Steve Harvey Crowns Wrong Miss Universe

Host Steve Harvey, citing human error involving a cue card, crowned the wrong Miss Universe Sunday night.

At the end of the FOX telecast, Harvey announced that Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez had won, and was this year's Miss Universe. For two minutes, she (and the universe) believed she had won. Watch!

Then, a sheepish Harvey returned to the stage to say he had made an error, and that Miss Philippines Pia Wurtzbach was the rightful winner.

"Uh, I have to apologize," Harvey told the stunned contestants. "The first runner-up is Colombia. Miss Universe 2015 is Miss Philippines."

Harvey later tweeted: "I want to apologize emphatically to Miss Philippians and Miss Columbia. This was a terribly honest human mistake and I am so regretful.” The tweet was later deleted, maybe because — adding insult to injury — he misspelled both countries' names.

Harvey then tweeted this series of apologies:

Donald Trump, who sold his interest in the pageant, had graciously encouraged his Twitter followers to support its new owner, Ari Emanuel of IMG. After the snafu, Trump retweeted a somewhat less encouraging sentiment: