It’s been four years since Steve Harvey famously mixed up the names of the Miss Universe winner—and it appears he did it again Sunday night!
The comedian seemingly had another mishap at the 2019 Miss Universe competition in Atlanta. Instead of crowning the wrong overall winner like he did previously, Harvey 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’ national costume was shown on a large screen.
Still, it was actually Miss Malaysia’s Shweta Sekhon standing next to him. The contestant made sure to correct him. “It’s not Philippines. It’s Malaysia,” she said.
Harvey was quick on his feet this year, calling out 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,” Harvey replied, addressing the show’s producers. “I can read. They said now they’re trying to fix it now.”
He continued, “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.”
After the show, the Miss Universe organization confirmed that Harvey did indeed read the name of the correct winner.
“Miss Universe Philippines Gazini Ganados is the winner of the Miss Universe 2019 National Costume competition,” the Miss Universe organization said in a statement. “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.”
That was a close call!
The winner of this year’s competition, Zozibini Tunzi of Miss South Africa, beat out 90 other contestants from around the world for the coveted crown.