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Aisha Tyler Understands the Oscars 2017 La La Land and Moonlight Best Picture Mix-Up All Too Well

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Here's a thought: Next year, have Aisha Tyler announce the Oscars Best Picture winner.

The Talk cohost quickly thought on her feet at the 2013 Daytime Emmy Awards when the envelope she opened for the Outstanding Talk Show Informative category contained the winner for a different category. Tyler—a stand-up comedian in addition to her Talk cohosting duties and numerous acting jobs—saved face and joked with the audience before producers were able to deliver the correct card to the stage. But what is it like in the moment? And why didn't Warren Beatty call over to a producer before accidentally having Faye Dunaway announce La La Land as the Oscars 2017 Best Picture winner over Moonlight? We caught up with Tyler at the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party (which raised $7 million for AIDS research, by the way!), and she explained all that and more.

Here, Tyler's take on what it's like to have an award show mix up on live TV:

“I had the same thing happen at the [Daytime] Emmys. I remember for mine, it was [for the category of Outstanding Talk Show Informative]. The winner on the card was The Young and the Restless or something like that, but I was pretty sure [they] were not in the house! I was able to catch it, and I think it was because I’m a stand-up comedian; I’ve been doing live performance for 20 years. I was able to pivot in the moment and think, ‘OK, I’m pretty clear this is the wrong answer.’ I think for most people—actors or non-actors—when you’re in a live situation, you just do what’s in front of you. You do it because you think, 'OK, someone knows better than me.' I remember when that happened to me, one of our show producers was like, ‘That’s the wrong envelope.’ And the producer for the Emmys was like, ‘No, it’s not; that’s the right envelope.' [Then the other producer was saying] ‘No, it’s not. It’s not the right envelope.’ So in the heat of the moment mistakes are made. Everything happens so fast, it’s hard to retract and pivot. [With this moment tonight], you wonder how have they not worked out the kinks at the end of the show? But I don’t know if [Warren Beatty] got the same envelope twice. My sense is that he got the envelope for the previous category—for the best actress category—somehow again, which seems crazy. [When you] see a woman’s name on there, [you’d think] this can’t possibly be the right envelope. But again, when you’re in that moment, when those lights are on, you just kind of freeze and do whatever is in front of you. I’m sad for the La La Land team because I’m sure they’re heartbroken, and I’m sad for the Moonlight team because I’m sure in a lot of ways their moment was taken from them because it was a mistake. But it wasn’t intentional. And we’ll all be talking about it for a long, long time. I will be talking about it on The Talk in the morning, without a doubt!”

The Talk airs live on CBS at 2 P.M. ET weekdays.

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