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TV personalities step in after five other hosts back out in wake of presidential candidate’s controversial Mexican immigrant comments
The Miss USA pageant has named Todd Newton and Alex Wehrley as its new hosts, TheWrap has learned.
Newton won a Daytime Emmy in 2010 for hosting “Family Game Night,” while Wehrley was Miss Wisconsin USA in 2009. OK! TV’s Julie Alexandria has also been named as backstage host.
They join the pageant amid ongoing controversy surrounding its co-owner, Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Jeannie Mai joined fellow former co-hosts Thomas Roberts, Cheryl Burke, Roselyn Sanchez and Cristian de la Fuente in dropping out of Miss USA.
The five hosts all walked away after Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists” during his speech last month announcing his run for the White House.
Univision was the first television partner to cut ties with the Miss Universe Organization following Trump’s comments. The network’s contract dictated that it would pay $13.5 million over five years to simulcast Miss USA in Spanish. Trump is suing Univision for $500 million for dropping out.
NBC followed suit, cutting ties with Trump by dumping the pageant and removing the billionaire as the host of “Celebrity Apprentice.” Reelz stepped in and bought the broadcast rights to the pageant for “no more than $100,000,” TheWrap reported exclusively.
Reelz CEO Stan E. Hubbard told TheWrap that the network “does not endorse Trump’s comments regarding Mexicans. Hubbard, whose father, Stanley Hubbard, is a regular donator to Republican political campaigns, added, “I am not a supporter of Donald Trump’s for president.”
Source: TheWrap.com, July 7, 2015