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Steve Harvey will not be hosting the 71st annual Miss Universe pageant after years on stage.
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He had a huge impact on the pageant, often creating drama for the organization.
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Harvey’s wildest moment occurred in the 2015 pageant when he announced the wrong winner.
After five years, Steve Harvey will no longer host Miss Universe. But during his reign, he definitely had some wild moments on the pageant stage.
The Miss Universe Organization began a five-year contract with Harvey and Fox after Donald Trump sold the company to IMG in 2015 following controversial comments he made during his first presidential campaign.
Harvey made headlines for many of her moments on the Miss Universe stage, including a huge blunder that had the world talking. But after she ended her contract this year, the Miss Universe organization decided to go in a new direction with Anne Jakapong Jakrajutatip, the first woman to hold Miss Universe.
The executive director of the Miss Universe Organization, Amy Emmerich, told Variety that she wanted to “make sure that we lead with a female lens in this next round.”
“It was a rare opportunity to be able to restart in a completely new place,” he added.
Miss Universe 2012 Olivia Culpo and “The Real” star Jeannine Mai Jenkins will host this year’s show, which airs on Saturday. Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray and “Access Hollywood” correspondent Zuri Hall will provide commentary backstage.
Before the new hosts of Miss Universe take the stage, let’s run through some of Steve Harvey’s most memorable moments.
In his first year hosting Miss Universe, Harvey announced the wrong winner.
In 2015, Harvey announced that Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutiérrez, had won the Miss Universe title.
The sparkling crown was placed on her head, and the famous Miss Universe sash draped over her shoulders. But as Gutierrez greeted his fans, Harvey said there had been a mistake: the real winner was Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach.
Harvey held up the card for the crowd to see and said he took responsibility for the mistake.
The “Family Feud” host later apologized on Twitter for the mistake, and even Harry Styles came to his defense. Harvey later told Kevin Hart in a 2021 interview that it was “the worst week of my life.”
Later, a contestant from the 2018 pageant joked with Harvey about his mistake on the pageant stage.
During interviews for the Top 20, Harvey asked Miss Costa Rica Natalia Carvajal if she had any advice for him, since she was also working as a TV host at the time, Insider previously reported.
She told him to come closer, and as Harvey leaned toward Carvajal, he said, “If you ever get a very, very, very important envelope, try to read it carefully, okay?”
The audience erupted in laughter, as Carvajal was clearly making fun of Harvey’s mistake in the 2015 contest.
During the 2019 Miss Universe pageant, Harvey joked about the poster.
Harvey trended again on Twitter when he made a joke about the poster while speaking with Miss Colombia, Gabriela Tafur Náder.
The pageant queen referenced Harvey’s blunder in 2015 after he revealed she had made it to the top 20, quipping, “Are you sure? Should I go back?”
After Harvey showed him the card as proof, Náder told the driver that Colombia had forgiven him for his mistake.
“The cartel has not forgiven me,” he replied.
The joke did not sit well with many viewers, including Colombian actor Andrés Simón, who called Harvey’s joke “ignorant” and “absolutely disrespectful.”
In the 2019 pageant, Harvey appeared to confuse two contestants again.
As The Wrap reported, Harvey announced that Miss Philippines Gazini Ganados has won the Miss Universe 2019 costume contest.
In fact, Ganados had won the competition, but for some reason, Miss Malaysia, Shweta Sekhon, was standing next to Harvey on the stage.
“It’s not the Philippines. It’s Malaysia,” Sekhon said after Harvey named Miss Philippines the winner, according to The Wrap.
“Well, let me explain something to you. I just read it on a teleprompter,” Harvey said then. “You have to stop doing this to me.”
“This is what they did to me in 2015. They tricked me like that,” he said.
Miss Universe later clarified that Harvey was correct in naming Ganados the winner in a cheepbut the interaction was painfully reminiscent of his 2015 mishap.
And in the 2021 contest, Harvey again mixed two contestants.
During the pageant, Harvey announced that Miss Paraguay, Nadia Ferreira, and Miss India, Harnaaz Sandhu, were the finalists.
Harvey congratulated the couple but accidentally referred to Ferreira as Miss Portugal, a video of the interaction shared on Yahoo! News was shown.
Ferreira laughed awkwardly at Harvey’s misplaced congratulations.
Harvey hosted the 2021 pageant with his daughter, Lori Harvey, who hinted that she only got the job because of him.
During the 70th annual Miss Universe pageant, Lori Harvey joined her father on the Miss Universe stage.
Instead of having a good relationship, the couple seemed to have some tension on stage. Harvey even hinted that his daughter was only able to be there because of him.
“My God, she owes this,” he said after chatting with Lori during the show.
Harvey also made headlines when he asked Miss India to meow on stage during the 2021 pageant.
Many viewers were taken aback when Harvey asked Miss India Harnaaz Sandhu, who was later crowned Miss Universe, to do her best animal impersonation on stage.
“Oh my gosh Steve, I didn’t expect to do this on the world stage,” Sandhu told him. But the pageant queen took it all in stride, saying that she loved cats and that she would do anything she could to pose as one.
Many viewers on Twitter criticized Harvey’s question, asking why Sandhu hadn’t had a chance to share more about herself when other women in the competition spoke about their careers or philanthropy.
But Sandhu defended Harvey while speaking about the moment with Insider.
“We were having a lot of fun and that was my ultimate goal, to make everyone laugh,” he said. “And when you have a great human being like Steve by your side, you can’t stop being yourself. And I was having fun and enjoying myself.”
Read the original article on Insider