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It was a cringe-worthy moment on Sunday night when Miss Universe host Steve Harvey mistakenly announced the wrong winner during the live telecast of the beauty pageant.

The comedian/TV personality Harvey initially announced Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez as the winner. It was after she was presented with the winner’s sash and tiara that Harvey realized his mistake.

"Okay folks…I have to apologize," he said, before clarifying that the Philippines’ Pia Alonso Wurtzbach was, in fact, Miss Universe 2015.

“I will take responsibility for this,” he added, calling it a “horrible mistake.”

He also profusely apologised on Twitter later on:

But not before he made another faux pas on Twitter. Harvey (or his PR team) misspelled the home countries of Miss Phillipines and Miss Colombia in his initial apology tweet:

So it's no surprise that Twitter was unforgiving:

The Miss Universe pageant has been in the news for controversies surrounding its then co-owner and U.S. presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who had made disparaging remarks about Mexicans, reports Reuters.

The Spanish-language network Univision pulled out of a deal to televise the pageant, for which Trump sued the company for $500 million. He bought out NBC's stake in the Miss Universe Organization, which produces both Sunday's pageant and the Miss USA contest, and later sold the company in September.

Miss Universe was held at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.