a swimsuit. Pageant sponsor Catalina decided to pull their sponsorship of the pageant and create their own competition. Other owners have included a subsidiary of Gulf+Western Industries, ITT Corporation, and Donald Trump. The first Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants were held concurrently in Long Beach, California in 1952; the first Miss USA winner was Miss New York USA Jackie Loughery. There were 30 delegates in the first year of competition. Many states did not compete every year during the first two decades of the pageant's history. Since the 1970s, each state and the District of Columbia have sent a delegate each year. Alaska first competed in 1959 and Hawaii in 1960. Both had competed at Miss Universe until this time. The pageant aired on CBS from 1963 until 2002, and for many years was known for having a CBS game show host as pageant host. John Charles Daly hosted the show from 1963 to 1966, Bob Barker from 1967 (he was not a regular for the CBS network until 1972 when he became the host of The Price Is Right which he hosted until 2007) until 1987 (at which point Barker, a lifelong vegan, quit in a dispute over fur coats), Alan Thicke in 1988, Dick Clark from 1989 to 1993,