Prue Leith has inadvertently spoiled her first series as a judge on the Great British Bake Off after revealing the winner hours ahead of the show’s finale.
Confusing the six-hour time difference from Bhutan, the TV chef wrote on Twitter: “No-one told me judging a GBBO final would be so emotional. I wanted them all to win. Bravo….”
But Leith is not the first person to accidentally ruin a TV surprise. Here’s a list of similar reality result revelation mishaps and award show disasters.
:: The Oscars (2017)
Most recently – and possibly the most high-profile – La La Land was given the best picture award by presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, before it became apparent that Moonlight was the actual winner.
The musical’s producers were coming to the end of their acceptance speeches when Jordan Horowitz, another La La Land producer, took to the microphone to correct the mistake.
Beatty and Dunaway had been given the wrong envelope – the one for best actress, which had already been accepted by La La Land’s Emma Stone.
In fact, Leith’s mishap could be labelled the very British equivalent.
:: Strictly Come Dancing (2017)
This year’s series has been plagued by accidental revelations. The results show, which airs on Sunday night, is filmed following performances on Saturday evening, meaning the names of those leaving have to be kept under wraps for almost 24 hours. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
Celebrities involved in this year’s show who have inadvertently revealed who was eliminated before the results show include Debbie McGee during a radio interview and presenter Ruth Langsford in a video post on Twitter.
McGee told BBC Radio Berkshire she was “very sad” to see Reverend Richard Coles eliminated in week three while just seven days later Langsford told followers she was “through to next week”.
:: The Apprentice (2016)
Viewers of Lord Sugar’s enterprising adventure are extremely eagle-eyed.
Last year they noticed that the business mogul had followed one of the finalists, Alana Spencer, on Twitter ahead of the airing of the final and assumed that meant they had entered into a business partnership. They were correct.
:: Miss Universe
In 2015, US comedian Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner at the Miss Universe pageant in what is considered one of the most embarrassing prize-giving errors of all time.
Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, was incorrectly named as the winner of the accolade and was given the crown, before presenter Harvey revealed his mistake and that she was the runner-up.
The correct winner was then revealed to be Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, and Gutierrez was un-crowned.
:: Australia’s Next Top Model
In 2010, Australia’s version of the modelling reality programme made headline news when the wrong contestant was named the winner.
During the live final, Kelsey Martinovich was told she had been chosen by the public to be the show’s champion and was in the midst of her acceptance speech when presenter Sarah Murdoch was forced to interrupt.
Murdoch was told via her earpiece that the real winner was actually Amanda Ware.
“I’m feeling sick about this,” the presenter said as the mistake came to light. “I’m so sorry, this was a complete accident.”
:: The X Factor
Olly Murs was left red-faced after he told an X Factor contestant she was going home before the result was officially announced.
In 2015, during a results show, Murs and co-host Caroline Flack asked the judges to choose who they wanted to send home between singers Monica Michael and Anton Stephans.
It appeared he thought three out of the four judges had opted to send Michael home and therefore told her she would be automatically out of the show.
But, as two judges had voted for each contestant, the ”deadlock” was decided by the public vote.
It was then revealed that Michael had, in fact, received the fewest votes from the public and would indeed be leaving.
:: The Eurovision Song Contest
Pop group Scooch were revealed as the UK’s act for the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2007, but only after their rival, singer Cyndi, had been mistakenly announced first.
During the live pre-Eurovision programme Making Your Mind Up, which sees the public vote for their favourite UK entry ahead of the final event, hosts Sir Terry Wogan and Fearne Cotton simultaneously revealed Scooch and Cyndi to be the winners.
Seconds later, Cotton confirmed Scooch had won the public vote and the BBC later apologised for the live TV error.
:: The NRJ Music Awards
Katy Perry was incorrectly announced as the winner of the best international song accolade during France’s NRJ Music Awards in 2009.
It was revealed at the end of the show, after Perry had accepted the award, that Rihanna was actually the winner in the category for her hit song Disturbia.
Perry did, however, manage to take home the award for best international album for her record One Of The Boys.
:: The Daytime Emmy Awards
Host of US daytime chat show The Talk Aisha Tyler was given the wrong envelope while presenting the Emmy for outstanding talk show informative.
Quickly realising the error when opening the envelope, Tyler told the audience: “Oh, interestingly enough, this winner is not in this category. But it’s exciting to see and if I read it out I’m going to give another category away!”
She placed the card back into the envelope before being given the correct winner for the category.
:: The Oscars (2014)
During the 2014 Oscars ceremony, John Travolta failed to correctly pronounce Frozen star Idina Menzel’s name, instead introducing her to the stage as Adele Dazeem.
Following the actor’s gaffe, she began trending on Twitter and the singer has since said Travolta inadvertently gave her a career boost.
