Miss Colombia mistakenly crowned Miss Universe: Other award mix-ups

Miss Universe 2014 Paulina Vegas (centre) transfers the crown to winner Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach (right) from Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez. PHOTO: REUTERS

Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, was crowned Miss Universe for a few brief euphoric moments in Las Vegas on Sunday (Dec 20).

Then, host Steve Harvey went back up on stage and sheepishly announced that he had made a mistake, while Ms Gutierrez was bowing and blowing kisses at the audience.

Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, was the actual winner of the international beauty contest.

But this is not the first time things have gone awkwardly wrong at a pageant or award ceremony. Here's a look at other mix-ups:

Another Florida recount

Ms Elizabeth Fechtel dropped out of college to prepare for being Miss Florida 2014, but six days into her reign, she found out that she had come second. First runner-up Ms Victoria Cowen was the winner.

The mistake was made when the judges' votes were being tabulated. One of the judges changed his mind, and reversed his vote in the last 15 seconds of the time allotted to vote, the Ocala Star Banner reported.

The error was noticed during a routine recount.

Don't worry, Ms Fechtel re-enrolled in the University of Florida to read political science.

Miss Can't-nada

The wrong Miss Universe Canada was crowned in 2013 due to "a pageant employee's typo".

Miss Denise Garrido had to return her crown and sash after it was found that there was a mistake when transferring the judges' handwritten scores into a computer program that determines the winner, the Toronto Star reported.

The mistake was discovered the next day, during a third-party audit of the results.

Ms Garrido finished fourth, and the third runner-up Riza Santos became Canada's representative at the Miss Universe pageant in 2013.

BET you didn't expect this

Rihanna (right) and Chris Brown attending a basketball game on Dec 25, 2012.

This was one of the most confusing mix-ups in award-announcing history.

At the 2011 BET awards, viewer Tiffany Greene was chosen to present the Viewers' Choice award.

She read the result off a tablet instead of the traditional envelopes, and announced Chris Brown as the winner.

Then she squinted at the teleprompter and corrected herself: "I'm sorry, Rihanna, What's My Name."

When Drake, who collaborated with Rihanna on the song, came on stage to accept the award on her behalf, one of the show's host then announced Drake as the winner and said "Congratulations Drake", adding to the confusion.

It didn't help that Brown was convicted in 2009 for assaulting his then-partner Rihanna.

It turned out that Brown was the winner, and the BET president Stephen Hill issued an apology saying: "That BET Awards Viewer's Choice mix-up was due to human error. And I was the human that made that error. I apologise to ALL affected."

California keep on dreaming

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Miss Christina Silva was not only stripped of her crown in November 2007 - three days after she was declared the winner - but was asked to call the winner, Miss Raquel Beezley, and inform her that she was now Miss California.

The organisers said there was an accounting error, but the slighted Ms Silva accused them of pressuring her to step down because she was Hispanic.

The pageant's executive director Keith Lewis denied the charges, saying in his defence that Miss Beezley was 25 per cent Filipino.

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