Alongside with its rival Miss Universe and Miss Earth contests, this pageant is one of the most publicized beauty contests in the world. The telecast of the final competition is the world's largest live annual beauty pageant television event with global viewers in more than 200 countries..

The winner spends a year travelling to represent the Miss World Organization and its various causes. Traditionally, Miss World lives in London during her reign. Miss World in 2007 is Zhang Zilin of China.

History

Miss World started as the Festival Bikini Contest, in honour of the recently introduced swim wear of the time, but was called "Miss World" by the press. It was originally planned as a one-off event. Upon learning about the upcoming Miss Universe pageant, Morley decided to make the pageant an annual event.

Opposition to the wearing of bikinis led to their replacement with more modest swim wear after the first contest. In 1959, the BBC started broadcasting the competition. The pageant's popularity grew with the advent of television..

In the 1980s, the pageant repositioned itself with the slogan Beauty With a Purpose, with added tests of intelligence and personality. However, the competition has been seen as old-fashioned and rather politically incorrect in its native Britain. Despite the global appeal, the show was not broadcast on any major terrestrial British TV network for several years, until Channel 5 aired it in 1998.

21st century

Eric Morley died as the pageant entered the new century. His wife, Julia, succeeded as chairwoman of the Miss World Organization.

The century saw its first black African winner, Agbani Darego, in 2001. As part of its marketing strategy, Miss World came up with a "You Decide" television special during that edition, featuring the delegates behind the scenes and on the beach, and allowing viewers to either phone in or vote online for their favorites. It also sells its Talent, "Beach Beauty" and Sports events as television specials to broadcasters.

In 2002 the competition was slated for choosing Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria to host its final. This choice was controversial, as a northern Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, was awaiting death by stoning for adultery under Sharia law there, but Miss World chose to use the publicity surrounding its presence to bring greater global awareness and action to Amina's plight (see Controversies section]]).

Miss World Organization

The Miss World Organization owns and manages the annual Miss World Finals, a competition that has grown into one of the World's biggest.. Since its launch in 1951, the Miss World Organization has raised more than £250 million for children's charities. Miss World is franchised in more than 140 countries.. Miss World, Limited is a privately held firm, and thus figures for its earnings, expenses and charitable contributions are not publicly available.