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• E1 is an all-electric powerboat championship that debuted in 2024.
• Celebrity team owners include Tom Brady, Will Smith, Rafael Nadal, and Steve Aoki.
• Qualified teams will compete in this season’s final race on Saturday in Miami.

It’s like F1 but on water.

Seventy-five years ago, race drivers ripped across the asphalt in Formula 1’s first Grand Prix, marking the beginning of a lavish global competition.

Now, a Rolodex of celebrities and renowned athletes is helping usher in a new version, this time featuring eco-conscious electric speed boats.

It’s called E1.

If you happened to be in Jeddah in January or Lagos last month, you may have seen the brightly colored boats — called RaceBirds — slicing through open water at almost 60 mph.

“When you step in these boats, you feel like you’re in a spaceship,” Dani Clos, a pilot for DJ Steve Aoki’s team and a former F1 test driver, said during a recent press event.

The inaugural season launched in 2024. Now, as the second season nears its end this weekend in Miami, cofounder Rodi Basso said he’s thinking about how the series can expand when its third season kicks off in January.

“First of all, we are a world championship. We need to be on every continent, so at least one race per continent,” Basso told reporters during the press event held at Roc Nation’s headquarters in New York City. “Asia is missing at the moment and South America as well, but we have conversations and are pretty advanced in both areas.”

Basso said he wants to increase the number of teams from 9 to 12 and the number of races from 7 to 15. In October, E1 announced that Team Monaco is set to join the 2026 season.

“Of course, it’s not like a magic fixed number, but this, for me, is the right level,” Basso said.

That’s not all, though. Here’s everything to know about E1.

Saudi Arabia and A-list celebrities have backed the series

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced its partnership with the E1 series in 2021. Three years later, the PIF said it created Electric 360, a multi-year partnership with Formula E, Extreme E, and E1 powerboat racing. Basso’s cofounder, Alejandro Agag, helped create all three championships.

“The new partnership will draw together initiatives that underscore the power of electric motor sports to drive technological innovation, and revolutionize sustainable transport and future mobility — while leading the way in carbon reduction,” the Public Investment Fund said.

The team owners — which Basso refers to as “talent” — span different industries and sports: DJ Steve Aoki, NBA legend LeBron James, cricket world cup champion Virat Kohli, seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, former Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, four-time Premier League Winner Didier Drogba, Grammy-award winning singer Marc Anthony, former tennis titan Rafael Nadal, and Academy award winner Will Smith.

Brady’s team won the 2024 season, adding to his list of championships.

“They’re all coming from sport and entertainment because we are trying to find the sweet spot between these two worlds that need to talk to each other in order to build an exciting sport proposition,” Basso said. “They are on board and they’ve invested in this sport because they believe that in this stage of their career and their life, one of the next projects they want to be involved in needs to be impactful.”

Despite its ongoing operations and ambitious plans, Basso said the E1 series isn’t looking for investors due to a lack of funds.

“The good news for us is that we are not looking for investment because we need money, but we want to do it to accelerate even faster than we are doing now,” Basso told Business Insider.

He added it will take time for the E1 series to grow, but “at a certain point, it will be good to have more funds so that we can build another boat, expand through more marketing and more sales force.”

E1 teams have 2 pilots and a race weekend lasts 2 days

For those who’ve never watched an E1 series race, each team has two alternating pilots: one man and one woman. For example, the Aoki Racing Team pilots are Dani Clos of Spain and Mashael Alobaidan of Saudi Arabia.

“He is the person who’s cheering for us, who’s pushing for us, and all that. Of course, we have good communication,” Clos said of Aoki.

Competition weekends happen over two days. Practice and qualifying rounds take place on the first day, while the main races occur on the second day.

Pilots must steer their eco-friendly RaceBirds around a designated water-based track and outmaneuver their opponents to win, but it’s trickier than it sounds.

The RaceBirds are foiling boats, meaning each boat features an underwater fin that lifts the hull into the air at certain speeds.

“They’re impressive because we literally fly above the water,” Clos said, adding that RaceBirds can be “very sensitive.”

“When you drive in the water, it’s never stable. We have currents. We have the waves,” Clos said. “We have the wind and, because we don’t have a track, every corner, every straight line is different all the time.”

And because the races take place in open water, cruise ships and other boats play a role.

