The awkward moment when Miss Colombia was mistakenly crowned as Miss Universe 2015 has made it in this year's worst television moments.
On Sunday night, Miss Universe 2015 host Steve Harvey announced Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez's name as this year's winner. Miss Universe 2014 Paulina Vega crowned Miss Colombia, but moments later Steve said that he had announced the wrong name.
Though Harvey took full responsibility for the mistake, it did not stop social media users from coming up with conspiracy theories.
Here are the few conspiracy theories, which suggest that the mistake was nothing but a publicity stunt:
Publicity Stunt or a Mistake?
Raoul Martinez, a TV anchor in San Diego, posted a message on Facebook calling the grand finale goof-up a publicity stunt.
"You guys buying this? I'm no conspiracy theorist, but this smells fishy to me. Sounds like a big PUBLICITY STUNT to get everyone talking about Miss Universe, when normally (let's be honest, now!) NO ONE would be talking about Miss Universe. ‪#‎My2Cents," he said.
According to USA Today, Harvey said in the Miss Universe Snapchat that it was the teleprompter's mistake as he said Miss Universe is Miss Colombia. But later during a press conference Harvey said instead of announcing "runner-up" he announced it is as "winner".
Did someone from audience give Harvey a card with Miss Philippines' name on it?
The official Facebook page of Miss Colombia's fan club shared a video that claims Harvey took a card from a woman in the audience before announcing Miss Philippines as the winner.
The video also shows this message: Women celebrate accomplice but actually hides in hand brings the original card which appears as winning Miss Philippines (Mujer complice disimula festejar pero en realidad trae en la mano la tarjeta original donde aparece miss Philippines como ganadora).
However, the authenticity and the origin of the video cannot be confirmed at this time.
Watch the video here:
All for fame?
According to Twitter users, the whole goof-up has given more publicity to Harvey.
"But I bet Steve Harvey's agent is hella happy with all of this publicity," user @vokalized tweeted.
"Guaranteed Steve Harvey was paid generously to make that "mistake" on purpose. It's a publicity stunt. No one cares about Miss Universe," user @Hoodie_Weather_ tweeted.
To increase Miss Universe ratings
Twitteratti also suggest that the grand finale controversy was nothing but a publicity stunt to bring the event in the limelight. According to the Independent, last year's finale garnered 7.6 million viewers, which was the highest in this decade. And this year it made it big, really big, due to the controversy. #MissUniverse2015 became the top trending topic on Twitter and Facebook worldwide after the wrong winner's name was announced.
"I generally don't buy into conspiracy theories, but this is the most attention the Miss Universe pageant has gotten since, well, ever," Twitter user @EastAdvocate said.
"The Miss Universe controversy was a total publicity stunt. Nobody was talking about the show until now," user @KadinZaffino said.
"Steve Harvey's mistake was all a conspiracy created for two purposes: Make Miss Universe relevant again. Make Steve Harvey relevant again," user @piercedmn tweeted.
