Synopsis

Dick Clark presided over the pageant for a third time in five years, joined this year by Barbara Eden for color commentary – a first – and Miss USA 1970, Deborah Shelton, also making her debut. A new format debuted this year, introducing the delegates region by region in the Parade of States, highlighting the Midwest, South, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. It was also the final year that the first runner-up could compete in Miss World; the Miss World Organization discontinued acceptin