While hosting Sunday night’s Miss Universe 2015 pageant, Steve Harvey made one of the most awkward blunders in television history when he announced the wrong winner.
The comedian announced Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, as winner of the competition. As the beauty queen stood onstage celebrating her victory, Harvey looked as though he realized he made an embarrassing mistake, and he had.
“I have to apologize,” he told the crowd. “The first runner-up is Colombia.”
Miss Colombia’s smile instantly turned sour as she realized that Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, was the actual winner.
“This is exactly what’s on the card,” Harvey said. “I will take responsibility for this. It was my mistake. It was on the card … Please don’t hold it against the ladies.”
The show ended on an strange note, with Miss Colombia being decrowned and a confused-looking Miss Philippines being crowned Miss Universe 2015.
Fox ends the broadcast right as Miss Philippines finally gets the crown pic.twitter.com/GIkUy1OYz7
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) December 21, 2015
A photo of the card from which Harvey erroneously read has been circulating on Twitter, causing some to find it understandable that the television host got confused.
ICYMI: Here’s the card Steve Harvey got handed & announced Miss Colombia as the winner pic.twitter.com/VlGMms6mfl
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 21, 2015
Harvey took to Twitter to apologize for the mistake, although he later deleted the original tweet, possibly due to misspelling both countries.
Ouch. Watch the entire cringy moment on the next page.
