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Still a Great Night? Biggest Live TV Blunder of All Time?

OMG, the announcer made a mistake announcing the winner of Miss Universe. He announced the winner was Ms. Colombia.

After the applause they crowned Ms. Colombia, and she was waving to the crowd with her flowers and little flag of Colombia when the show host came back to the stage and said "Ok Folks, I have to apologize, the First Runner is Colombia. Ms. Universe 2015 is Philippines."

He read the wrong name. Ms. Colombia, who doesn't speak English and used an interpreter all night, had no idea what happened. Either did Ms. Philippines, the intended winner, even though she does speak English.

[More....]

Ms. USA, who came in third, had to explain to Ms. Philippines she was the winner, it took a minute for it to sink in. The announcer than called for Ms. Philippines to come up-- he said "Philippines, take your first walk." But Ms. Colombia was still wearing the crown! The crowed booed, and Ms. Philippines froze. The host then took personal responsibility and said "it's still a great night" and don't hold it against the girls.

They sent in Ms. Universe 2014 to stand between Ms. Colombia and Ms. Philippines. She uncrowned Ms. Colombia and put the crown on Ms. Philippines, who was still frozen. The show went to black.

More than 10 million people voted during the show. Can you imagine being crowned Ms Universe on live TV in front of tens of millions of viewers, and then an announcer says in a foreign language you don't understand, "So Sorry?"

I was writing a post on the show as this happened. I'm no fan of beauty pageants, and had just landed on the show while flicking channels after Homeland ended. At the point I began watching, five semi-finalists were answering questions. (Ms. U.S.A. got a question on gun control and Ms. Colombia was asked about drug trafficking.) Since I kept the TV on as I've been writing, I was able to rewind it and recheck what happened. I've rewatched it three times, and each time, I'm more shocked.

First, I must say I really didn't care for the announcer even before his blunder. He spoke like he had marbles in his mouth. And whose decision was it for him not to call the women "Ms." but refer to them just by their country? During the personal questions, he would say, "Colombia, step on up." or "USA, Your Turn". It was demeaning, he might as well have called them "Hey You."

Here's what I had written up to that moment. Now having seen the ending, my thoughts are a bit different.

Miss Universe 2014, from Colombia, is gorgeous. As for 2015, the two last contestants standing, Ms. Colombia and Ms. Philippines couldn't be more different. Ms. Philippines was too provincial and had no sex appeal. Her hair in a bun didn't help. She seemed nervous. Ms. Colombia was sexy and confident, almost too much confident. I don't think she'll get the votes of the other contestants.

My thoughts now are Ms. Philippines handled the situation with much dignity. She wouldn't even take her walk when the announcer told her to (this was right before the physical crown switch.) As for Ms. Colombia, I'll bet she never has an over-confidence problem again. I feel so sorry for her. No one deserves that. She'll probably be scarred for life.

I'm going to update this with the host's name after I look up who it was.

Update: Ok, the host was Steve Harvey. (Sorry, I've never heard of him.)

On a related note: This writer at Deadspin (a male named Tom Ley) gets my vote for the most unsensitive male jerk of the year award for calling the blunder "hilarious" and writing, "This was just a wonderful bit of live TV."

The only person I can imagine taking such a perverse pleasure in Harvey's blooper is Donald Trump, who sold the pageant this year after Univision refused to air it due to his immigration comments.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Ha. This isn't even an open thread (5.00 / 2) (#42)
    by shoephone on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 06:24:45 PM EST
    and yet...the nonsense continues.

    the off topic comments (none / 0) (#45)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:24:55 PM EST
    have been deleted. This is not an open thread. Jim tried to hijack it and make it about debates.

    Also deleted: potentially libelous comments by Donald and others. Name calling and personal attacks are not allowed here.

    Parent

    The Divine Miss M (5.00 / 1) (#47)
    by Towanda on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 10:46:15 PM EST
    puts it in perspective for us, with a tweet:

    "Wrong #Miss Universe crowned last night.  For 2 minutes.  Remember when that happened with our President in 2000, and we had to keep him for 8 years?"

