The New Miss USA Is Miss Nebraska Audrey Eckert

There is a new Miss USA on the town.

Miss Nebraska Audrey Eckert was named the winner of the 74th annual Miss USA pageant on Friday evening on the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. She was topped by the present Miss Universe, Victoria Kjær Theilvig.

Miss USA 2024 Alma Cooper shared in an Instagram submit on Friday that she had declined to take part within the 2025 pageant, although they paid tribute to her reign through the finals.

Eckert studied enterprise administration on the College of Nebraska-Lincoln, the place she was a member of the Husker cheer squad, based on her Miss USA bio. Now, she’s a social media and advertising and marketing coordinator for the Thai purse model Sapahn.

The 23-year-old will go on to characterize america on the Miss Universe pageant in November.

Revamping the Miss USA pageant

Fifty-one women competed for the Miss USA crown, participating in swimsuit, night robe, and interview rounds through the preliminary competitors earlier this week in Reno.

In previous years at Miss USA, the highest 15 to twenty contestants had been picked by a range committee. The new CEO, Thom Brodeur, informed Enterprise Insider in September that he was eliminating the committee to deliver extra transparency to the competitors.

“For a lot of, a few years, younger girls have come into this group competing with a rule — it’s extremely clearly acknowledged, you realize what you are signing up for in your contestant contract — that the management group, administration, and others might be a part of the choice course of,” Brodeur stated. “So the method for choosing a brand new Miss USA and Miss Teen USA is not simply left as much as the judges. That is the way it has traditionally been.”

“A part of what my group and I intend to do is to take away that choice committee rule out of contestant contracts,” he added. “What meaning, very merely, is who the judges choose is the winner of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. And what meaning to the rivals — the younger girls who compete on this sport — is that they’re going to have a 100% honest shot the place no person else’s voice or affect impacts their skill to position within the competitors.”

This 12 months’s judges had been Miss USA 2014 and present “The Valley” star Nia Sanchez, “Dancing With the Stars” professional Sasha Farber, former “Bachelor in Paradise” star Jade Roper Tolbert, mannequin scout Hannah Edwards, and clothier Kenneth Barlis.

The ultimate query

Brodeur additionally introduced again interview questions on present occasions, which had been off-limits underneath former Miss USA CEO Laylah Rose.

“We’re not simply all speaking about our favourite colours, motion pictures, or songs,” Brodeur informed Enterprise Insider in September. “So I believe it is essential that we permit the intelligence of the ladies within the Miss USA and Teen USA communities to shine.”

Throughout the ultimate query spherical, the contestants had been requested about synthetic intelligence, boundaries girls might face when constructing lasting wealth, and extra.

Miss Nebraska’s query was: “When individuals look again on our era 100 years from now, what do you hope they are saying about us, and what are you doing to assist make that occur?”

“Our era is, indubitably, adaptable,” Eckert stated. “We’ve got discovered to develop and alter by so many issues.”

“I work in digital media each single day, and I train 500 athletes on a weekly foundation easy methods to keep secure on-line, and being secure on-line, and studying to develop up in a digital world requires you to be adaptable, identical to the job of Miss USA,” she continued. “She’s heading to Miss Universe very shortly, and she or he must be adaptable, she must roll with the punches, and she or he wants to steer our nice nation with delight.”

A brand new winner for a brand new period

Miss USA hasn’t had a scandal-free 12 months since 2020. Within the half-decade since, there have been rigging accusations, sexual harassment allegations, three totally different CEOs, two resigned queens, and one bombshell lawsuit.

Brodeur hopes to usher in a brand new period with the brand new Miss USA, who will kick off her reign with a flight to Thailand for the weekslong Miss Universe 2025 competitors. The televised finals will air on November 21.

Brodeur informed Enterprise Insider in September that the brand new Miss USA can have a “fairly aggressive look roster” when she returns.

“Time goes to show this out, and we now have to do the work to show it, however my purpose is to reestablish Miss USA and Miss Teen USA as America’s It Ladies,” he stated.

Let the reign start.