Steve Harvey's Miss Universe winner error will live in TV pageant infamy
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Version 0 of 1. On stage at the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas on Sunday night, the two finalists clutched hands, waiting for the host to read out the name of the winner. Announced as the winner, Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutiérrez Arévalo, stepped forward to deafening cheers from the crowd. Ensconced in the majesty of it all, the beauty queen smiled and waved a little Colombian flag. For one shining moment, Miss Colombia was crowned Miss Universe. Until the pageant’s host, Steve Harvey, realized he had misread the cue card. “I have to apologize,” he said, as the crowd continued to whistle and cheer. Gutiérrez laughed, blissfully unaware of her impending misfortune. “The first runner-up is Colombia,” Harvey announced, in a moment that will surely live in pageant infamy. Pia Wurtzbach, Miss Philippines, looked around in disbelief as Miss USA, Olivia Jordan, grasped her arm as if to convince her that what was happening was real. “Miss Universe 2015 is Philippines,” the usually unflappable host declared. With the music pulsing again, a still-astonished Wurtzbach awkwardly made her way to the front of the stage. Harvey, a comedian and television host, apologized effusively for the blunder and showed the card to the cameras. “Horrible mistake, but the right thing,” he said. “I can show it to you right here. The first runner-up is Colombia.” Wurtzbach swiftly took her place at the front next to Gutiérrez, who was still wearing the crown and Miss Universe sash. Miss Colombia then dipped slightly to allow last year’s winner, Paulina Vega, also from Colombia, to remove the crown and place it on the true winner’s head. After the event, Gutiérrez graciously thanked her fans for their support. “Everything happens for a reason, so I’m happy,” Gutiérrez said, wiping away tears. “I’m happy for all what I did for [realizing] this dream.” The road to the #MissUniverse crown is never easy. A message from Miss Universe 2015, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach. https://t.co/GO7VBf45MW With a mix of excitement and shock, Wurtzbach searched for the words to express what had just taken place on stage. “It’s a very, um, nontraditional crowning moment,” said Wurtzbach, in an interview after the pageant. “Very 2015.” The organization apologized to the women, characterizing the mistake as a pitfall of live television. “Unfortunately, a live telecast means that human error can come into play,” the Miss Universe Organization said in a statement. “We witnessed that tonight when the wrong winner was initially announced. Our sincerest apologies to Miss Universe Colombia, and Miss Universe Philippines, their families and fans. We congratulate Miss Philippines as Miss Universe 2015.” pic.twitter.com/rg85IdU6Wa Harvey, too, used Twitter to apologize to the two women, initially misspelling the names of their countries as “Philippians” and “Columbia”. In a corrected tweet, he wrote: “I’d like to apologize wholeheartedly to Miss Colombia & Miss Philippines for my huge mistake. I feel terrible.” He added: “Secondly, I’d like to apologize to the viewers at that I disappointed as well. Again it was an honest mistake.” For many years, Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, owned a portion of the Miss Universe Organization. He recently sold his stake in the organization to the WME-IMG talent agency after falling out with the television partners who broadcast the organization’s Miss America pageant. NBC severed business ties with Trump over offensive comments the Republican candidate made about Mexican immigrants during his presidential campaign. On Monday morning, Trump used Twitter to gloat about what might have been had he still had a role in the pageant: Very sad what happened last night at the Miss Universe Pageant. I sold it 6 months ago for a record price. This would never have happened! Asked during a morning talk show interview what he would have done differently, Trump said that that he would have allowed Miss Colombia and Miss Philippines to share the crown. “I would make them a co-winner,” Trump told NBC’s Matt Lauer on Monday. “Because, you know, what happened to the girl, to Colombia, is devastating – go give it to her for a couple of minutes and then take it away … You know, last year we had a young woman also from Colombia. The entire country, they took a vacation for about a week. The whole country was wild, so you can imagine what happened.” In a prelude to the disastrous Miss Universe 2015, Miss Puerto Rico, Destiny Vélez, was suspended indefinitely after posting a series of anti-Muslim messages on Twitter last week. The beauty queen’s rant was in response to a tweet from political film-maker Michael Moore, who had encouraged people to join his campaign in solidarity with Muslims around the world. Vélez’s account has since been disabled, but screengrabs capturing the rant were widely shared. In one, Vélez wrote: “All what Muslims have done is provided oil & terrorize this country & many others.” Her messages sparked a fiery backlash on Twitter, and gave rise to the hashtag “#nonosrepresentas”, which roughly translates to “you don’t represent us”. “I apologize to the people I have offended with my words ... The last thing I wanted to do was to bully anyone,” Vélez said in a statement released by the Miss Puerto Rico Organization. “Again, I apologize to anyone who felt offended with my words.” The Miss America Organization also distanced itself from Vélez, saying in a statement that it did “not agree with and does not in any way condone” the comments and is working with her to “resolve the issue”. |