“If we see these mega yachts from Miami coming with people watching and cheering, we are saying, ‘Man, a big wave is going to come,'” Clos said. “You need to prepare for that and see how you’re going to calibrate the boat. It makes the racing very interesting because we need to be 100% on that.”

A major component of the E1 series is sustainability

E1 is not just about furthering the motorsport industry or partnering with household names. Sustainability remains a core value of the series. However, unlike landlocked Formula E, the E1 series has focused its sustainability efforts on oceans and waterways.

“I would say that our vision is to protect and celebrate the lifestyle in coastal areas,” Basso said.

Basso said the E1 series presented an opportunity to explore the blue economy, which aims to conserve water areas while utilizing them for economic growth and resource development.

“We want to make sustainability cool. So, you come to our events, you have a lot of fun, and, in the meantime, you see what the water mobility of the future will look like,” Basso said.

Season 2 ends in Miami on November 8

This season’s final race takes place this weekend in Miami’s Biscayne Bay, marking the first time E1 has appeared in the US. The practice and qualifying rounds began Friday, while the actual races will begin on Saturday.

“After six rounds racing across three continents, reigning 2024 Champions Team Brady lead the title charge. But tennis legend Rafa Nadal’s team trails by only three points, with just 20 points separating the top four to set up a dramatic shootout for the coveted ‘Champions of the Water’ trophy,” a press release said. “Adding to the excitement, Team Miami owned by global music icon and Miami star Marc Anthony, will race on home waters.”

Clos, who’s based in Miami, told Business Insider he and his teammate are optimistic ahead of the race. The Aoki Racing team won the first race of the year in Jeddah, and again this June in Croatia.

“The last events have been a little bit tough, and we didn’t have the best of luck,” Clos said. “We didn’t put all the things together, but we’re coming to Miami with an amazing mentality, and I think that this weekend can bring us a lot of joy.”

• UPS and FedEx are grounding their fleets of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 planes, the companies said.
• It comes after a UPS MD-11 crashed during takeoff on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people.
• Both companies said they were acting on the advice of the aircraft manufacturer.

Delivery companies UPS and FedEx announced they are temporarily grounding their fleets of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo planes.

It comes after a UPS MD-11 crashed during takeoff in Kentucky on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people, including three crew members.

The companies said they made the decision after advice from the aircraft manufacturer.

“Out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of safety, we have made the decision to temporarily ground our MD-11 fleet,” UPS said in a statement, adding that the planes made up about 9% of its fleet.

“Contingency plans are in place to ensure we can continue to deliver the reliable service our customers around the world count on.”

FedEx operates 28 MD-11s as part of a wider fleet of around 700 aircraft.

The Tennessee-headquartered firm said it had also taken the decision “out of an abundance of caution” and that it would be conducting “a thorough safety review based on the recommendation of the manufacturer.”

“We are immediately implementing contingency plans within our integrated air-ground network to minimize disruptions,” it added.

The plane involved in Tuesday’s crash near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport could be seen banking hard to the left before crashing into an industrial area to the south of the airport.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board said the aircraft’s left engine “separated” from the wing during the incident.

In an update on Friday, NTSB board member Todd Inman said analysis of the cockpit voice recorder showed a “repeating bell” had sounded for 25 seconds as the crew fought to control the plane.

The aircraft reached about 100 feet above the ground before it went down, according to the agency.

Those on board included Capt. Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt, and international relief officer Capt. Dana Diamond.

• My husband and I took our baby on a trip to Europe, visiting London and Paris.
• I wish we’d planned the itinerary around the baby a bit more and hadn’t tried to do so much.
• The chaos sometimes outweighed the fun, but I don’t regret taking our 11-month-old on this trip.

When you’re presented with two choices — 1. take your baby on a once-in-a-lifetime trip through Europe or 2. stay home and watch “Bluey” reruns — you obviously choose the former.

Sure, I’ve traveled out of the country several times … but doing it with a baby? That’s an entirely different ballgame.

Ultimately, my husband and I decided it was a worthwhile trip (although if you had asked us mid-meltdown on the streets of Paris, we might have answered differently).

Here are the three big mistakes that made our trip to London and Paris harder than it needed to be.

Not planning the trip around the baby

When someone else plans your trip — a person without kids — do yourself a favor and double-check that itinerary.

