Miss Universe winner 2015 is wrongly announced by Steve Harvey

Miss Universe pageant host Steve Harvey makes huge gaffe, names wrong winner

Miss Universe pageant host Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner at the end of Sunday night's big show in Las Vegas and was forced to make an embarrassing apology.

After announcing Miss USA, Olivia Jordan, as the third runner-up, Harvey initially named Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo, as the night's big winner, relegating the remaining contestant, Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurzbach, to the second runner-up spot.

But after Arevalo received the crown and a bouquet of flowers, Harvey announced he had made an error and that Wurzbach was in fact the winner.

A stunned Wurzbach, who had taken her place with the other contestants behind Arevalo, then walked out to center stage. Last year's Miss Universe, Colombia's Paulina Vega, then removed the crown from Avrevalo's head and placed it on Wurtzbach.

With both pageant contestants standing at the front of the stage, the show concluded.

Harvey, who was hosting the contest for the first time, held up the card announcing the order of finishers for Fox network cameras to see up close afterward. He said he re-read the card and noticed it said "first runner-up" next to the Colombia contestant's name before he asked producers if he had made a mistake. Talking with reporters afterward, Harvey and an executive for pageant owner WME-IMG called it human error.

"Nobody feels worse about this than me," Harvey said.

In addition to his on-air apology, Harvey expressed contrition on social media. However, he initially misspelled the home countries of both contestants before also fixing that.

Wurtzbach later said she felt conflicting emotions as the mistake happened: joy when she was told she had indeed won, concern for Aravelo and confusion at the whole situation.

Wurtzbach said she tried to approach Aravelo onstage afterward but the Colombian was crying and surrounded by a crowd of women. She said she realized it was, "probably bad timing."

Even before Sunday night's oops moment, the pageant was involved in another controversy when a backlash against the pageant's former owner Donald Trump led Univision to pull out of the broadcast and the businessman to sell it in September.

Trump was quick to weigh in on Sunday's error, declaring the mistake would "never have happened" during his time as owner.

Shortly after Sunday night's confusion, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos tweeted a message on his official account to Ariadna Gutierrez. "For us, you will continue being miss universe! We are very proud!"

Philippines presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda didn't address the controversial win but said, "in bagging this victory, Ms. Wurtzbach not only serves as a tremendous source of pride for our people, but also holds up the banner of our women and of our country-as a true representative of what the Filipina can achieve."