Steve Harvey Mixes Up Miss Universe Contestants – Again
Published on December 9, 2019.MediaPunch/REX
After accidentally crowning the wrong winner of Miss Universe four years ago, Steve Harvey fumbled again and had another mishap at the 2019 Miss Universe competition.
The Family Feud host hosted this year’s beauty pageant on Sunday in Atlanta and appeared to have accidentally introduced the wrong contestant while announcing the National Costume Contest winner.
“Here’s a look at the winner, Philippines,” Harvey said as a photo of Miss Philippines Gazini Ganados’ outfit was shown on the large screen behind him.
However, it wasn’t Ganados who was beside him in costume – it was Miss Malaysia Shweta Sekhon.
“It’s not Philippines, it’s Malaysia,” The Miss Malaysia contestant said while grabbing the mic from Harvey.
“Okay, well, let me explain something to you. I just read that in the teleprompter. Y’all got to quit doing this to me,” Harvey 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.”
As a matter of fact, the Family Feud star did announce the correct winner.
A statement from the Miss Universe Organization, read, “Miss Universe Philippines Gazini Ganados is the winner of the Miss Universe 2019 National Costume competition. As part of the broadcast, we also featured Miss Universe Malaysia Shweta Sekhon’s national costume. No mistakes regarding the national costume winner were made by him, the prompter or production.”
Miss Malaysia’s costume featured the national dishes of the country and represented the Malacca state of Malaysia and its historical heritage.
“What I’ve worn here is the bride’s outfit of the mixed marriage between the Malays and the Chinese,” she explained.
“Whatever you said, yes,” said Harvey. “I’m scared to say your name again ’cause I don’t know what the hell this teleprompter [is doing]. Thank you, Malaysia.”
In 2015, Harvey received backlash after he accidentally announced the winner was Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, when the winner was Miss Philippines, Alonzo Wurtzbach.
Two years ago, Harvey returned to host the Miss Universe pageant again, and made light of his mix-up the year before, joking that he had eye surgery done to help him read the prompter better and announce the correct winner.
“I know what you’re thinking — ‘Is that the guy from last year? Did they bring back the guy from last year?'” Harvey said. “When you make a mistake you just have to keep moving forward.”