The CW has withdrawn from broadcasting the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants just days before they were due to air, forcing the events back onto a streaming platform. The Miss USA Organization said the decision stemmed from a "contractual issue with our production arrangements", which it had identified two weeks earlier and had been trying to resolve to keep the live broadcast on The CW, but the two sides could not agree terms in time.

Miss Teen USA had been scheduled to air on 26 August and Miss USA on 27 August; both will now stream instead on the Queen Beauty Network, a digital outlet specialising in pageant and fashion content, which also carried last year's events after a similar breakdown. The CW confirmed it would not carry the broadcasts and wished the organisation and contestants well, but referred questions about the contractual dispute back to Miss USA, which had not responded by publication. The network had aired Miss USA in 2023 and 2024 under a announced three-year deal, and a new agreement for the 2026 competitions was struck as recently as June, only for it to collapse weeks before the event.