Las Vegas Weekly

May 30, 2012 · 12:22 PM

2012 Miss USA: Twitter question; Akon, Cobra Starship to perform

By Robin Leach

Miss California USA 2012 Natalie Pack and Miss New Jersey USA 2012 Michelle Leonardo.

Photo: Darren Decker/Miss USA Organization

For the first time, the Miss USA Pageant will invite fans on Twitter to ask the dreaded “final question” in the crucial, live onstage interview portion of Sunday’s broadcast. Fans and viewers can start tweeting using #AskMissUSA today and throughout the two-hour live NBC telecast at Planet Hollywood’s Theater for the Performing Arts.

As the 51 contestants prepared with rehearsals and dance routines for tonight’s preliminary contest, executive producer Barry Adelman from Dick Clark Productions confirmed: “The live tweets will be incorporated during the swimsuit and evening gown portions, too. We also wanted to add an element of suspense by integrating Twitter into the final question. It will all come down to one contestant, one fan and 140 characters.”

Traditionally, the celebrity judging panel asks the final question of the remaining five finalists, and it has become a source of controversy and an occasional meltdown of a contestant. This year, one of those five questions will come from the tweets.

Photo: Darren Decker/Miss USA Organization

Miss New Jersey USA 2012 Michelle Leonardo and Miss California USA 2012 Natalie Pack.

Last year’s Sunday telecast on NBC was #1 for the night in the ratings and generated its biggest overall audience in four years. This morning, Donald Trump, who owns the pageant, and his pageant president, Paula Shugart, revealed that Akon and Cobra Starship will perform at the 61st annual pageant.

Meantime, Miss California USA 2012 Natalie Pack and Miss New Jersey USA 2012 Michelle Leonardo showed their support for their home teams -- the Los Angeles Kings and the New Jersey Devils, respectively -- as the Stanley Cup Finals get underway tonight. The winner comes to Las Vegas with the cup for the NHL Awards to be held at Encore Theater in the Wynn next month. Our thanks to Miss USA photographer Darren Decker for his photos.

We’ll be at tonight’s preliminary pageant and will post Tom Donoghue’s photos of the swimsuit and evening gown prelims along with Richard Corey’s YouTube video Thursday here at Vegas DeLuxe.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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