Steve Harvey, Miss Universe host, mistakenly gives crown to wrong contestant
Posted December 20, 2015 10:38 pm.
Last Updated December 21, 2015 6:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Miss Universe contestant from the Philippines is this year’s winner but for one brief moment, it appeared as if it might be a repeat win for Colombia.
Colombia contestant Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo was already wearing the crown as this year’s Miss Universe winner when host Steve Harvey returned to apologize.
Harvey says it was his mistake and that he would take responsibility for not reading the card correctly that named contestant Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach this year’s winner and Colombia the first runner-up.
A mystified Wurtzbach appeared stunned as she walked to the front of the stage alongside the crown-wearing Arevalo before last year’s Miss Universe from Colombia removed the crown and placed it on Wurtzbach’s head instead.
Harvey managed to make it worse by spelling both Colombia and Philippines incorrectly on Twitter, tweeting “I want to apologize emphatically to Miss Philippians and Miss Columbia. This was a terribly honest human mistake and I so regretful.”
Harvey wasn’t the only one making typos. Show executives put a picture of the official winner card up on the big screen inside the Axis Theatre to show that it was in fact an honest mistake by Harvey. Officials misspelled the word “elimination,” writing “elminination” instead.
