Host Steve Harvey has stumbled again at the Miss Universe pageant - or so people thought at first.

On Sunday (Dec 8), the mix-up cropped up at the Best National Costume stage when a photo of Miss Philippines was flashed on the screen.

Harvey then told the audience "this is it right here", gesturing to a contestant beside him.

But she was not Miss Philippines. Instead, the woman was Miss Malaysia.

"It's not the Philippines, it's Malaysia," Miss Malaysia Shweta Sekhon, 22, had to tell him.

Harvey recovered, blaming the mix-up on what he had read off a teleprompter. But viewers wondered why he did not seem to notice that the costume shown in the photo was different from that worn by the woman beside him.

However, the organisers later clarified that Harvey and the show producers had not made a mistake.

Miss Philippines was indeed the winner, but the producers wanted Miss Malaysia to be on stage to give more details about her elaborate costume.

She was not aware Miss Philippines' photo would be shown first.

In 2015, Harvey also caused confusion when he hosted the pageant.

Then, he named Miss Colombia as Miss Universe, only to clarify later that Miss Philippines was the winner.

On Sunday, Miss Malaysia won a lot of attention with her national costume, which weighed more than 27kg.

It came with tables of food such as cakes, desserts and even red eggs.

This year's Miss Universe crown went to South Africa contestant Zozibini Tunzi, 26.