Trump’s Miss USA pageant finds new broadcaster

LOS ANGELES: The independent US cable network REELZ will telecast the Miss USA pageant on July 12, the company announced on Thursday, stepping in after NBC dropped plans to broadcast the show because of inflammatory remarks about Mexican immigrants made by co-owner and US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“The decision on the part of REELZ to acquire the rights to the MISS USA Pageant was based on our belief that this special event, and the women who compete in it, are an integral part of American tradition,” CEO Stan Hubbard said in a statement.
The fate of the pageant’s English-language broadcast had come into question after Comcast Corp-owned NBC announced on Monday it would no longer air the event “due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants” the company said in a press statement. Several judges and guests have also scrapped plans to take part in the event.
Trump, in announcing on June 16 that he was seeking the Republican Party nomination for the 2016 presidential election, described migrants from Mexico to the United States as drug-runners and rapists.
“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some I assume are good people,” the billionaire developer said in opening his campaign at Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.