Talk about a “d’oh moment!” Live television is often unpredictable and accidents can (and do) happen. The latest victim of live TV oopsies is comedian Steve Harvey.
While hosting the (Trump-less) Miss Universe pageant on Sunday night, the 58-year-old host of Family Feud mistakenly announced that Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo, won the crown. Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurzbach, was left on stage thinking she was the second runner-up. While Miss Columbia was taking her victory lap, Harvey announced “I have to apologize.” At first, it almost sounded like a joke, (and you could hear some laughter from the audience) but Steve continued, “The first runner up is Columbia. Miss Universe 2015 is Philippines.”
Miss Philippines then came further downstage and stood next to Miss Columbia, who was still wearing the crown. Harvey said “Listen, folks, let me just take control of this. This is exactly what’s on the card. I will take responsibility for this…. The first runner up is Columbia… please don’t hold it against the ladies… it’s still a great night.” After that Miss Universe 2014 took the crown from Miss Columbia’s head and placed it on Miss Philippines. Poor Adrianna. She got the crown and sash for a brief moment, only to have it taken away. Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.
An apologetic Steve took to Twitter to say he was sorry, tweeting “I’d like to apologize wholeheartedly to Miss Colombia & Miss Philippines for my huge mistake. I feel terrible.” He followed up with, “Secondly, I’d like to apologize to the viewers at that I disappointed as well. Again it was an honest mistake.” He later said on Snapchat that he was misinformed about the winner because of a TelePrompTer error.
The new (actual) Miss Universe, Pia Alonzo Wurzbach had this to say of the mix-up, “None of this was done on purpose. It was an honest mistake,” she said, adding that the embarrassed host told her afterward that she “should just enjoy the moment.” The Miss Universe organization released the following statement, “The excitement of live TV was evident tonight on The Miss Universe stage with over 10 million live fan votes tabulated. Unfortunately, a live telecast means that human error can come into play. We witnessed that tonight when the wrong winner was initially announced. Our sincerest apologies to Miss Universe Colombia 2015, Ariadna Gutierrez-Arévalo, Miss Universe Philippines 2015, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, their families and fans.”
It was an honest mistake, and Steve’s fans seem to agree. It did bring attention to the pageant though, didn’t it? After the Trump scandal, I’m sure the organization didn’t mind the publicity!
This has to be publicity, right? Mess with the teleprompter, to make him mess up, and make the news? This is the only reason I know it was on last night…. I can’t be the only one.
I never thought of that. You guys are nice about his Twitter post. He said he apologized to Miss Phillipians and Miss Columbia for the error.
I feel bad for him for that embarrassment but I had to chuckle at Miss Phillipians.
Well we now know he tweets his own tweets.
Donald Trump suggested having the ladies share the crown as co- winners.
It’s also Colombian, not Columbian.
@thesagem, yes I’m aware of the correct spelling. I intentionally spelled it the same as it was in the tweet. I highlighted the Phillipians because I thought that was funnier.
Lama Bean, please dont feel bad for this awful sexist!!! Can you believe he is being rewarded for his woman hating ways with a career revival? Aside from that ridiculously named book and Hollywood film, “Think like a man, act like a woman” (SERIOUSLY, Hollywood?!!), he also has a talk show whos sole purpose is to remind women their place and excuse bad male behavior. Its fitting that he is now also hosting this bovine market show.
So enjoy every moment of his humilation. Whatever he is going through is nothing compared to what he said to some woman on his show who was resisting her husbands ultimatum on getting a breast lift. He told her she should view her fear of surgery as a summountable challenge and “do whatever it takes to fix her marriage”. I repeat….PLEASE DONT FEEL SORRY FOR THIS DOUCHE.
Cedric The Entertainer is that you?
Ha!!
Yo atleast Cedric was occassionally funny. Who knows who Steve Harvey slept with to score that yawntastic “sitcom”. Now he shows up on televangelist shows faux-sobbing about what a sinner he still is. Just be a better human being you douche.
Listen up, non- black people and black people who are blessedly free of Steve Harvey news, he is a terrible man. We should all join together in hoping that a hole would open up and swallow him up whole.
My thoughts too. This is the most we’ve heard about the Miss Universe pageant in a long, long time. How many people could have actually told you it was on TV last night if this hadn’t happened?
