The Miss Universe
2015 contest has ended in confusion and disarray after the host mistakenly
named the wrong woman as the winner.
Ariadna
Gutierrez Arevalo from Colombia had already been crowned and was standing on
stage to cheers from the Las
Vegas audience when mortified
host Steve Harvey returned to announce the error.
“OK,
folks, um, I have to apologize,” 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, infront 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
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,” he
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.”
As
he spoke, a former Miss Universe winner quickly removed the crown from Arevalo
and placed it on Wurtzbach. The broadcast ended moments later.
The
reaction on social media was swift, with viewers expressing dismay at the “fail
of the decade”. Miss Colombia looked visibly upset by the incident after it
unfolded on live television. Later, Wurtzbach
told reporters that she wished Arevalo well. “I’m very sorry, I did not take
the crown from her and I wish her well in whatever she wants to pursue after
this pageant,” she said.
Harvey’s mistake is not the first time the wrong woman
has been named the 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.
You can catch the event - here