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While Texas, California, and Hawaii have repeatedly won the prestigious title, other states — including Arizona, Florida, and New Jersey — have struggled.

Here are the 18 states that have never won Miss USA.

Alaska

The closest Alaska has come to the Miss USA crown was in 1964, when Patricia Marlin placed second runner-up. 

Alaska has placed four additional times in the pageant's history, most recently with Alyssa London, who made the top 10 in 2017. 

Four of the state's queens have won the Miss Congeniality prize, including in 2022 and 2023.

Arizona

While Arizona has never won Miss USA, it assumed the title in 1980 when Jineane Ford, who originally placed first runner-up, inherited the crown after Shawn Weatherly won Miss Universe. 

Arizona has frequently appeared in the Miss USA semifinals, with three second runners-up and two third runners-up. But it has not placed at Miss USA since 2016, when Chelsea Myers made the top 15. 

Colorado

Colorado was closest to the Miss USA crown in 1963 and 2010, when Rhea Looney and Jessica Hartman placed third runner-up. 

The state most recently placed at the Miss USA 2024 pageant, when titleholder Jessi Kalambayi reached the top 10. It was the first time Colorado had placed at Miss USA since 2012.

Delaware

Delaware has only placed once at Miss USA, becoming the last state to ever place in the pageant's history. 

Renee Bull broke the streak in 2015 when she made it to the top 11. She also tied for the Miss Congeniality title with Miss Alaska Kimberly Agron. 

Miss Delaware 2025 Tetra Shockley made history as the oldest woman to compete at Miss USA. The 44-year-old also won the Miss Congeniality title that year.

Florida

While Florida has never won Miss USA, it assumed the title in 1967. Cheryl Patton, who placed second runner-up, inherited the crown after Sylvia Hitchcock won Miss Universe and the first runner-up, Susan Ellen Bradley, declined to take the title. 

Florida has also had two first runners-up, and more than a dozen contestants have made it to the semifinals. The state last placed at Miss USA in 2025 with titleholder Lou Schieffelin, who made it to the top 10.

Georgia

The closest Georgia has come to the Miss USA crown was in 1993, when Erin Nance was named first runner-up. Contestants from Georgia have also won second runner-up six times — in 1986, 1988, 2001, 2006, 2014, and 2016. 

Georgia last placed at Miss USA in 2025, when Savannah Miles reached the top 10.

Indiana

Holli Rene Dennis almost nabbed the Miss USA crown for Indiana in 1981, when she won first runner-up. 

Indiana contestants also won second runner-up in 1966 and 2002. Indiana last placed in 2020 when Alexis Nicole Lete was third runner-up. 

Maine

The closest Maine has come to the Miss USA crown was in 2010, when Katie Whittier placed fourth runner-up.

Maine last placed during the Miss USA 2025 competition, when Shelby Howell made the top 20. She also won Miss Photogenic.

Miss Maine 2023 Juliana Morehouse made history as the first married woman to compete at Miss USA.

Maryland

Miss Maryland Mary Leona Gage won Miss USA in 1957, but she was dethroned after it was discovered that she was married and had two children. Married women and mothers were not allowed to compete at Miss USA or Miss Universe until 2023.

Maryland assumed the title of Miss USA in 2012 after Nana Meriwether inherited the crown from Olivia Culpo, who won Miss Universe that year. 

Maryland last placed at Miss USA in 2023, when Savena Mushinge reached the top 20.

Montana

Montana has placed three times at Miss USA, all before 1960. 

Montana last placed in the Miss USA competition in 1958, when Sharon Tietjen made it to the top 15. 

New Hampshire

The closest New Hampshire has gotten to the Miss USA crown was in 2000, when Bridget Vezina was named first runner-up. 

The state has placed six times at Miss USA, most recently in 2025 when Mona Lesa Brackett made the top 20.

Brackett made history as the first woman to compete in Miss USA wearing a hijab and a burkini.

New Jersey

New Jersey nearly nabbed the Miss USA crown in 2025 when Ivy Harrington placed first runner-up.

Contestants from the Garden State also placed first runner-up at Miss USA in 2017 and 1991, and took the second runner-up spot three times — in 1989, 1990, and 2008. 

North Dakota

North Dakota has come close to the Miss USA crown twice. Audra Mari placed first runner-up in 2014, as did Caitlyn Vogel in 2021. 

Vogel was the last Miss North Dakota titleholder to place at Miss USA.

Oregon

Oregon came closest to winning the Miss USA crown in 2025, when Chantéa McIntyre was named second runner-up.

McIntyre, a mother of four, became the first married woman and the first mother to ever reach the top five at Miss USA.

Oregon also won second runner-up in 1976.

South Dakota

Miss South Dakota Madison Nipe landed the state's best placement at Miss USA in 2018 when she made the top five. 

