Binibining Pilipinas Crowns: Intercontinental demoted, Supranational and Grand upgraded

PUBLISHED ON May 1, 2017

Binibining Pilipinas has decided that Miss Supranational and Miss Grand International are now more important than the Intercontinental crown.

Why does the order of the crowns matter? 

In Binibining Pilipinas, the announcement order of winners matters. Although there are 6 “winners”, it is commonly known that Miss Universe Philippines is the most prestigious title, while Miss Globe Philippines is the least.

It is the same in some other pageants, such as Miss Earth. Although the organizers publicly stated that “all elemental crowns are equal”, we all know that Miss Earth Fire translates to “3rd runner-up”, while Miss Earth Air is the actual “1st runner-up”.

In the previous edition Binibining Pilipinas 2016, the order of crowns was “Universe – International – Intercontinental – Supranational – Grand International – Globe”.

But last night, it changed to: “Universe – International – Supranational – Grand International – Intercontinental – Globe”.

Why did it change? 

It is easy to understand.

First, in terms of production, Miss Supranational and Miss Grand International are clearly superior to Miss Intercontinental.

You can easily search YouTube videos of these pageants to compare. While Supranational and Grand International are glamorous and exciting, Intercontinental seems boring and its production quality does not even match a national pageant.

Second, Supranational and Grand International acquire more media exposure and fans. This is the result of their high-quality shows and the commitment of the respective organizations in Poland and Thailand to strengthen their brands.

Some people might argue that this is a bad move. Miss International is known as a sleepy show, but why didn’t BPCI demote it? They might say the newly promoted pageants are “too young”: Miss Supranational started in 2009, while Miss Grand debuted in 2013. In contrast, Miss Intercontinental was first held in 1973, so it is supposed to have more legacy.

Not quite.

While Miss International has a consistent history dating back since 1960, Miss Intercontinental did not have the same thing. This is also the reason why I don’t consider Intercontinental as a major pageant.

In brief, Miss Intercontinental did not start as “Intercontinental” at all. It debuted as Miss Teenage Peace International in Aruba. It then changed names a few times.

In some years, the results of Miss Intercontinental were not fully documented, with missing information on the competing delegates. (http://www.pageantopolis.com/1992-1999.html)

In 1992, there  were even 2 Miss Intercontinental pageants, one in Nigeria and one in Germany!

Therefore, it is understandable that the crown order changed when BPCI believed Supranational and Grand International were more worthy international titles to send their delegates to.

You can view more details of Miss Intercontinental here http://www.pageantopolis.com/1973-1979.html

(The same problem is faced by the “Miss Globe” brand. There are 2 separate pageants with the same “Globe” titles, one in Albania and one in Turkey. Binibining Pilipinas currently sends the delegate to the Albanian edition.)

https://pageantstudies.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/binibining-pilipinas-crowns-intercontinental-demoted-supranational-and-grand-upgraded/