Miss Universe 2008

As I am a pageant fanatic I decided to post my favourites for Miss Universe 2008. I realised after looking at a lot of predictions and pageant sites that a few names keep on cropping up (who are considered favourites). My 15 seem to not fit perfectly with the predictions of the main sites but I wanted to show them anyway. As I had a lot of time I decided to judge the contestants on 6 areas (of course if I have more time I'll find some more things to judge them on). 4 of these areas were photos and 2 were videos. I judged the Evening Gowns, National Costumes, their two Swimsuit shots, their Interviews and the Catwalk with their National Costumes. I weighted these categories differently as I felt the Interview was one of the most important areas as there were 5 other areas for the contestants to show their beauty! Anyway I do feel a lot of sites have disregarded the interview section which I find very important - the inside is important to. I did find however that people who scored well on the interview section (in my top 10) all got into the Top 15! Whilst the Best National Costumes seemed to be the least represented in the Top 15. Yes I do think I may have been overly biased towards the interviews but I still think the Top 15 are somewhat deserved (Ok some were slightly unexpected for me! Funnily I chose the Top 15!)
Anyway in no particular order my top 15 are...

Canada
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Venezuela
Norway
Costa Rica
Angola
Japan
Thailand
Australia
Belgium
Dominican Republic
Panama
Trinidad and Tobago
India

I hear a lot of murmurs around! People are probably screaming "Where is USA, Czech Republic, Columbia, Ireland, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Kosovo". Well simply my rankings showed that they did not get into the Top 15! I agree USA is a strong contestant and she nearly made my Top 15.
What may shock a lot of people is that I didn't really find Mexico to be that great a contestant! I may get some hate mail here! But I just didn't see the spark everyone else has seen in her. She was about mid table for me. Puerto Rico and Kosovo also weren't really in my likes at all! Anyway I do think I need to look at Mexico a bit more but currently with the areas I've judged I don't see a Top 15! But I know she will be in the Top 15 because she is getting a lot of attention! But besides that I find it quite interesting why Costa Rica has been out of the headlines. I have looked high and low and haven't found a single website which puts her in any contention! I think she is a worthy Top 15 but seemingly very few people agree! The Dominican Republic and Aruba also seems to fall into that category! One small fact to tell you in my judging was that the only contestant to have placed in the Top 20 in all areas was Australia! She is a very strong and consistant candidate I feel but she seems to always be in second class. In my current Top 15 there was 1 candidate that did shock me, I basically scored the photos first and then the videos (there were definitely about 5 or 6 who dropped out of the Top 15 after the videos section though) Japan was a delegate that did not really capture my attention in the photos and placed a meager 42nd but then after the videos she vaulted into the Top 15. I found her interview to be very captivating (even when I didn't understand her), she seemed very relatable and sweet - she definitely showed a different side to herself in the videos. Another big jumper was Thailand, Venezuela (I hear some gasps!), Antigua and Barbuda, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Columbia and Korea. Whilst I'm on the topic; big droppers include... Nicaragua, Turks and Caicos, Israel, Albania, Russia, Ecuador, Slovenia and Argentina. Albania, Russia and Ecuador all managed to drop by more than 40 places! The biggest jumper was Antigua and Barbuda. Anyway it's interesting how my Top 15 differs to a lot of other Top 15's. I do think at least 5 or 6 of my Top 15 aren't seen commonly in any other top 15. I do hope though that at least half of my Top 15 actually get to the Top 15! But this year I find myself wondering on a winner. I think there are a lot of very good delegates but when you trying to find a winner is very difficult. Last year I thought their were a few possible winners but this year it looks like it is much more open (some may say differently though as I do think the favourite overall seems to be Venezuela). If only Honey Lee was in this year maybe we would see her win the title!