@Bridget, I said the same thing as well. Can anyone name last year’s winner?
If I were the organization, I will have him host again next year, ratings will be through the roof because people will tune in to see if he will make a mistake.
Too big of an error to be on purpose. This could and apparently already has brought real threats against Harvey and his family. It got scary really quickly! I can’t imagine that would be agreed upon. And ruining the moment for both ladies.
I don’t know… it’s a dying institution. They’ve gotten be desperate at this point.
It didn’t involve a teleprompter, he was reading off a card.
The card is a prop and backup. There is always prompter.
And the card was correct.
There is always a producer in not only talent’s ear, but the ear of everyone on the production: stage managers, camera, etc. If you grant him that he “misspoke” and announced the wrong winner, it still doesn’t explain how she was crowned and did the walk with producers talking to everyone, everywhere.
I’m not buying this. I fear this was a publicity stunt gone wrong.
I agree with Miss Melissa, but it just seems so cruel the way they made Miss Columbia hand over that crown. Sheesh. And it’s still not going to make me tune in next year.
There is no teleprompter for announcing the winner, it was already said. I really hope it was an error n not some publicity by Trump to boost ratings. Feel for Miss Columbia.
He also misspelled Philippines and Colombia in his initial tweet.
Aw, buddy. I feel bad for Steve. He gets a “big” job and its just a mess for him.
I feel bad for him, in this instance. But I also think he’s a crappy human, so my sympathy only extends so far.
Aw come on, Im pretty sure it was autocorrect.
And then the writer of this post misspelled Colombia a bunch of times too.
Ariadna’s name also got misspelled as Adrianna.
It was a mistake.. I saw the card that showed the winner and it was not done well. It did look like it was showing 1 and 2. with 1 being the winner.. The winner was at the bottom of the card to the right.. So I can see how that was confusing. But nobody died.. it was a mistake
I saw some reports saying they should Share the title. WHY?.. Yes the woman that lose is disappointed. But she didn’t win; despite the mistake. It is not necessary to go over the top to protect someones feelings. She is going to get way more attention than the actual winner. So things will work out for her.
But Social Media as predicted is going NUTS. Get ready for a couple of weeks of this.
Welcome to what happens now when you misstep.
Ok that would be confusing! I’d probably do it too!
I have never understood why they don’t say in third place Miss USA,in second place Miss Colombia and the winner…
Just let both women take photos and represent Miss Universe charities for the year.
We’ve all had snafus and gaffes, just not on (inter)national television. Be embarrassed, set things right, then move on with life.
I would be MORTIFIED! Harvey messed up and admitted it, but it doesn’t undo it.
To have both ladies walk up to transfer crown seemed too far and humiliating.
What a bitter sweet win too. You can’t be happy when someone is crying horribly near you.
And i’m curious by Miss C’s comments later trying to make sure people don’t blame her. Why would people blame her?
That’s Colombia for you honey. She was just being proactive since the whole country is losing its damn mind over this. You should see my FB feed all full with racist comments about the presenter and filled with outraged for our stealed crown.
Wow. That’s unfortunate. And stupid. I can’t.
Yeah the racist comments are really disgusting and frustrating, it certainly puts a sour taste in my mouth.
They take their pageants pretty seriously in Latin America. This must have been truly humiliating for Miss Colombia.
They suck. Ant the worst part is when people get outraged at being called racist. “I have many black friends” is the default defense. It is truly revolting. But like I said, that’s Colombia for ya! the country of the sacred heart is full of contradiction and irony,
He should have also apologized for his jacket….
lmaooooooooooooooooooooooo
We happened to be flipping channels when it all went down. All I can say is if you look up the word “awkward” in the dictionary…there is a video of this moment. Cringe city.
At least she can say she WAS crowned miss universe. She doesn’t need to say how long she held the title. That’s a way better story for the grandkids than just being first runner up from the get go!
it will be one of those “well technically…..” pub quiz question one day.
I was watching and it felt like a movie haha
It was so embarrassing, but at least he owned it up and call the right winner.
I dont know if it was staged or not, he looked really embarrassed, but Ive never followed him so I dont know.
Im just glad Phillipines won over Sofia Vergara .2.
