Live TV can be a minefield for celebrities, and we're diving into the most awkward, cringe-inducing moments that left audiences speechless. From award show mishaps to interview disasters, these star-studded slip-ups will make you want to hide behind your couch!
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00:00If I'm bipolar, aren't there moments where a guy, like, crashes into the corner, like,
00:04oh, my God, it's all my mom's fault?
00:06Shut up.
00:07Shut up.
00:08Stop.
00:09Move forward.
00:10Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the times when celebrities'
00:13actions caught on camera made us physically uncomfortable and or gave us secondhand embarrassment.
00:18Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition
00:21was too much for me to bear, and I reacted emotionally.
00:26Number 10.
00:27Steve Harvey Reads the Wrong Name
00:51Before Warren Beatty mistakenly announced La La Land as the winner of the Oscar for
00:54Best Picture, we had Steve Harvey announcing the wrong winner of the Miss Universe pageant.
00:59Hosting the 2015 iteration of the pageant, the lively comedian announced Ariadna Gutierrez,
01:04Miss Colombia, as the victor.
01:06In reality, Gutierrez was the first runner-up, and Pia Wurtzbach, Miss Philippines, was the
01:11actual winner.
01:12Folks, let me just take control of this.
01:16This is exactly what's on the card.
01:20I will take responsibility for this.
01:23If it was my mistake, it was on the card.
01:27Horrible mistake, but the right thing, I can show it to you right here.
01:32The first runner-up is Colombia.
01:35Despite this monumental screw-up, Harvey was invited to host several more Miss Universe
01:38pageants, including the following year when he apologized to the Philippines for his mistake.
01:43We hope that apology carried over to 2019, when Harvey repeated the error for the National
01:47Costume Contest, this time announcing Miss Philippines as the winner when Miss Malaysia
01:52had actually scored the crown.
01:53It's not Philippines, it's Malaysia.
01:55Okay, well, let me explain something to you.
01:58I just read that in the teleprompter.
02:00Y'all gonna quit doing this to me.
02:03I can read it said now, they trying to fix it now.
02:06See this is what they did to me back in 2015, played me short like that.
02:10Number nine, James Brown gives CNN a show.
02:13How did all of this trouble begin?
02:15Living in America.
02:18Sorry.
02:20There's nothing wrong.
02:22Nothing wrong at all?
02:23You're not in any difficulty, but you're out on bond.
02:26No, I'm not.
02:28Have all the charges been dropped?
02:30Yeah, I'm out on love.
02:32Well, are you out on love or out of love?
02:36Which is it?
02:37You might not have known it from its timeless, impeccable stage presence, but the Godfather
02:41of Funk bore more than a few demons of his own.
02:43Although Brown famously forced members of his band to abstain from using alcohol and
02:47substances, he eventually developed a fondness for PCP sometime in the early 1980s.
02:53Now, your fans will have read all about this, James, aren't you concerned about that?
02:57No, thank you.
03:01I'm concerned because there's nothing wrong.
03:05And what are you going to say to your fans when they ask you some questions about it?
03:08I'm going to say I feel good.
03:09The substance, which Brown began to use regularly and caused him to act erratically, is suspected
03:14to have contributed to the singer's wildly off-the-rails 1988 interview with CNN host
03:19Dr. Sonja Friedman.
03:21Following his April 1988 arrest in which Brown was charged with domestic abuse of his wife,
03:26Adrienne Rodriguez, this attempt at PR course correction likely had his management team
03:31pulling their hair out.
03:32Now, the women love you when you get out there.
03:34Why do you think that is?
03:35What did you say?
03:36The women love you when you get out there.
03:39Why is that, ladies?
03:40Well, I'm asking you.
03:41Huh?
03:42Because I look good.
03:43Why do you think that is?
03:44You look good.
03:45I smell good.
03:46I feel good.
03:47Yes.
03:48And you sing good.
03:49And make love good.
03:50Oh.
03:51Number eight, Michael Richards tries to apologize.
03:54I'm not doing too good.
03:56Why don't you explain exactly what happened for the folks who may not know?
04:01I lost my temper on stage.
04:04I was at a comedy club trying to do my act and I got heckled and I took it badly and
04:12went into a rage.
04:14Has such a traumatic mishap and subsequent fall from grace ever been so perfectly captured
04:19on video?