South Dakota most recently placed at Miss USA in 2021, when Caroline Pettey made the top 16. 

West Virginia

West Virginia has almost won the Miss USA crown twice. Ruth Parr won first runner-up in 1957, as did Kelly Anderson in 1984. 

The state last placed at Miss USA in 2022, when Krystian Leonard made it to the top 16. 

Wisconsin

Wisconsin nearly won the Miss USA crown in 1974 and 2023, when Mary Lynn Cook and Alexis Loomans placed second runner-up.

The last Miss Wisconsin titleholder to place at Miss USA was Aneisha Cox, who made it to the top 20 during the 2025 pageant.

Wyoming

Wyoming's closest attempt at the Miss USA crown was in 1986, when Beth King placed in the top 10. 

The state has only placed twice in the Miss USA competition, most recently with Claire Schreiner, who made the top 15 in 2010. 

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Anneta Konstantinides

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Anneta Konstantinides is a lifestyle correspondent at Business Insider, with a focus on food and travel. She loves taking readers inside Michelin-starred kitchens and exploring the world of fine-dining, and she's always trying to find the best Ina Garten and Gordon Ramsay recipes. Her second home is LAX, where she's often catching a flight and reviewing airlines.Anneta has also been reporting on the pageant industry for the last six years and has interviewed every Miss USA and Miss Universe winner since 2019. She was a finalist at the LA Press Club Awards for her investigation into the  2022 Miss USA scandal and was featured in The New York Times Presents episode "How to Fix a Pageant" on Hulu in September 2023. After graduating from UCLA with a B.A in English Literature and a minor in film & television, Anneta worked as a journalist in London, Sydney, New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. You can reach Anneta at [email protected].  %!s()

Colapinto will continue alongside Alpine's lead driver, Frenchman Pierre Gasly, next year.

Alpine executive director Flavio Briatore said: "We have seen Franco truly grow into a great driver this year.

"His results in Miami [where he was seventh] and Montreal especially confirmed what I already knew - that Franco belongs in F1 and he belongs at this team. Having consistency is important.

"We are now settled from a driver point of view and, while this is an important piece of the puzzle, the most significant thing we have to get right is designing and building a fast race car, which absolutely remains our number-one priority."

Colapinto said: "I feel very happy and settled here and it's been even better that we have made significant progress this year compared with last."

Alpine finished last in 2025 but are sixth after 12 races this year, with their best result a podium finish for Gasly in Monaco, although that is subject to a challenge from McLaren.

The world champions appealed against the decision to remove Gasly's two five-second penalties for speeding in the pit-lane in Monaco.

The appeal hearing was held on Tuesday and McLaren were told to expect a verdict within a couple of weeks.

Alpine's increased competitiveness has been caused by two significant decisions made last year.

They effectively abandoned their 2025 car to enable them to focus fully on the design for the new chassis for this year's new engine rules.

And parent company Renault cancelled its F1 engine programme after 2025 and Alpine have switched to customer Mercedes engines this season.

Colapinto did a half-season for Williams in 2024, after they dropped American Logan Sergeant, and was then signed by Alpine as reserve driver for 2025 - with funding from Latin American sponsors influential in the decision.

He took over from Jack Doohan after the Australian was demoted from a race seat after the first six races of last year. %!s()

The trailer is titled Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look, and it will be available on Netflix at 3PM ET on August 27. If you have a Netflix subscription, you can find the trailer's landing page right here and set a reminder to watch it now. If you need a Netflix subscription, here's the sign-up page with plans ranging from $9 a month to $27 a month.

The trailer will then hit the Rockstar Games YouTube channel at 9PM ET on Thursday. There, it will be freely viewable by anyone with the link. Of course, a YouTube Premium subscription will ensure your GTA VI advertisement isn't interrupted by additional advertisements.

The extended look is landing amid a flurry of leaked GTA VI gameplay videos that Rockstar has been attempting to stifle. Maybe instead of watching those and breaking developers' hearts, check out this hot new Dazed feature about the fashion and styling in Rockstar's version of Florida. And then sit tight for Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look on Thursday, whether on Netflix or YouTube.

GTA VI is set to land on November 19, starting at $80.

Netflix's big bet

Rockstar Games

In the end, Netflix will be the exclusive host of the new GTA VI trailer for just six hours in the afternoon of a random weekday in August, before the audience simultaneously and permanently moves its attention to YouTube. (And that's not to mention all of the off-screen uploads that are going to flood social media, like, immediately.) It's a bold and slightly strange bet for Netflix, and it could even look desperate under the right light.