I foolishly thought our baby would nap on the go, and that we could sneak out of dinners early to keep bedtime somewhat on track. Cute theory. Didn’t happen.

Case in point: we had tickets to see “Les Misérables” in London. Amazing idea — unless you’re traveling with an infant.

Obviously, you can’t stroll into the theater with a baby, and we didn’t exactly have a babysitter on call in a foreign country, so the tickets went to waste.

That wasn’t the only thing we missed. We had plenty of prepaid activities that went unused simply because we desperately needed a quiet, dark space where our baby could nap.

Looking back, I also wish we had sought out more parks and baby-friendly stops. Instead, we found ourselves constantly battling cobblestone streets and narrow sidewalks with a stroller that suddenly felt like a ball and chain.

Paris was the hardest — no high chairs at restaurants we visited, endless stairs, and streets that felt like an obstacle course. Next time, I wouldn’t even bother with a stroller. I’d just strap on the carrier and call it a day.

Trying to keep a routine

At home, my baby has a strict nap and bedtime schedule. He thrives on his routine, so I assumed we could simply take it with us.

Reality check: Babies don’t care about your color-coded calendar when they’re jet-lagged in another time zone.

The turning point was when I finally let go of the idea of structure. Instead of watching the clock, we followed his lead.

If he fell asleep in the carrier at 3 p.m., great. If he stayed up way past his bedtime because we were at dinner, we just rolled with it. Once I stopped trying to control everything, the whole trip felt lighter.

Basically, the sooner I accepted that European travel with a baby is more about survival than schedules, the better time we all had.

Attempting to do too much

Our itinerary looked amazing on paper: dinner reservations, walking tours, museums, and day trips.

The problem? It wasn’t made for a family traveling with a baby. By day two, it felt like we were trying to run a marathon.

Babies don’t care that you’ve booked a 2 p.m. tour of the Louvre or that you’ve got nonrefundable tickets for a river cruise. They care about eating when they’re hungry, sleeping when they’re tired, and letting everyone know when they’ve had enough.

And once our baby hit his wall, it didn’t matter if we were standing in front of the Mona Lisa … the day was over.

What I wish we’d done is pick just a few things we really wanted to do and build the rest of the schedule around naps, snacks, and downtime.

You can’t do everything with a baby in tow, but you can still have an amazing time if you stop trying to cram it all in.

Even so, I don’t regret taking the trip

You could argue the chaos outweighed the fun … and sure, there were plenty of meltdowns (some his, some mine). But honestly, I wouldn’t trade it.

I’ll never get another chance to see Europe with my baby at that tiny age, even if it meant lugging a stroller up too many staircases and missing half the things we booked.

The alternative would’ve been staying home. If my choice is between doing nothing in my living room or eating croissants on a Paris sidewalk while bouncing a baby on my hip … I’ll take the latter every time.

• YouTube TV is driving a hard bargain with Disney, whose channels are off the service.
• Media analysts say YouTube TV has leverage since it’s supported by Google.
• But YouTube TV has grown into a powerhouse in its own right.

YouTube TV isn’t budging in its high-profile fight with Disney — and it has leverage beyond its Google backing.

The popular pay-TV service has become an industry titan in its own right and is on track to catch its cable TV rivals in the coming years, analysts say.

Disney’s TV networks, like ESPN and ABC, have been gone from the Google-owned TV service for over a week. The Mouse House insists that YouTube isn’t properly valuing its channels, while YouTube TV is telling its customers that giving in would lead to higher prices.

Disney and ESPN have made the case that YouTube is being unreasonable and can afford to play hardball in negotiations since it’s owned by Google. While Disney is a corporate behemoth, worth $200 billion, it’s roughly 17 times smaller than Google-parent Alphabet, which is the fourth-largest company in the world with a $3.4 trillion market value.

But YouTube TV isn’t some dinky business that’s propped up by a generous tech giant. It’s a robust operation that generates lots of cash, even if it’s not yet a major needle-mover for Alphabet.

Ric Prentiss of Raymond James wrote in a note that this fight is “indicative of YouTube TV wielding increased bargaining power.”

YouTube TV has been the fastest-growing major TV provider over the last few years, rising from 2 million subscribers in late 2019 to about 10 million paying customers, while most of its competitors have shrunk.

