It’s been six years since Steve Harvey made a mistake when announcing the results of the Miss Universe 2015 pageant, and people still won’t let the prolific TV personality forget it, especially ahead of Sunday’s 2021 pageant in Eilat, Israel. When Harvey posted a photo of himself wearing a striking blue suit on Instagram Thursday, the comments section was flooded with remarks referencing the mistake. Harvey will be hosting the pageant for the sixth time, after sitting out the 2020 pageant in May. The pageant starts Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on Fox.
Before the Family Feud host arrived in Israel, he posted a photo from Abu Dhabi, where he posed in a bright blue suit by Elly Karamoh and sunglasses. The comments section was quickly dominated by jokes about 2015. “Make sure you read that card 5 times before you call her name! Lol,” one fan wrote. “Don’t call the wrong name please,” another chimed in. “Do not get it wrong… again,” another fan wrote.
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At the end of the Miss Universe 2015 pageant, Harvey infamously announced that Ariadna Gutierrez of Colombia was the new Miss Universe. After Gutierrez was crowned, Harvey realized he made a mistake and said she was the first runner-up. The real winner was Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines. Harvey said he mistook the “1st” next to Gutierrez’s name on his card as meaning she was the pageant winner. Despite the mistake, the Miss Universe Organization invited him back to host the 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 pageants. He missed the 2020 pageant, which didn’t air until May 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Harvey was asked to return for the 2021 pageant, and his daughter, Lori Harvey, is a member of the Miss Universe selection committee.
Harvey has talked about the gaffe many times over the years. In April, he stopped by Kevin Hart’s Comedy Gold Minds podcast, insisting that he shouldered more blame for the snafu than he should have. “I knew it was bad when it happened,” Harvey said. “It wasn’t my fault, so, like, I was tripping, man. Well, I wish I hadn’t taken the bullet like I did.” He did admit that correcting the mistake immediately after he realized his error was a mistake.
“They said, ‘No, Steve, we’ll straighten it out tomorrow morning in the newspaper,” he recalled. “I said, ‘That’s bulls—, dawg. This lady deserves her crown.’ I took my stupid a—… I should have let them announce it the next day, I wouldn’t have caught none of the hell I caught… I took my stupid a- back out there and I said hey, I made a mistake.”
Harvey’s error went viral and made headlines around the world. People even threw rocks at his Atlanta home, Harvey said. “I just hung in, and then the next year we had the highest ratings ever because everybody was tuning in to see what I was going to say,” Harvey told Hart. “But all the girls were happy because all of them knew they had a chance of being in Miss Universe.”
