Desi Today Magazine
There was an awkward and unusual end to the annual Miss Universe pageant this year as millions tuned in all over the world to watch what has been called one of the biggest blunders in TV history, by none other than Family Fued’s eccentric host, Steve Harvey.
Harvey was hosting the Miss Universe pageant this past weekend on Sunday December 20th, and as the show was coming to an end and a winner was soon to be announced, Harvey began by announcing the second runner up, who wins 3rd place in the pageant, therefore the 1st runner up would come in 2nd place leaving the remaining woman to be the winner. Harvey made the mistake of prematurely announcing the winner as Adriana Gutierrez Arevalo, Miss Colombia, who was actually listed as the 1st runner up on Harvey’s cue card. In the midst of crowning Arevalo as Miss Universe, the host had returned to apologize for his error.
“Ok, folks, um I have to apologize” Harvey announced as Miss Colombia was happily waving to the Las Vegas crowd in her Miss Universe sash and crown, basking in her false victory. “The first runner-up is Colombia, Miss Universe 2015 is Philippines”
Now at this moment, Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, was barely able to enjoy her well deserved win as she was stunned and astonished, alongside the rest of the world at what had just happened. Her reaction was very telling of how most people felt at that very moment, as she awkwardly and slowly made her way to the stage. While Harvey explained to the audience and the millions of viewers at home that he had read the 1st runner up and the winner in the wrong order, the two women awkwardly stood side by side, not knowing what to do.
“I will take responsibility for this, it was my mistake,” he told the crowd. “It’s on the card … horrible mistake, but I can show it to you right here,” Harvey said holding up the card.
“It is my mistake, but it’s still a great night.”
“Please don’t hold it against the ladies, please don’t. I feel so badly but it’s still a great night.” he finished.
To make matters worse, there was the act of decrowning Arevalo and crowning Wurtzbach as the real winner, which the previous Miss Universe winner had the unwarranted privilege of doing. The network immediately ended the broadcast moments later to avoid more damage.
There was an uproar on social media against Harvey, with endless mocking pictures and videos depicting the situation. Harvey proceeded to take to twitter to apologize once again for the error, only to have misspelt both countries, which furthermore lead to ridicule.
There is speculation that this may have been a publicity stunt to gain more viewers, as Miss Universe was recently dropped from Spanish-language channel Univision to pull out of broadcasting the show due to some racist remarks made by previous pageant owner, Donald Trump. While this may be one of the conspiracy theories behind this event, Steve Harvey seemed to have been genuine when apologizing, and after all, he is only human and everyone makes mistakes, maybe not in front of millions of people, but they still happen.