Google’s live TV service is now the third-biggest pay-TV provider behind only cable giants Charter and Comcast, according to analysts at MoffettNathanson. The research firm estimates that YouTube TV will pass those incumbents in the next two years and become the industry leader.

“Given the rapid growth of YouTube TV — especially in the context of the accelerating decline of traditional Pay TV providers — it is quickly becoming a crucial player in the linear TV ecosystem,” MoffettNathanson’s Michael Nathanson wrote earlier this year.

MoffettNathanson estimates that YouTube TV has grown its revenue from less than $1 billion in 2019 to just under $8 billion in 2024, and earlier this year was on pace to hit $9.6 billion in 2025. The firm believes YouTube TV will generate $11.6 billion for Google by the end of 2027.

That growth came despite competition from other “virtual pay-TV services,” which brought the traditional pay-TV channel bundle to streaming. The first movers were Fubo and Sling TV, which both launched more than two years before YouTube TV in early 2015. Other competitors, such as Hulu + Live TV and DirecTV Now, now known as DirecTV Stream, arrived a few years later. These services are especially popular with younger audiences who love streaming and sports fans who want to see games in one convenient place.

YouTube TV became by far the biggest and best-known of the bunch. However, like its rivals, it faces existential questions about the future of the pay-TV bundle.

Sports have begun to migrate to stand-alone streaming services — as opposed to streamers like YouTube TV that bundle traditional TV channels — in recent years. Some games now stream exclusively on these services, such as “Thursday Night Football” on Amazon’s Prime Video or NBA and NFL games on Peacock. That shift has accelerated cord-cutting, which also affects YouTube TV.

Although YouTube TV might not be a make-or-break business for Google and Alphabet, it’s not a struggling vanity project. Instead, it’s a key part of a strategic vision to own the living room.

It’s difficult to see how Disney could afford not to be in business with YouTube TV, now that it has become a top pay-TV provider. Similarly, YouTube and Google can hardly afford to spurn Disney, assuming they’re set on being a major player in the TV market.

The government shutdown is now disrupting travel plans for thousands.

Air traffic controllers have been working without pay since October 1, and an increasing number of them have been calling in sick as the shutdown extends into its second month.

These staffing shortages prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to mandate a 10% reduction in flights at 40 of the country’s busiest airports, forcing airlines to cancel flights.

That started with a 4% reduction on Friday. It will increase to 10% by November 14.

Some 750 flights have so far been canceled as of 6 a.m. ET on Friday, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. Only domestic trips are directly affected by the FAA mandate, with major airline hubs bearing the brunt of the impact.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says 20% of flights could be cut if the shutdown continues

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news event in Washington, DC on Friday afternoon that if the shutdown continues for much longer, more unpaid air traffic controllers will stop showing up for work.

He said that could mean a mandated reduction of air traffic as high as 20%.

The Federal Aviation Administration has already grounded 10% of flights. Those cuts began on Friday and will continue to ramp up over the next week unless the shutdown is resolved.

Weekend flight cancellations continue to rise

Updated data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, shows the number of flights canceled on Friday remains steady at about 3% of total flights, but that Saturday cancellations are growing, now at 2.7% of total flights, up from 1.7% as of this morning. Here’s the breakdown of cancellations on Friday by airline:

Airline	Scheduled	Canceled	% Canceled
American Airlines	5,810	224	3.86%
Delta Air Lines	4,607	180	3.91%
United Airlines	4,583	185	4.04%
Southwest Airlines	4,129	80	1.94%
Alaska Airlines	1,235	33	2.67%
JetBlue	727	24	3.30%
Frontier Airlines	706	26	3.68%
Spirit Airlines	455	1	.22%
Allegiant Air	402	2	.50%
Grant Aviation	226	6	2.65%
Hawaiian Airlines	226	6	2.65%
Breeze Airways	222	4	1.80%

Air traffic controllers become reluctant bargaining chips in the government shutdown

Air traffic controllers, one of America’s most stressed-out professions, wield delicate power in Washington’s shutdown standoff.

Chaos from the 2019 shutdown is fresh in politicians’ minds: Air traffic controllers at the time called out sick en masse, triggering airport snafus nationwide — including the temporary closure of New York’s LaGuardia Airport. It ultimately forced the end of the longest government shutdown in US history.

Three controllers told Business Insider they don’t want to be the barometer for whether the nation’s aviation system could once again reach its breaking point — they just want to do their jobs, be paid fairly, and support their coworkers.

