For Olivia Jordan, the Miss USA competition was about more than being on television. But in a Tuesday conversation with HuffPost Live, the 2015 winner admitted that NBC and Univision's last-minute decision to not broadcast the program was upsetting.
"It was like right when we got there [to Baton Rouge, where the pageant took place] that we got the news that NBC dropped [and] Univision, of course, had dropped," Jordan recounted to host Nancy Redd. "It was disappointing. We had been looking forward to that. But ultimately that wasn't the reason we were there. No girl was there just to be on TV -- or we hope that they weren't."
The networks' decision came on the heels of offensive comments made by Miss USA co-owner Donald Trump about Mexican immigrants, going as far as saying: "They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
NBC and Univision cut ties with the pageant as a result, but Jordan says the competition's "not about the television."
"There's a lot of work that goes into it. A lot of energy that goes into it, and ultimately you want the crown and you want to be able to have the platform to talk about every cause that's meaningful to you and to be a representative of the Miss USA organization," she explained.
The Miss Oklahoma title-holder added that she understands "the ebbs and flows" of the entertainment industry.
"Stuff happens and you just gotta roll with it and not get too stressed or invested in what's happening behind the scenes," she said. "We're not upset with NBC. They can make the choices they want to make."
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