The beauty queen aired her thoughts on the controversial edition of the pageant that she previously won.
In a series of posts on her Instagram channel, Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray commented on the recently concluded 74th Miss Universe pageant in Thailand.
During which, Filipina representative Ahtisa Manalo was declared third runner-up, while Mexico’s Fátima Bosch won the crown.
But first, full disclosure from Queen Cat herself that she has never sat as judge at the pageant, hence she has no idea on how the judging is done.
Anyway, she mentioned that her favorites in the Top 12 were Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, and China, who she thought had stellar performances and deserved to be in Top 5.
She also said that the reps from Thailand, Venezuela, and Colombia were “fan favourites for a reason! 👏”
“No shock to see PH, Cote d’Ivoire in the Top 5, they performed so well in both prelims and finals swim and evening! Consistent in every round!”, Catriona furthered.
As regards to the question and answer portion, she said that “the selection of initial questions were good!”
“Although i had super high expectations for the final word cause – I mean sa totoo guys, super basic yung tanong na yan in preparing for MU. If you don’t have a super solid answer for that question, ewan ko nalang 🤷🏽♀️”, she added.
Catriona also told that for her, eventual fourth runner-up Cote d’Ivoire had the best answer in the initial Q&A, while the best final word came from Ahtisa Manalo.
“But again, kung judge ako – I really value communication skills, so q&a means alot to me personally,” the Miss Universe 2018 emphasized.
Regarding the outcome of this edition, Cat noted that she had already sat on judging panels both locally and abroad and she had experienced “(some, not all) being surprized by the results.”
“Sometimes, the ‘taste’ of judges really is different. Baka they value a certain look, beauty, type of walk – basta, baka may personal trip lang nila. We dont know eh,” she underscored.
Catriona also stressed that she, along with other fans, are expecting to see the transparency of criteria of judging, how contestants are being scored, and to have an official tabulating firm in MU.
She continued, “My prayer has always been (as someone who has experienced a compeition with vague judging methods first hand lol), is that the girls be given a fair competition. So my question becomes for the MU org. I hope moving forward they can regain the trust of the fans by having a more transparent judging process with a third party official tabulator.
“The doubts of us fans are not unfounded with multiple statements from judges and meant to be judges. Its disheartening considering all the effort, sacrifices, and dreams that were up there on that stage.”
Meanwhile, Catriona also went to defend the winner, whom she admired for standing up for herself during a pre-pageant incident earlier this month.
“But also, i’m actually really sad to see all the hate for Ms Mexico. I really admired how she stood up for herself in the early stages of the competition and I’ll be watching to see how she utilizes the platform to make a positive impact with her title as Miss Universe.”
Lastly, she wrote, “I hope the best years of MU arent behind us. Let’s uplift our girls and tell them how they impacted us, made us proud – and when they pursue their respective journies lets support them.”