Fans irked by delays, glitches in Miss Universe PH 2024 prelim interviews

MANILA, Philippines – Pageant fans’ excitement for the Miss Universe Philippines (MUPH) 2024 preliminary competition were dampened following a series of delays and glitches in its delayed telecast of the candidates’ interviews. 

The preliminary competition took place on Sunday, May 19, at the Manila Hotel. However, the MUPH Organization announced that it won’t be aired live and will have a delayed telecast on Monday, May 20 instead. 

According to the organizers, the delegates’ interviews will be streamed at the Empire.PH YouTube channel on Monday noon while the preliminary gala night will air at 6 pm.

Many pageant fans got annoyed with the sudden change as the preliminary competition for the previous editions were aired live. 

“Announcing this too late shows how you guys are being so inconsiderate to the pageant fan’s time,” Facebook user Nichole Archive commented on MUPH’s post. “What’s the difference between doing a livestream and having it pre-taped anyways? It takes the excitement out.” 

Several netizens also called out the organizers for making the competition not accessible, considering that Filipinos are known to be avid fan supporters. 

At 12:30 pm on Monday, Empire.PH had yet to air the delayed telecast of the candidates’ preliminary interviews. It was only around 12:50 that the livestream for the interviews started. 

For the closed-door interviews, each beauty queen was given a set of questions by a panel of judges, covering their personal lives, pageant journeys, and advocacies. 

They also answered why they deserve to be the next Miss Universe Philippines.

Each interview lasted for three minutes. 

However, the livestream was cut around 1:30 pm and has become unavailable as of writing.

On MUPH’s post about the preliminary interviews, fans started complaining about the video and sound quality of the telecast, noting that it was hard to hear the delegates’ answers. 

Others are also asking why the video was set to private.  

Around 3 pm, the pageant organizer issued an apology, saying that technical difficulties led to the delay of the airing of the prelim interviews. 

They added that they re-uploaded the whole video and is now currently available for viewing on the Empire.PH YouTube channel. 

Following this, it remains unclear whether the telecast for the preliminary gala night set for Monday, 6 pm will also be delayed. 

The MUPH 2024 coronation night is set for Wednesday, May 22, 8 pm at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. 

Fifty-three women are competing to succeed Michelle Dee, who concluded her journey in the Miss Universe 2023 in the Top 10. – Rappler.com