04:20Richards, best known for his Emmy-winning role as Kramer on the hit NBC sitcom Seinfeld,
04:25was filmed by an audience member at the Hollywood Laugh Factory.
04:28Incensed by hecklers, the former Seinfeld star shouted a series of deplorable racial
04:33epithets at them.
04:34The shaky cell phone camera footage went viral after being leaked by TMZ.
04:39Things only got worse during Richards' late show appearance.
04:41I know, I mean, hearing your audience laugh, you know, and it's, it's, uh, I'm not even
04:45sure that this is, uh, where I should be, uh, addressing, uh, the situation.
04:53I've already heard you make some jokes about it and that's okay, you know, but I'm, I'm,
04:57you know, I'm, I'm, I'm really busted up over this and I'm, I'm, I'm very, very sorry.
05:02Having been invited on by Jerry Seinfeld, Richards appeared via satellite to deliver
05:06an awkward apology.
05:08Even worse?
05:09Some audience members thought that Richards was doing a scripted bit, with Seinfeld uncomfortably
05:12stepping in to refute that notion.
05:14He said some pretty, uh, nasty things to some Afro-Americans, a lot of trash talk and, uh.
05:24Stop laughing.
05:25It's not funny.
05:26And what, uh, what were the, uh, the, the, you were actually being heckled or were they
05:30just talking and disturbing the act?
05:32Number seven, Tom Cruise jumps on Oprah's couch.
05:35What has happened to you?
05:38That's how I feel about it.
05:46Really?
05:47Really.
05:48Has something happened to you?
05:53Even 20 years since this chaotic interview first aired, that enigmatic central question
06:00still remains.
06:02What was Tom thinking here?
06:032005 was a whirlwind year for new couple Cruise and Katie Holmes.
06:07They began dating in April, made their first public appearance that month, and in May,
06:11Cruise appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote their relationship?
06:15In any case, the Oscar nominee and action star made a fool of himself by inexplicably
06:20showing off his admittedly impressive gymnastic skills.
06:23We've never seen you behave this way before.
06:25I know.
06:26Have you ever felt this way before?
06:30You're gone.
06:39You are gone.
06:40The crux of the interview was Cruise jumping up and down on the talk show host's couch,
06:44declaring his love for the Dawson Creek star.
06:47The over-the-top moment is even harder to watch when you remember Cruise and Holmes'
06:51acrimonious, painfully public 2012 divorce.
06:54I'm not going to pretend.
06:55I can see you're not.
06:56Do you know Katie once told Seventeen Magazine?
06:59Yes!
07:06The boy is gone.
07:07The boy is gone.
07:10He's gone.
07:11I am.
07:12Okay.
07:13This is something I have to discuss with her personally, but you know.
07:16Number 6.
07:17Miley Cyrus twerks on Robin Thicke.
07:26Every child star is, at one point or another, confronted with a professional fork in the
07:31road.
07:32Does one continue down the path of family-friendliness and risk fading into obscurity, or aggressively
07:36pivot into an edgier, more adult stage?
07:39If you're at all familiar with this widely publicized MTV VMA performance, then you'll
07:43know that former teen idol Cyrus decisively opted for the latter.
07:47Described by The Telegraph as Cyrus going into overdrive, trying to kill off her Disney
07:52milestone Hannah Montana, Miley performed a medley of her We Can't Stop and Robin Thicke's
07:57blurred lines.
08:06The resulting performance was blasted by fans, critics, and everyone in between.
08:10Although Cyrus' career eventually recovered, Thicke's reputation was tainted due to his
08:14participation, as well as other contemporary scandals.
08:22Number 5.
08:27Ashley Simpson does an impromptu jig.
08:37Oof.
08:38You can't help feeling bad for poor Ashley while watching this infamous Saturday Night
08:40Live moment in October 2004.
08:43The pop rock singer, and sister of Jessica, was reportedly under Dodger's orders not
08:48to sing due to vocal cord inflammation as a result of chronic acid reflux.
08:52Simpson's choice to sing to a pre-recorded track, while seemingly innocent enough in
08:56itself, would be her cringeworthy downfall.
08:58While her first performance, the song Pieces of Me, went off without a hitch, her performance
09:19of Autobiography was almost immediately derailed by the Pieces of Me vocals being piped in.
09:24Mass confusion fell over the SNL stage, and Simpson started dancing around in an ostensible
09:28attempt to pick up the Pieces.