Me too! I was channel surfing and ending up sticking on it, it was so surreal when they switched crowns. I thought Miss Colombia looked exactly like Sofia Vergara 2.0, and while she is beautiful, I’m glad Miss Philippines won
Knowing how this things usually go and how little interest there has been in this show for years now, I’m fairly certain this was not a mistake. Even the VMA’s are encouraging their stars to do something that would get more publicity for the awards and Miss Universe needs it badly.
The girl were probably not on the joke, but Steve and the producers coming up with this little mishap is a very plausible scenario. Nothing wrong with that – the girls will get over and the show is all over the news, mission accomplished.
Yes, this was embarrassing. But what is even 1000x more embarrassing is that a show that parades women around and rates them still exists.
This. Why does this trash still exist in 2015?
Pet peeve: when people spell it Columbia. It’s Colombia. Please fix in the article!
Yesssssss! Please, PLEASE spell it correctly. Co-LOM-bia.
I did not know that was the correct spelling. I’m making a note to myself – I think having to write out British Columbia so much in grade school (while learning the provinces) has got me used to the incorrect spelling.
That was one of the most awkward tv moments ever. Those poor ladies both looked mortified. Eh…they will both laugh at this someday.
I didn’t watch it on T.V. last night, but I heard about this on the radio this morning on the way to work. They said this isn’t the first time this has happened because the card the emcee reads the winner from lists the four runners up and the one to be crowned last. The first on the list is actually 5th place (4th runner up) but because they’re listed first, the emcee thinks they’re the winner.
I would think they would change the order of how they’re listed on the card or have a rehearsal where the listing is explained.
Great job Steve!
Yep, this is not a big deal – especially considering what women are going through right this very moment in other parts of the world.
oh, ffs. That is obviously true about every single article on Celebitchy. Why on earth are you here if you are going to make comparisons to atrocities happening all over the world? Compared to that stuff NONE of this is important, and we all damn well know it.
She was just pointing out the fact that it’s not important in the grand scheme of things. Calm down. Is it just me or are people on this site extremely touchy and/or aggressive lately?
I think it’s ridiculous that they still have the pageant.
This. People so upset about this, wouldn’t like to see how they would deal with actual problems.
At least this tho: it provides jobs to a lot of people
The worst part is the people so angry and obsessed with this competition that Steve Harvey’s Twitter feed is now full of furious Colombians calling him a monkey and the n-word.
It’s sad how countries struggling in other aspects use these competitions as a way to have national pride and as a result become way too aggressive when it doesn’t go their way.
Allow me to clarify. The contest in itself is not important, but ANYTHING is a good excuse to be racist.
Racism in Latin American has never been addressed, so people go wild with no consequences.
It’s like when there are floods and, in some countries, and in some parts of the population, they run to grab plasma TVs and videogames; they see it as an opportunity and take it.
You mean just like riots and looting in the U.S. whenever a population is upset about a verdict or even a frickin’ sports loss? Sorry, but that is not just Latin America. It’s everywhere, and our dear America is no different. There will always be people with an opportunist mindset and there will always be racist people itchinig to pounce…in every country….in every age.
Its time to stop this stupid pagent
Thank you! I agree. It’s like we’re back in the 50’s or something. The funniest part of this story was the first tweet Steve Harvey sent. The tweet included in this piece is the second tweet. The first tweet misspelled Colombia and the Philippines. Who watches this stuff?
This happened a few years ago in Australia’s Next Top Model.
A girl won and they then said it was a mistake! So embarrassing! Youtube it “antm wrong winner announced”
Listening to some of the morning talk show. They asked who won last year’s Ms Universe, I bet you, no one knows. Who hosted it? Bet you, no one knows. Yet, here we are discussing Ms Universe, which I did not know still exists.
Can we also discuss the fact that no one can make a mistake anymore, social media just amplifies it and beats you over the head with it. It becomes a very dangerous society when everyone fears mistakes, because no one will take risks anymore.
If I were Ms Universe organization, I would have him come host next year because it will certainly increase the ratings.
Sofia vergara is that you?
I hate beauty pageants but I felt bad for everyone.
I deffo think this was for attention, nobody cares about this pageant anymore. What’s funny is, they HAD to take the crown off the Colombian contestant. Colombia and Venezuela are probably the 2 only countries in the whole world that still care about these pageants.
