The 2016 edition of the Miss Universe Competition held on Sunday night at the Asian Mall in the Philippines. Weirdly, Steve Harvey was allowed to host the show again after 2015.

Okay, quick backstory:

During the Miss Universe 2015 pageant, in Las Vegas, Harvey incorrectly announced that Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez was the winner. She’d already been crowned and sashayed on stage before Harvey realised he’d read his cue card wrong and had called Miss Colombia the Miss Universe instead of Pia Wurztbach, Miss Philippines. The few seconds when the Family Feud show host had to come back and correct the huge mistake will possibly remain the most awkward Television ever!

“I have to apologise, the first runner-up is Colombia,” he said. “Let me just take control of this. This is exactly what’s on the card. The winner was actually Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach. “I will take responsibility for this. It was my mistake … horrible mistake,””

After the event (and of course the memes), Steve Harvey said of the experience:

It was four minutes of pure hell. It was longer than that. Look, I’m a smart guy. I can read. I read the teleprompter, but the guy in my ear said to read the next name, now. I said, ‘Miss Columbia.’ I go in the back, four minutes later I hear a lot of words that you can’t say on TV. Explicit, explicit, explicit, and then they said, ‘We said the wrong name.’ Then a guy said, ‘What are we gonna do?’ And a guy said, ‘We’ll straighten it out in the media tomorrow.’ And I said, ‘Naw, man, I’m gonna go do it now.’ And I walked out there.”

All caught up?

Now, you can understand why it was a shocker when Steve was billed to host the show again. This year, in the Philippines.

It was an awkward start, as expected and Mr Harvey had to clear the air and break some ice first. God helped him he didn’t have Nigerian show-goers to deal with. A great show host with a clean bill already has it hard enough to get Nigerians to care enough to cheer here.

The Philippino were kind, though. And so the show went on only for it to get a bit awkward again when Miss Colombia, Andrea Tovar and Miss Philippines, Maxine Medina both made it to the Top 13. We wanted to look away from our screens so bad. Honestly, they had to have given him some sort of heads up because he sort of looked calm through it.

Once Miss Columbia was announced, here’s what happened:

Harvey: “Oh, God. Congratulations.”

Andrea Tovar:  “Thank you so much. Don’t worry. Hug me!” 

Harvey: “Yes, I want you to marry my son.”

Harvey: “Listen, I want to ask this one myself. How do people in Colombia feel about Steve Harvey?” 

*Awkward audience laughter

Andrea Tovar: “A lot of people hate you. But you know I love you,” she said before proceeding in Spanish.”The most important thing is–that I forgive you in the name of my country because know to commit an error is to be human.”

He probably should not have asked right? But he still managed to muster a “Was that a death threat? Thank you, Colombia. Little shook right now.” 

But all that banter did not take away the fact that Steve Harvey was in a tight spot. He not only had to act cool while making sure that nothing went a-mix in his announcements and that the right woman got the crown.

It’s been a week. Enough time for this year’s winner Miss France, Iris Mittanaere to be dethroned because Harvey called her name instead of Miss Haiti or Miss (you guessed it) Colombia.

But imagine that though…

If that had been the case. What would Harvey’s career be right now? A bunch of memes? Making a cute video like this again would definitely not have saved him this time and Colombia would have come for his head. Especially now that he doesn’t even have a President that will fight for him.

Speaking of Trump, Trump already has ties with Miss Universe and if Steve Harvey had messed the names up again this year, he’d have been singled out, the only human being on the 7-country list banned from entering the United States. If Steve Harvey had botched it up again, there’ll be State-wide protests held separately by Americans on his behalf.

Roqeebah

Creative mind. Enthusiast. Learner. Multipotentialite. And here, an assistant editor.