09:42Number 4.
09:43Charlie Sheen is winning.
09:54Sometimes, despite the best efforts of everyone around you, you're just not able to get
10:09out of your own way.
10:10Such was the case with Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen, whose history of wild
10:14partying and hedonism caught up with him in a big way.
10:17The show's production was paused in January 2011, when the four-time Emmy nominee was
10:21enrolled in a rehab program.
10:23Sheen made his third try in under a year.
10:41Following a series of erratic remarks made by Sheen about showrunner Chuck Lorre, the
10:45actor was fired in March and replaced with Ashton Kutcher.
10:48However, just ahead of that, a Good Morning America interview introduced a number of highly
10:53memorable quotes that set the internet ablaze.
11:10Number 3.
11:11Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift.
11:13Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one
11:19of the best videos of all time.
11:21Was this the beginning of the end for the quote-unquote old Kanye?
11:24While the jury may still be out on that one, it's hard to deny that eternal provocateur
11:28West's career took a serious, lasting hit from this 2009 incident at that year's MTV
11:33Video Music Awards.
11:34Country pop star Swift had just won the Best Female Video category for her smash hit, You
11:39Belong With Me.
11:43Why can't you see, you belong with me, you belong with me.
11:52West, who was reportedly intoxicated at the time, stormed the stage and cut her speech
11:56short, declaring that Beyonce deserved the award for her Single Ladies video.
12:01The public backlash was intense and, well, swift.
12:05West was forced to apologize multiple times, especially in light of then-President Barack
12:09Obama's late commentary on the incident.
12:11The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person, she's getting her award, what's he
12:15doing up there?
12:16Why would he do that?
12:17He's a jackass.
12:18No, no, all this stuff, I'm assuming all this stuff, where's the pool, come on guys, cut
12:31the president some slack.
12:322.
12:33Justin Timberlake Exposes Janet Jackson
12:44This wardrobe malfunction is so widely scrutinized that it has its own conspiracy theories.
12:49For the uninitiated, Jackson headlined the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, which also
12:54featured special guests P. Diddy, Nelly, and Kid Rock.
12:58However, an incident that would instantly become the stuff of pop culture legend was
13:01afoot.
13:02Special guest Timberlake ripped off part of Jackson's top, exposing her right breast.
13:16Jackson was quickly punished and blacklisted by the music industry, while Timberlake mostly
13:20got off scot-free, at the time, that is.
13:22Oh, those conspiracy theories?
13:24Did Timberlake plan the stunt on purpose to upstage Britney Spears' most recent MTV VMA
13:29appearance, and that it was an attempt by the media to distract the general public from
13:33the ongoing war in Iraq?
13:34What people don't understand is he was to take and rip the piece off that he did.
13:41The leather piece.
13:42Right, but more came off than what was supposed to.
13:45So he was supposed to pull that off and we'd just see the red there, and he ripped the
13:50whole thing.
13:51Yes.
13:52So he had you practiced or whatever before?
13:53Yes, we did.
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14:091.
14:11Will Smith slaps Chris Rock
14:13We're now hearing from Jada Pinkett Smith after her husband, Will Smith, apologized
14:17to Chris Rock for slapping him at the Oscars.
14:20Jada Pinkett Smith posted on Instagram today, saying,
14:22"'This is a season for healing, and I'm here for it.'
14:25It comes as the Academy says it's conducting a formal review.
14:28TJ Holmes has the latest."
14:30Okay, maybe this is kind of a huge claim to make, but is this the wildest moment that's
14:34ever happened on live television?
14:36In an incident that still baffles, confounds, and just generally shocks, the normally family-friendly
14:42Smith took clear offense to a lighthearted joke told by Rock at Jada Pinkett Smith's
14:46expense.
14:47Rock's behavior at last night's Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable.
14:51I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris.
14:54I was out of line, and I was wrong.
14:55I am embarrassed, and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be."
14:59Comparing the alopecia-stricken Jada to Demi Moore's character in the 1997 film G.I.
15:04Jane, Rock quickly found himself physically assaulted by the soon-to-be Oscar winner.
15:08Perhaps the most jaw-dropping episode of celeb losing their marbles, Smith resigned from
15:13the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was banned from attending their events
15:17for 10 years.
15:40Which celeb crashout surprised you the most?
15:42Be sure to let us know in the comments below!