Steve Harvey Mixes Up Miss Universe Contestants Again — 4 Years After Viral Mishap
Dec. 9 2019, Updated 7:52 p.m. ET
Steve Harvey mixed up Miss Universe contestants again — four years after accidentally crowning the wrong beauty queen.
This Sunday, December 8, at the Miss Universe 2019 competition in Atlanta, Georgia, the host introduced the wrong contestant while announcing the National Costume Contest winner.
“Here’s a look at the winner, Philippines,” Harvey, 62, said while showing a photo of Miss Philippines Gazini Ganados’s outfit. Standing next to him, however, was Miss Malaysia, Shweta Sekhon, in full costume.
“It’s not Philippines, it’s Malaysia,” she said, grabbing the mic from the Family Feud star.
Harvey looked at the camera in shock before blaming the show producers for the mishap.
“Okay, well, let me explain something to you. I just read that in the teleprompter. Y’all got to quit doing this to me,” he said. “I can read, they said now, they’re trying to fix it now. See, this what they did to me back in 2015. Played me short like that. This is Malaysia. I really love this national costume of Malaysia. This is crazy.”
Despite the confusion on stage, Miss Philippines was crowned the winner of the costume contest, though Miss Malaysia’s national costume was also featured during the broadcast.
“No mistakes regarding the national costume winner were made by him, the prompter or production,” the Miss Universe Organization said in a statement to PEOPLE.
Skhon’s elaborate costume featured some of her country’s national dishes as well as other symbols from the Malacca state. “What I’ve worn here is the bride’s outfit of the mixed marriage between the Malays and the Chinese,” she explained.
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“Whatever you said, yes,” Harvey replied. “I’m scared to say your name again ’cause I don’t know what the hell this teleprompter is doing. Thank you, Malaysia.”
RadarOnline.com readers know Harvey’s mistake came four years after he made headlines by accidentally crowning Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, the 2015 Miss Universe winner, before noticing the mix-up and giving the crown to Miss Philippines, Alonzo Wurtzbach. The moment went viral, but the host made amends to Gutierrez and returned to the pageant show in 2017, joking that he’d had eye surgery done so he could see the cards better.
This year, Miss South Africa, Zozibini Tunzi, took home the Miss Universe crown.