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Steve Harvey did NOT purposely announce the wrong winner of the 2015 Miss Universe pageant, despite some conspiracy theories floating around. Gossip Cop can exclusively debunk this rumor. We’re told the flub was “completely accidental.”
As Gossip Cop reported on Sunday night, Harvey announced and had crowned first runner-up Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez as Miss Universe, but moments later he admitted to having made a “mistake.” Of course, the real Miss Universe 2015 winner was Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, and Harvey later tweeted a series of apologies for his error.
Now, tons of people on Twitter believe the screw-up was staged to drum up publicity for the pageant. A user named @matthillman10 wrote, for example, “What if they told Steve Harvey to purposely mess up the Miss Universe announcement just so people start talking about Miss Universe?”
A woman with the handle @DaphneOP simply stated, “I think it was staged,” while a Twitter user named @TheCoster expressed, “Does anyone else but me think this Miss Universe screw up was staged? When was the last time Miss Universe got this much publicity?” Meanwhile, @pmpfeifer tweeted, “If staged, the Miss Universe thing is like Andy Kaufman level genius.”
Most notably, Santino Rice, a fashion designer and TV personality who co-judged the competition in 2006, went on a Twitter rant insisting the event was staged. “As someone who has been a Judge of The Miss Universe Pageant, I can tell you that it is totally and completely fake,” read Rice’s initial tweet. He went on to tweet several more comments, including, “Everything went as planned. No one messed up. No one made a mistake. IT WAS A STUNT.”
Gossip Cop, however, checked in with a source closely involved in the production of the Miss Universe pageant, and we’re exclusively assured that there was nothing at all staged about the unfortunate incident. Gossip Cop is told Harvey’s flub was “completely accidental,” and the host feels badly about the embarrassing situation.
Gossip Cop is further told in a statement from the Miss Universe organization that “the excitement of live TV,” unfortunately means that “human error can come into play.” The institution sends its “sincerest apologies” to Miss Colombia and Miss Philippines, as well as “their families and fans.”