Read full story

What airlines are telling their passengers

The FAA’s flight reductions could affect up to 1,800 flights and some 268,000 seats a day, according to Cirium, a data analytics firm.

With short notice and complex networks, it’s not a simple task for airlines to cut flights. Carriers need to determine how to minimize the knock-on effects of planes and crews being left stranded.

If you have a flight booked from Friday onward, you should check with the airline about its status. Any cancellations or changes should be communicated to you.

United Airlines told its customers that cancellations are likely to affect regional and domestic flights that don’t go between two hubs. United’s US hubs are Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.

Read full story

United Airlines says flight reductions could affect tens of thousands of its travelers

United Airlines expects that up to 25,000 customers a day could have their travel plans disrupted, a source close to the airline told Business Insider.

While the FAA mandated flight reductions to start at 4%, that’s set to rise by 10% next Friday if the shutdown doesn’t end.

At that point, the person said, United would likely be canceling 250 to 300 flights a day.

Map shows which airports have the most canceled flights

The map below shows the number of flights canceled at each of the 40 airports as of 6 a.m. ET on Friday, using data from the aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport experienced the highest number of cancellations, with 76. It’s the world’s busiest airport and Delta Air Lines’ main hub.

Read full story

Airlines call for an end to the shutdown

Business Insider has been reaching out to airlines over the past 24 hours to find out how they’ve been affected by the flight reductions.

Some of them were openly frustrated by the shutdown, calling on politicians to end it as soon as possible.

“This is unacceptable,” a representative for American Airlines said. “We, once again, urge leaders in Washington to reach an immediate resolution to end the shutdown.”

“We remain grateful to every air traffic controller and TSA or CBP officer who is working without pay to keep air travel functioning safely,” a representative for Alaska Airlines said. “We continue to strongly urge our federal leaders to reach an immediate resolution and end the shutdown.”

Southwest Airlines’ statement concluded with the line: “We continue to urge Congress to immediately resolve its impasse and restore the National Airspace System to its full capacity.”

FAA chief says there are ‘signs of stress in the system’

“We are seeing signs of stress in the system, so we are proactively reducing the number of flights to make sure the American people continue to fly safely,” Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement on Thursday.

“The FAA will continue to closely monitor operations, and we will not hesitate to take further action to make sure air travel remains safe.”  

In the same statement, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said: “My department has many responsibilities, but our No. 1 job is safety.”

“This isn’t about politics — it’s about assessing the data and alleviating building risk in the system as controllers continue to work without pay,” he added.

“It’s safe to fly today, and it will continue to be safe to fly next week because of the proactive actions we are taking.”

How did we get here?

The government shutdown means federal employees like air traffic controllers aren’t getting their usual paychecks. But since they’re critical to safety, they still have to turn up for work.

As the shutdown persists into a second month, however, an increasing number of controllers are calling in sick.

The first signs of stress were evident six days into the shutdown. Hollywood Burbank Airport‘s air traffic control tower was unstaffed for hours on the evening of October 6.

Flights could still take off and land as approach operations were handled remotely by a facility in San Diego. But for taxiing to and from the runway, pilots had to communicate among themselves.

Over the ensuing weeks, it became more common for the FAA to institute ground stops or ground delays at several airports nationwide due to ATC staffing shortages.

• Taylor Hale went on to win “Big Brother” after competing at the Miss USA 2021 pageant.
• She came forward with sexual harassment allegations against Max Sebrechts, Miss USA’s former vice president.
• Hale spoke to Business Insider about why she returned to host Miss Teen USA and how the pageant should evolve.

My interview with Taylor Hale keeps getting interrupted.

It’s not because we’re blocking cupcakes mostly left untouched by pageant queens rehearsing on the eve of the Miss USA 2025 competition. Instead, Gen Zers are flocking over to meet Hale, who went from Miss Michigan to the first Black woman to win “Big Brother” in the span of a year.

“I literally sobbed when they said you were going to be at our hotel,” one pageant queen tells her. “You were my inspo for so many years,” another one says.

Hale, who is now starring on “The Amazing Race,” has achieved the dream of many pageant queens, launching a successful entertainment career after years of training onstage. It’s a dream that has become far less of a guarantee as Miss USA continues to battle numerous scandals.

