Shocking conclusion

HARVEY. Out of his depth. AP

BY NOW, most everybody knows all about the awesomely, abysmally huge booboo that Miss Universe pageant host Steve Harvey recently made at the 2015 grand finals rites, announcing Miss Colombia as the winner, rather than “our” best bet, Pia Wurtzbach.

It was the shocking conclusion to a show that, in our view, felt more than a little weird even early on, partly due to Harvey’s less than crisp and focused handling of the show’s initial portions.

So, when its traumatic and traumatizing (for Miss Colombia) conclusion happened due to Harvey’s gargantuan gaffe, we realized what our initial discomfort during its early stages was leading up to—!

We were also thrown off by the pageant’s unusually “topical” bent when it came to its “dreaded” Q & A portion for its five top finalists. It turned out to be deservedly dreaded—and dreadful (to the finalists), because each of them had to weigh in on a controversial issue.

It started with Pia’s stumper, which insisted that she share her opinion on the return of US military bases to the Philippines! Now, we know that
beauty queens are expected to be beauty-and-brains combinations these days, but that “hot” question was more than a bit much—and could get her into a boiling cauldron of controversy here, even if she did end up winning the tilt.

Rough, tough treatment

The other finalists were similarly subjected to similarly rough and tough treatment, and also didn’t survive them unscathed.

Harvey’s hugely shocking humdinger is sure to result in a thorough review of the entire Miss Universe selection and presentation process, so we hope that this penchant for asking questions that are too controversial and pugnacious will be junked. Beautiful women don’t have to go that far to prove that they aren’t shallow and cranially challenged bimbos!

Another pageant highlight that could definitely be improved is its swimsuit parade, which has become so distended with musical performance numbers and other distractions. Keep it simple and focused, so viewers can in turn concentrate on vetting one finalist vis-a-vis the others, why don’t you?
To a lesser extent, the same can be said for the show’s long gown competition.

Horrible blunder

But these are peanuts and small potatoes compared to Harvey’s horrible blunder, which could be blamed not just on him, but also on how the pageant is now run.

A backgrounder: The original franchise owner, Donald Trump, recently sold it, and the new company is handling it for the first time. Consequently, could inexperience be part of the problem, which has never happened before?

Next question: Why was Harvey tapped to host the show? What experience has he had hosting international beauty pageants? How thoroughly was he prepared to faultlessly handle this new assignment? Were there enough people backing him up to avoid mistakes being made?

Harvey has had a long career as a stand-up comedian, radio and TV talk-variety program host, book author, film actor, etc.—but hosting a beauty pageant has its own specialized requirements, dangers and demands—as proven by the blunder heard and seen around the world—which everybody concerned will have a really hard time living down, and making up for!