in 2004, channel 12 tv launched a call for young women to enter a reality show (produced by the same channel) in which the representative for el salvador in the miss universe pageant would be chosen in a national contest. the concept of the reality show was to conduct trials before the contest to see who would be eliminated in the course of fourteen episodes, and to select fourteen of them to represent one of each of the fourteen departments of the country. the contest lasted five months and involved twenty-eight contestants.