adminThe Miss Universe 2015 contest held last weekend ended in confusion and disarray after the host, Steve Harvey, mistakenly named the wrong contestant as the winner. After Gutierrez-Arévalo from Colombia was crowned and was performing the ritual wave to the audience inside the Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino, a mortified Harvey came back on stage to deliver the awkward and devastating news.
“The first runner-up is Colombia,” Harvey said.
“OK, folks, um, I’ve to apologise,” he said, walking back on stage while Arevalo was proudly waving to fans, holding the winner’s bouquet and wearing the Miss Universe sash.
“The first runner-up is Colombia,” he went on, “Miss Universe 2015 is Philippines.”
The camera panned straight to a stunned Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, who started slowly walking to the front of the stage. For a few awkward moments the two women stood side by side, in front of a TV audience of millions from around the world, before Harvey explained that he read the card naming the winner and runner-up in the wrong order.
“I’ll 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,” he said, holding up the card.
“It’s 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.”
As he spoke, outgoing Miss Universe Paulina Vega, ironically from Colombia, quickly fulfilled the dubious obligation of removing the crown from Arevalo and placing it on the rightful winner. The broadcast ended moments later.
The reaction on social media was swift, with viewers expressing dismay at the “fail of the decade”.
“Talk about awkward,” described one Twitter user who “couldn’t help” but find the gaffe “hilarious”.
Another user, Mark Critch from Canada, said: “And the winner is – Miss Information.”
“That was poorly handled. Both of these gorgeous ladies deserve an apology because that was embarrassing for both of them. I literally felt both of their pain,” read a top Facebook comment by Lemmy Cliff on the pageant’s fan page.
Efforts by Harvey to apologise for the mix up on Twitter did not go well as he misspelled both Colombia and Philippines in the tweet, which was later deleted.
“I want to apologize emphatically to Miss Philippians and Miss Columbia. This was a terribly honest human mistake and I’m so regretful,” tweeted Harvey.
The newly crowned queen told journalists she wishes the 1st runner up well following the incident.
“I’m very sorry, I didn’t take the crown from her and I wish her well in whatever she wants to pursue after this pageant,” Wurtzbach said.
“Everything happens for a reason so I’m happy for all that I did.”
At the end of the night, Gutierrez was named first runner-up followed by Olivia Jordan from the United States.
NBC Universal and Donald Trump co-owned the Miss Universe Organisation until earlier this year. The real estate developer offended Latin Americans in June when he made anti-immigrant remarks in announcing his Republican presidential run. That led Spanish-language network Univision to pull out of the broadcast for what would have been the first of five years airing the pageants and NBC to cut business ties with Trump.
The former star of the “Celebrity Apprentice” reality show sued both companies, settling with NBC in September, which included buying the network’s stake in the pageants. That same month, Trump sold the organisation that includes the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants to entertainment company WME-IMG.
This is not the first time the wrong woman has been named winner of a high-profile beauty pageant. In 2010 during a live television broadcast, Australian host Sarah Murdoch read out the wrong name in the finale of Australia’s Next Top Model. – Guardian.
Online Reporter