Featured Article: Miss Universe Contestant from Philippines Wins 2015 Pageant

Miss Colombia was crowned first in a mistake

LAS VEGAS—The Miss Universe contestant from the Philippines is this year’s winner, but for one brief moment, it appeared as if it might be a repeat win for Colombia.

Colombia contestant Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo was wearing the crown as this year’s Miss Universe winner when host Steve Harvey returned to apologize.

Mr. Harvey said it was his mistake and he would take responsibility for not reading the card correctly that named contestant Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach this year’s winner and Colombia the first runner-up.

Ms. Wurtzbach appeared stunned as she walked to the front of the stage alongside the crown-wearing Ms. Arevalo before last year’s Miss Universe from Colombia removed the crown and placed it on Ms. Wurtzbach’s head instead.

The pageant that pits international beauties against one another returned to Las Vegas on Sunday to crown a winner on a new network, with a new Spanish-language broadcaster and a new pageant owner beginning with an elaborate costume contest inspired by the women’s countries.

One of the event’s judges, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, noted former contest owner Donald Trump’s absence when asked what was different about this year’s contest during the broadcast.

“Thankfully Donald Trump no longer owns this pageant,” he said to cheers from the crowd inside the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino theater in Las Vegas.

Mr. Harvey had a look of mock-shock after Mr. Hilton made the comment.

Mr. Harvey had said before the show in an interview with the Associated Press that he had no intention of making any Trump jokes.

“This isn’t about Donald Trump at all,” he said of the Republican presidential candidate.

Miss Universe has been whittled down from 80 contestants to three, from the U.S., Colombia and the Philippines. The women competed wearing elaborate costumes, two-piece swimsuits and evening gowns before answering questions about gun control, terrorism and legalizing marijuana.

The competition allowed viewers from home to weigh in on the contestants, with their votes being tallied in addition to four in-person celebrity judges.

The 24-year-old woman representing Mexico who had threatened not to participate at the time Mr. Trump still co-owned the pageant made it to the final 15 but not the final 10.

NBCUniversal and Mr. Trump co-owned the Miss Universe Organization until earlier this year. The real-estate developer offended Hispanics in June when he made anti-immigrant remarks in announcing his Republican presidential run.

That led Spanish-language network Univision to pull out of the broadcast for what would have been the first of five years airing the pageants and NBC to cut business ties with Mr. Trump.

The former star of the “Celebrity Apprentice” reality show sued both companies, settling with NBC in September, which included buying the network’s stake in the pageants.

Mr. Trump sold the pageant in September, and Wendy Esparza of Mexico reconsidered her entry, saying on her Instagram account that “love and respect between individuals and countries will always be more powerful than hatred.”

“It’s quite a telenovela to be honest with you,” said a laughing Manuel Abud, president and CEO of Azteca America, referring to the Spanish-language soap operas.

Mr. Abud’s Spanish-language network won the broadcast rights to the contest only a few weeks ago. For English-language audiences, the show is being broadcast on Fox.

“It was such a shame for such an important event to the Hispanic community to be taken hostage by politics,” he said.

The Hispanic audience loves to “cheer for the countries,” he said. “It’s a big deal.”

—Copyright 2015 The Associated Press

Featured Article: Miss Universe Contestant from Philippines Wins 2015 Pageant originally appeared on The Wall Street Journal on December 20, 2015.