What prompted independent cable channel Reelz to grab the rights to the 2015 Miss USA Pageant, dropped by NBC and Univision’s UniMas following derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants made by Donald Trump? Aside from a fire sale price, “I think we did the right thing by stepping up to this,” CEO Stan E. Hubbard tells Cynopsis. “The city of Baton Rouge and the state of Louisiana put up a lot of money to hold this pageant, and all the women who have been looking forward to competing shouldn’t have to pay a price for a political controversy.” As for advertisers, “Just having 11 days notice is tough anyway. As we’ve been reaching out to brands and agencies we hear they applaud what we’re doing, but are wary of taking a chance with their brands. We knew going in we might have no advertising. But it’s live, and it’s big and there aren’t too many iconic TV events that are available for an independent network like ours. We’re not kidding ourselves thinking we’ll have the viewership NBC would have had, but I think we’ll have good viewership.” Hubbard has distanced himself from Trump, calling the presidential candidate’s remarks “insensitive and wrong,” but notes, “controversy opens up opportunities. There may be more attention paid to this pageant than there has been for decades.” Pageant is set to air Sunday, July 12.