Miss Colombia Paulina Vega (L) is crowned by Miss Universe 2014, Venezuela's Gabriela Isler
Miss Colombia Paulina Vega (L) is crowned by Miss Universe 2014, Venezuela's Gabriela Isler, at the 63rd Annual Miss Universe Pageant in Miami, Florida, January 25, 2015. REUTERS/Andrew Innerarity Reuters/Andrew Innerarity

The 64th Miss Universe Preliminaries is being held three days before the main event at the AXIS, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Erika Albies, former Miss USA Erin Brady, Julio Caro, Keiko Uraguchi, Nischelle Turner, Rocky Motwani and Zak Soreff are judging the prelims, and Emmy-winner Steve Harvey is hosting the event.

There are 80 contestants from around the world participating in the prelims, which generally consists of various rounds, and based on their performance in each round, contestants are ranked by the judges. The top 15 contestants are then selected to appear in the final round of the pageant.

The Prelims can be watched live on the Miss Universe website, and the live feeds will be available on the official Facebook and Twitter pages of the pageant. Additionally, feeds of the preliminary competition is set to be uploaded on the pageant's YouTube channel.

This year, Monika Radulovic will be representing Australia at Miss Universe. This Bosnian-Australian model was crowned Miss Universe Australia 2015. Monika, who holds a graduate degree in Psychology, came to Australia as a refugee at the age of 2 when the war in erstwhile Yugoslav erupted. Her Miss Universe profile says that she can speak four languages, Serbian, English, Bosnian and Croatian.

So far Australia has won the pageant twice -- in 1972, Kerry Anne Wells was crowned Miss Universe, and in 2004, Jennifer Hawkins was declared the winner. Jennifer is currently the host of “Australia’s Next Top Model.”

The finals will be held on Dec. 20.

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