For each "competition", the lowest score and highest score is thrown out and the remaining scores averaged. So even if Mr. Hilton did rank Miss Prejean last, his score should not have kept Miss Prejean from winning.
And apparently, Mr. Hilton wasn't the only judge displeased with Miss Prejean.
After hearing the answer, [Alicia] Jacobs, a former Miss Nevada USA [and judge], writes on her
blog,
"if I could have made her 51st runner-up, I would have."
She goes on to say
"I fault her [Miss Prejean] for her complete lack of social grace, and that's a quality I want my Miss USA to posses. If Prejean had been at a dinner party attended by people with whom she was not familiar, and the subject of Gay marriage came up, would she have made that same statement? Would she have stifled her response so as not to offend anyone at the dinner table? I wonder?"
In her blog, she alludes that other judges felt the same way.
"Going into the finals, she was in 3rd place in swimsuit and 2nd place in the evening gown competition."