SC Showrunner cuts ties with Miss USA amid claims of abusive management (2024)

The Aiken-based showrunner of Miss South Carolina USA decided on June 15 to cut ties with the national beauty pageant, tacking on to widespread claims of abusive mismanagement.

RPM Productions is the latest among a growing number of partner organizations — and titleholders — to leave Miss USA amid claims of strong-armed leadership and a toxic environment. The company’s decision rounded off nearly five decades of involvement with Miss USA, according to production company President Paula Miles.

RPM Productions made the decision not renew their contract with Miss USA during the 2024 Miss South Carolina USA pageant, which was hosted in North Charleston June 16-17.

Effective immediately, the company will no longer host the Miss USA pageants in South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama. This decision also marks the company’s separation from the Miss USA parent company, Miss Universe.

“We’re walking away from a business that we’ve loved and built to make a statement,” Miles said.

A person with knowledge of the exit told The Post and Courier the choice to depart resulted from the “abusive management” of Miss USA President Laylah Rose.

Miss USA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Miss USA appointed Rose, a former fashion designer, as director in August 2023 to take the reins of the organization after Crystle Stewart resigned in 2023 amid allegations of favoritism stemming from the previous year’s pageant.

While Rose was brought in to redefine the beauty contest as a vehicle for women’s empowerment, various news reports have since defined her tenure as a tumult of management shuffling, strained relationships with title holders and failures to adequately staff the organization.

Miles, who has worked with Miss USA since RPM Productions’ founding in 1979, called Rose’s leadership shuffling — with three iterations in less than six months — “unprecedented.”

“(Rose) obviously has the power to do whatever she wants, but it’s without fear of consequence,” Miles said. “I think that’s the point that she missed. Every decision she made affected hundreds, and, in some cases, thousands of people, and it appeared that that was never considered.”

The claims of Rose’s forceful leadership dovetail the back-to-back resignations of 2023 Miss USA Winner Noelia Voigt and 2023 Miss Teen USA winner UmaSofia Srivastava last month.

On May 6, Voigt resigned from her post, publicly saying it was out of a need to focus on her mental health. Her internal resignation letter, later obtained by the New York Times, claimed a “toxic work environment,” “bullying and harassment,” and delayed delivery of her prize winnings as reasons for her departure.

Then, on May 8, Srivastava resigned, sharing on social media that her views “no longer aligned” with the organization’s. Like Voigt, Srivastava also pointed to her mental health as a reason for her departure.

The exits amplified public outcry of the organization, last brought to light by the 2022 suicide of Miss USA 2019 winner and University of South Carolina alumni Chelsie Kryst.

Rose denied the allegations of bullying and sexual harassment levied against her in Voigt’s resignation letter.

“The allegations of sexual harassment, toxic environment and bullying are not true,” Rose said in the statement published in May. “To be clear, such behavior is not accepted, and we can assure you that if such behavior ever occurred, we would take immediate steps to protect our titleholder and provide access to appropriate resources.”