Totally set up, IMO. Look at the micro expressions and body language in all of the images, when Colombia was getting the crown put on her head. I’ll never believe this really happened accidentally
Who watches these stupid pageants anymore? I think this was done on purpose. It’s all about getting people on twitter to “talk” and make stupid memes. That is what our world has come to. I also think we need to end these stupid pageants. Yes, walk around in a bikini on national TV while judges rate your body out of ten. Stupid.
It’s COLOMBIA, guys.
I felt so terrible for the girl from Colombia, she didn’t seem to know what the hell was going on.
This contest needs to go. No one needs to live in a society where women fight to be crowned the most beautiful of their land. These are some tweets made by politicians after the mix up:
“Even President Juan Manuel Santos had something to say. During the ceremony he tweeted: ‘Colombians are the most beautiful in the world! Congratulations @gutierrezary miss universe 2016!!!! I am proud!'”
and
Former President Alvaro Uribe, tweeted: “All our support to our Queen, her dignity is that of the Colombian woman, the mistreatment is to all the citizens.”
Are you f-cking kidding me? It’s an insult to a country that “their” woman wasn’t crowned or an accident occurred? The fault I’m finding isn’t even with Colombia, it’s with any country who would seriously act like it’s a personal insult that a woman they’re treating as a show horse didn’t get best in show.
This entire concept is gross and antiquated. And now there is a slew of racism being hurled at Steve Harvey. Nothing positive comes out of this crap.
It’s a dog and pony show of the human variety to keep the masses quiet and from focusing on how their country repeatedly screws them over. Same with FIFA and sports.
People obsess over who really won and who scored what goal while the rate of poverty skyrockets and there’s no infrastructure.
I agree Daria. I can’t believe we’re still parading women in evening dresses and crowns and sashes around a stage and judging them on their “poise.” It’s so revolting.
A cringeworthy moment yes, but mistakes happen. I don’t get the outrage, against Steve Harvey or anyone else. What’s with the pitchfork mentality lately. People losing their damn minds over things that are not that serious.
I hope to f##cking God they do something with this at the golden globes this year!!!!!!!
It wasn’t done on purpose. It was just an honest mistake, not sure about the teleprompter, but I saw the card he was reading off of and I could see how the mistake could be made. Miss Colombia was in a big font, while the actual winner was in a smaller font beneath it. This isn’t the first time something like this happened, nor will it be the last. It happens, people make mistakes. At least it was corrected pretty quickly.
It would have been nice though if someone could have pulled Miss Colombia aside and told her before announcing it to the live audience.
As a producer of big live TV-shows in my country, I can say that mistakes like that can definitely happen, but the fact that it was carried out for so long (Miss Colombia making a victory lap) makes me think it was somewhat planned.
If such a mistake happens, the presenter is corrected immediately (there are plan A, plan B and plan C how to react) and the TV audience usually do not see anything because all the big live shows are delayed and the mistakes are edited out.
Agreed. They just wanted some press. This show is becoming more irrelevant with every passing year. They need to stay afloat and generate some noise.
This makes me feel better. I was seriously sad for Miss Colombia, even if her face looks too fake to be in such a contest.
What a mess and an honest mistake, I’m sure, but what rubbed me the wrong way is that SG didn’t say Miss before Colombia and Philippines when making the announcement. It’s like calling someone by their surname only.
I didn’t care for how Miss Universe 2014 handled the crown handover. Her face was priceless.
Steve Harvey is an idiot !! How the hell did he read the wrong name ? I don’t understand exactly how the mistake was made !?
All I know is, I gotta hand it to Miss Colombia. If that was me and they told me I wasn’t really the winner and then TOOK THE CROWN RIGHT OFF MY HEAD , I either would have ran away before they could take it or just started crying even if I was trying very hard not to because of the cameras.
I give her alot of credit for being so poised. That had to be tough !
And probably really tough not to strangle Steve Harvey ! LOL
“How the hell did he read the wrong name?” Cause Miss Colombia had a bigger butt. She’s problably the one he wanted to win. Watch her be on his show now….
Steve didn’t attend the rehearsal.
What I think is worse than making the Live Television error are his Twitter remarks, which show his lack of education. Some celebrities should just stay off Twitter.
The only thing worse than our country still supporting contests based on a woman’s face and body is the fact that one of our presidential candidates owns it! Trump thinks laying low during this year’s Miss Universe pageant will make us forget he owns it or something.
He no longer owns it Jennifer…sold it.