Hale herself wasn’t sure she’d ever step back into the pageant world after she went public with sexual harassment allegations against Max Sebrechts, who was Miss USA’s vice president when she competed in 2021.

Sebrechts denied the allegations.

Four years later, Hale returned to host the Miss Teen USA competition. After the pageant wrapped on October 23, she went backstage with Business Insider to discuss reuniting with the organization, the future of Miss USA, and why she believes pageant queens are the next influencers.

‘I did not expect to be back here’

Hale alluded to her Miss USA experience while on “Big Brother” in 2022, using code names on the show’s livestream to refer to Sebrechts and his then-wife, Crystle Stewart, the pageant’s president at the time.

After winning “Big Brother,” Hale went public with allegations that Sebrechts — who stepped down from Miss USA in January 2022 — sexually harassed her the morning after the 2021 pageant.

Sebrechts denied the allegations in a statement to Business Insider in October 2022. Neither he nor Stewart is still affiliated with the organization.

When Hale got the invite to host this year’s Miss Teen USA competition by Thom Brodeur, who was named the new Miss USA CEO in September, she wasn’t sure if it made sense to come back.

“I’ve kind of struggled with wondering, ‘Do I continue to associate myself with the pageant world?'” Hale told Business Insider. “Not because I don’t love pageants, but because I made my statement and then my life took off.”

“I guess the question is: Can you return to an organization where you charged credible allegations of sexual harassment? Can you make those charges in the public sphere and re-enter the space?” she added. “I always knew I had the support of the people in pageants, but to get behind the official logo, I didn’t know if that was a space I could occupy anymore.”

Hale said she struggled with the decision for weeks, ultimately deciding she couldn’t forget her roots.

“Right before the opening number, I was standing right here looking at the mirror and sobbing,” Hale said. “I did not expect to feel everything so deeply, and I did not expect to be back here in a leadership position.”

“The girls that get on the stage to compete, they are girls with a dream,” she added. “I was a girl with a dream.”

Is Miss USA still relevant?

In the four years that have passed since Hale wore her Miss Michigan sash, there have been three leadership changes.

Stewart parted ways with the organization after a tumultuous Miss USA 2022, which made headlines after contestants said the competition had been rigged. A third-party investigation cleared Stewart’s name in January 2023.

Laylah Rose took her place, only to be accused months later of bullying Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava to the point that both queens resigned. A new lawsuit from the Miss Universe Organization alleges that Rose created a “toxic work environment” and hurt the brand’s reputation.

Rose has denied the allegations and filed a countersuit.

The years of chaos have hurt Miss USA’s image at a time when it was already fighting to stay relevant. Still, Hale thinks there’s hope for the pageant — as long as it learns to modernize.

“I don’t want Miss USA to lose its heart of celebrating hyper-femininity,” she said. “If this is a space where showing — literally performing — hyper-femininity is safe and not sexualized, celebrated and not just consumed, I think that’s an important and safe and healthy space worth protecting. What I want to see is for the pageant to evolve.”

There was a time when Miss USA was one of the few avenues for small-town girls to break into Hollywood. Now, reality TV or viral TikToks can transform a person’s life, as Hale has seen firsthand. That’s why she thinks Miss USA needs to embrace the influencer era.

“I want the girl who wins Miss USA to be in that same league,” she said. “The brands that are calling up the girls on ‘Love Island’ need to be hitting up Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.”

Getting back on track

Miss USA and Hollywood have always been intertwined, but the pageant also has a long history of philanthropy and politics. The Miss USA stage was a platform for young women to share their thoughts on major social issues in front of millions, with past queens being asked about everything from feminism to the Second Amendment.

Hale celebrated the return of such questions to the Miss USA stage this year after they were removed from the 2023 and 2024 pageants.

“Telling your titleholders, ‘We’re not going to give you political questions or hard questions,’ is telling your titleholders to be afraid of the world instead of being intellectually curious, being open to being challenged, and standing up for what you believe in,” Hale said. “If you encourage your titleholders not to be multifaceted and multi-dimensional, well then, they’re not an interesting titleholder.”

Only time will tell if Miss USA is entering a new era. Hale thinks the pageant is on track, but it won’t be an easy ride.

“Do I think they’re on the right path? Yes,” she said. “But it’s like being on the right path while you’re trying to dig yourself out of a 6-foot hole. I think we’re 3 feet out.”