Miss USA Winner Says Pageant Is ‘Better Than Ever’ After Years of Drama | Invesloan.com

The Miss USA pageant has had a rough few years, to say the least.

There’s been a rigging investigation, sexual harassment allegations, three different CEOs, two resigned queens, and one bombshell lawsuit.

Caught in the storm of these scandals have been the hopeful pageant queens still working toward a chance at the crown, which once held the promise to change a young woman’s life.

It’s a promise that new Miss USA Audrey Eckert still believes in. In fact, she thinks the pageant is “back and better than ever.”

“I believe in the power of pageantry, and I believe in the power of Miss USA,” Eckert told Business Insider. “I think this past week has really put us back on the radar. Miss USA is becoming a household name again.”

A time of uncertainty

Eckert — who was crowned in Reno, Nevada, on October 24 — has dreamed of winning Miss USA since she competed in her first pageant when she was 9. She won Miss Nebraska Teen in 2020 and placed in the top five at Miss Teen USA, which made Miss USA feel even more attainable.

“That kind of peeled back a layer and showed me I could really do this,” she said. “I could be Miss USA someday.”

That dream didn’t subside, even as Miss USA weathered various scandals.

In 2022, then-CEO Crystle Stewart was suspended after contestants claimed that year’s pageant had been rigged. It also emerged that Stewart’s husband at the time, Max Sebrechts, had stepped down as Miss USA’s vice president in 2021 after he had been accused of sexual harassment by multiple contestants.

An investigation cleared Stewart of any wrongdoing, but she parted ways with the organization, and Laylah Rose was named the new CEO in August 2023. Just eight months later, Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava resigned — a first in the pageant’s history — due to Rose’s leadership, as did a number of Miss USA state directors.

As an aspiring contestant, Eckert said the ongoing issues at Miss USA brought “a lot of uncertainty,” but she still wanted to compete.

“At the end of the day, if it was my dream, it was time to start going for it,” Eckert said. “I wasn’t going to let the current state of anything hinder that, and that’s why I ultimately decided to do Miss Nebraska.”

A new era

In September, Thom Brodeur announced he was the new CEO of the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA brand. In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, Brodeur detailed the changes he was bringing to the pageants, including removing selection committees from the judging process and eliminating the contestants’ strict nondisclosure contracts.

“My passion for the business is really, fundamentally, what drives me to want to find a way to help restore confidence, restore trust, restore credibility, reliability, and stability into this brand,” he said.

“‘America’s It Girl’ was how Miss USA was described for a long time, and it’s time for people to recognize that again,” he added.

Eckert told Business Insider she was thrilled when the new Miss USA leadership was announced.

“In my class of women at the 2025 Miss USA pageant, we were so excited for this new administration,” she said. “We all said, ‘We’re back and we’re better than ever.'”

It’s a sentiment shared by Miss Teen USA 2024 Addie Carver, who worked with the new team for a month before passing on her crown in Reno.

“This new leadership coming in really did make my year 10 times better,” Carver told Business Insider. “I’m really sad I didn’t get to spend the full year with them, but it made the year feel like it was worth it. They definitely gave me hope, and I think they gave a lot of other people hope as well.”

Looking ahead

Eckert is preparing for the Miss Universe 2025 competition, which begins next week in Thailand. When she returns to the US after the November 21 final, Eckert wants to get “more people excited about pageantry.”

“Getting to be involved in as many things as I can is going to be really important this next year as Miss USA,” she said. “From high-profile events all the way to the grassroots level, working in schools, working with children, I think we need to position Miss USA in both of those events.”

“She needs to be able to do it all, because you never know who you’re going to reach,” she added. “And so I’m excited to hit the ground running.”