    Steve Harvey (none / 0) (#1)
    by CoralGables on Sun Dec 20, 2015 at 10:43:53 PM EST


    He's no Richard Dawson! n/t (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by kdog on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:23:55 AM EST
    Why do you know this? (none / 0) (#2)
    by oculus on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 12:11:44 AM EST
    I am an expert (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by CoralGables on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 05:13:32 AM EST
    in meaningless bits of nothing.

    Parent
    I Know This... (none / 0) (#5)
    by ScottW714 on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 08:47:48 AM EST
    ...because I know who Steve Harvey is and at 9am, I have seen that clip no less than 56 times this mourning.

    They had Trump, who used to own Ms Universe Pageant, on the TV saying he would make Columbia the co-winner.

    Parent

    5 Times, not 56. (none / 0) (#6)
    by ScottW714 on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 08:54:46 AM EST
    One would hope (none / 0) (#7)
    by CoralGables on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 08:57:13 AM EST
    that you meant Colombia.

    Steve Harvey tweeted out his apologies with:
    I want to apologize emphatically to Miss Philippians and Miss Columbia...

    That was quickly deleted after folks from the Philippines and from Colombia pounced on his typos.

    Steve Harvey officially had the worst day in Vegas.

    Parent

    I Doubt Worse... (none / 0) (#15)
    by ScottW714 on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:58:54 AM EST
    ...than the folks who were run over, buy yeah, making a blunder on live TV is certainly worse than...  never mind, no one cares he had a bad hair day.

    Steve Harvey makes the The Soup and Tosh.0 cut nearly every week, I can't imagine this even breaks his top 10.

    Parent

    I've onlyheard of him because (none / 0) (#30)
    by ruffian on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 02:01:02 PM EST
    my friend's triplet daughters in their early 20s were on his show for a 'triplet makeover'. He sure did not seem the type to host a triplet makeover...or Miss USA.

    Parent
    Can we stop having these (none / 0) (#9)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:40:31 AM EST
    Silly things now?  Probably a minority here.

    I to, Scott, have been up 20 minutes and I've seen it "56" times.
    It was painful.  I couldn't think it was funny even as much as I hate these things.   Painful  and pointless.  I felt worse almost for the winner than the loser.  

    Painful and stupid.

    IMO

    The bright side is (none / 0) (#10)
    by jbindc on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:47:38 AM EST
    Miss Colombia will be fine and probably get more out of this than she would have had things gone as planned.

    This will be win-win for the contestants.

    Steve Harvey on the other hand, oof, that was painful to watch.

    Parent

    My fantasy ending to that (5.00 / 1) (#11)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:50:25 AM EST
    Was that the winner and runner up start kicking the krap out if him.

    Parent
    Usually... (5.00 / 2) (#24)
    by kdog on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 12:07:37 PM EST
    Steve Harvey has to pay extra for that kind of action.

    Parent
    According to paperwork (none / 0) (#13)
    by CoralGables on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:54:34 AM EST
    filed with the FEC, The Miss Universe Organization is valued between $5 and $25 million, and that Trump was clearing in excess of $3 million per year as a minority owner before selling it to WME/IMG.

    With over 500 million viewers worldwide and a new contract with FOX it's not going anywhere.

    Parent

    More people probably watch Survivor (none / 0) (#14)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:58:42 AM EST
    It's still stupid.

    Parent
    Speaking of pageantry train wrecks... (none / 0) (#12)
    by kdog on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 09:53:43 AM EST
    Donald (none / 0) (#19)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 11:06:26 AM EST
    Is officially calling for the loser to be named "co-miss universe"

    Wisdom for the ages (none / 0) (#20)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 11:15:08 AM EST
    Miss Germany (none / 0) (#46)
    by ragebot on Mon Dec 21, 2015 at 10:19:14 PM EST
    is pouring gasoline on the fire.

    sorry but i thought it was pretty funny (none / 0) (#48)
    by pitachips on Tue Dec 22, 2015 at 12:03:13 AM EST
    We should all look down on these pageants.

    FWIW... (none / 0) (#49)
    by ScottW714 on Tue Dec 22, 2015 at 10:53:06 AM EST
    ...there is a Snap Chat video of Harvey saying it was the teleprompter had the wrong name.  LINK

    The video has since disappeared.

    For the record, I think the SB wardrobe malfunction is still the biggest on air gaffe.