Steve Harvey Would Be Welcome Back at Miss Universe Pageant
"It was an honest mistake and we would welcome him back," the pageant said.
— -- Days after Miss Universe host Steve Harvey made the mistake of announcing the wrong winner, the parent company for the contest said it would welcome the comedian back next year as host once again.
“We do not ever comment publicly on contracts, but you can infer from our CCO Mark Shapiro’s public comments that it was an honest mistake and we would welcome him back," William Morris Endeavor said in a statement.
The part of the statement referring to Shapiro's comments comes after he spoke Monday, the day after the pageant, on the Jim Rome radio show, saying he believed Harvey's mistake was an honest one and that Harvey was "very remorseful" about the whole thing.
“It just was a flat-out mistake," the CCO said. "That’s live television, the guy made a mistake. He felt terrible, he was humiliated, he felt he humiliated her. He was very regretful, he was very remorseful in that dressing room."
On Sunday night as the pageant was coming to a close, Harvey announced that Miss Colombia had won the crown, when in fact, Miss Philippines had won. After Ariadna Gutierrez had already begun to celebrate, Harvey came back out and admitted the mistake. Miss Philippines was eventually named Miss Universe.
Harvey then tweeted his remorse.
"I'd like to apologize wholeheartedly to Miss Colombia & Miss Philippines for my huge mistake. I feel terrible," he wrote. "Secondly, I'd like to apologize to the viewers at that I disappointed as well. Again it was an honest mistake."
Today, Gutierrez, herself, took to Instagram to say she also had no hard feelings about the ordeal.
"I am the most fortunate and thankful for having the support not only from one country but from the whole entire world. Your destiny is written for you. And my destiny was this," she wrote. "Life continues and in the future we will find out why things happen the way they happen."