Steve Harvey “Attended Every One of His Rehearsals From Start to Finish” Despite Miss Universe Blunder

Daytime talk show host was well-prepared for upcoming hosting gig even though he made a huge mistake

Don't listen to any of the rumored excuses—Steve Harvey flubbed announcing the Miss Universe winner on his own. 

When the daytime talk show host announced the wrong beauty queen as the champion of the international pageant on Sunday night, some began to speculate that perhaps the mistake was not entirely his fault. Was it a technical difficulty from the teleprompter? Had he not been prepared in advance? It turns out, the blunder was just a result of simple human error. 

A source tells E! News, "Steve rehearsed the entire show and attended every one of his rehearsals from start to finish."

As for any mishaps by the teleprompter, the insider tells us it would not have made a difference because there wasn't anything on it for the host to read. 

"The names of the final three contestants are printed only on the card as putting them on the teleprompter would allow everyone onstage to see the names in advance," the source added. 

Immediately after the on-air mishap occurred, images surfaced of the winner card—which Harvey had held up to show during the telecast—clearly indicating how the names should have been announced. 

Instead, Harvey had accidentally named Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez as the overall champion, not realizing the mistake until after the brunette beauty had waved and blown kisses to the audience with the crown securely fastened on her head. 

Still, the rightful winner, Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach inevitably received her crown back after a humble and genuine apology from the host both on and off the stage. 

"I was very confused obviously as you might have seen in my reaction. I did not expect that to happen at all," Wurtzbach told E! News after the events unfolded live on the Miss Universe stage. "I was a little hesitant on going up to the stage. I was looking for cues from the floor director still to bring in to the front of the stage. No one really knew who was going to take the crown from Colombia to me, so even they were a little bit confused."

Since the blunder, Wurtzbach has maintained good spirits, sharing a photo of herself getting comfortable in her stunning new head jewelry. 

"42 years of drought and now it finally reigns :)," Miss Universe captioned the photo on Instagram, adding in her native tongue, "Long live [the Philippines]. Thank you all very much for everything."