Netflix has spent the past two years gutting its nascent video game division, most recently shutting down beloved Oxenfree studio Night School, which it purchased in 2021. That initial acquisition kicked off a larger spending spree on video game talent at Netflix, including the foundation of an internal AAA team in 2022. However, since assuming control in 2024, Netflix Games head Alain Tascan has shuttered or sold all of the company's video game studios except one. There's also still a team that signs deals with external studios, but overall, Netflix has significantly and quickly scaled back its gaming pipe dreams.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise is a unique beast, an outlier in terms of popularity, cultural impact and economic sustainability. No other video game could generate the same amount of hype around a long preview video, and Netflix wouldn't care to bag a limited-time exclusive on a trailer for any other series. GTA VI is a phenomenon, and that's what Netflix is trying to cash in on here, rather than actually expanding or supporting its video game efforts. This is all about the streaming wars, which are heating up. %!s()

Witcher 3 Remastered release date

The Witcher 3 Remastered release date

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launches on September 29, 2026. That's only a month away from the day it was announced, which is a treat! It was revealed just before the teaser trailer for the new expansion Songs of the Past, but that's not coming until 2027.

The remaster is a free update and the original DLCs are now free

The Witcher 3 Remastered will replace the current "Complete Edition" on storefronts when it launches in September. It will also be a free upgrade for anyone who already owns the base game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The original two story expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine have also been made free for all base game owners in an update the same day as the remaster announcement.

There's a good chance you do already have those expansions either from the Game of the Year edition years back or the more recent Complete Edition that's been the default version for sale since 2022. If not though, they're yours now!

Witcher 3 Remastered features

Here's what CDPR told PC Gamer about the remaster

Our own Josh Wolens got to see The Witcher 3 Remastered (and the Songs of the Past expansion) played at Gamescom in August and talked with CDPR about the upgrades a bit.

CDPR's executive producer of external projects Jakub Kutrzuba told Josh that it wanted to think about what The Witcher 3 would play like if it were launching in 2026.

"We put a lot of our time into how the game actually plays," says Kutrzuba. "So, the animation system, the camera work, small quality of life improvements, accessibility changes, enemy behaviour in combat, maybe the pathfinding for the roads, etcetera—these are areas of the game which we know could cause some frustration here and there.

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

"We went through all of them and asked ourselves, 'What can we do about it, without rebuilding the game from scratch?' And we have changed a lot… the game just plays smoother, you know? There's no immersion-breakers anymore, I would say."

What's new in the remaster?

At the end of its announcement trailer, CDPR listed a ton of changes coming in the remaster. A lot of the inscrutable acronyms here are graphics tech to do with making the game prettier, which is great, but does pad out the list with relatively minor changes like "improved motion blur."

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She joined the PCG staff in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years. %!s()

August 26, 2026 12:49pm

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Amazon MGM Studios has tapped Carina Walker as its head of YA programming, completing the leadership team under TV chief Peter Friedlander.

Walker will take charge a growing segment of Amazon MGM’s TV output, including Prime Video series Sterling Point, Off Campus and the upcoming Boys of Tommen, among others. She takes over as head of YA from Jen Chambers, who departed in a July reorganization of Friedlander’s exec team — the second such effort Friedlander, head of global TV for Amazon MGM, has undertaken this year.

“Carina has a collective 9.5 years at Amazon where she’s worked across drama, international and most recently developed a deep understanding of the YA space,” Friedlander wrote in a memo announcing Walker’s appointment (read it in full below). “Her strong talent relationships and creative instincts can be seen in the development of shows like Off Campus, Every Year After, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. With an upcoming slate of huge BookTok IP and voice-driven talent, Carina is the perfect choice to lead this industry-leading vertical.”

Walker is in her second stint at Amazon MGM, most recently as a senior drama development executive. In between her two tenures there, she was a development executive at Apple TV working on international content.

Friedlander reorganized Amazon MGM’s TV structure into genre-based teams earlier this year. Walker’s hire, along with recently named comedy head Andy Weil, completes a group that also includes Kara Smith (drama), Blair Fetter (“worldbuilding,” i.e. sci-fi and fantasy), Jenn Levy (unscripted) and Melissa Wolfe (animation).

Friedlander’s note to staff is below.

Team,

I’m excited to share that Carina Walker has been named Head of YA.

Carina has a collective 9.5 years at Amazon where she’s worked across drama, international and most recently developed a deep understanding of the YA space. Her strong talent relationships and creative instincts can be seen in the development of shows like Off Campus, Every Year After, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. With an upcoming slate of huge BookTok IP and voice-driven talent, Carina is the perfect choice to lead this industry-leading vertical.

With Carina’s appointment alongside Andy Weil as Head of Comedy, our creative leadership team is now fully in place: Kara Smith (Drama), Blair Fetter (Worldbuilding), Carina Walker (Young Adult), Andy Weil (Comedy), Jenn Levy (Nonfiction), and Melissa Wolfe (Animation). This is the team that will define the next chapter of our storytelling.

Please join me in congratulating Carina. I know she’s excited about what’s ahead — and I am too.

Peter

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