In one of the epic fails in the history of television, Sunday night Miss Universe's host Steve Harvey named the wrong contestant as the winner--erroneously announcing that Miss Columbia, Ariadna Gutierrez-Arévalo, was Miss Universe 2015. She was crowned and taking her accolades for over two minutes before Harvey returned to the stage to announce that he had made a grievous error. Miss Columbia was, in fact, the first runner-up. The winner was Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurzbach. Aye! Yi! Yi!
This blunder created an extraordinarily awkward and painful moment for everyone concerned-- host, contestants, organizers, show-runners, audience, and a vast number of viewers worldwide.
In case you missed this mixed up mess, here it is:
For the moment, Miss Columbia is undoubtedly devastated, and Miss Philippines' crowning moment was tarnished. But hang in there. In the long run both of these young ladies will be immortal. Instead of 15 minutes of fame, both will have a treasured place in television history. They will be forever remembered for being a blameless part of one of the greatest gaffes ever broadcast on TV. And if they show humor and grace in this baptism of fire, they will both come out long-term winners. There is truth in the old cliché, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."
Can anyone remember who won last year? Or who was the runner-up? Steve Harvey's blunder may be a blessing for both Miss Philippines and Miss Columbia.
Yesterday I was discussing this occurrence with television producer Josh O'Connell, and he drew my attention to an interesting similar situation that occurred to his prior employer and mentor, soap opera maven William J. Bell, the late husband of our mutual friend Lee Phillip Bell.
The Bells co-created The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. In 1986 a Daytime Emmy was awarded to the writing team of The Young and the Restless headed by Mr. Bell. He accepted the award in a live televised ceremony in New York City.
Two days later he received a telephone call from the Academy in charge of the Daytime Emmys advising him that there had been a "clerical error," and The Young and the Restless had NOT won the award. The true winner was the writing team for the soap Guiding Light. Reportedly the accounting firm who did the tabulation had erroneously given a card to the presenter naming The Young and the Restless as the winner, while releasing a press release correctly stating that Guiding Light won. They needed Bell to return the Emmy. Ouch! Now that's a soap opera!
The Bell's have won numerous Emmys before and after, but this is the one that got away.
Josh O'Connell tells me that when Mr. Bell won his next writing Emmy, he wryly announced, "If the phone rings tomorrow, I'm not going to pick it up."