- 11 hours ago
Behind the glam and glitter, there’s more than meets the eye on this iconic reality show. Former contestants and insiders have revealed some surprising secrets about how the drama, rivalries, and outcomes are crafted. From carefully edited confessionals and staged crownings to on-set antics and producer influence—get ready to uncover moments that might make you see this beloved competition in a whole new light!
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00:00Rig-a-Morris, girl! It was Rig-a-Morris, girl!
00:02Morris? Who's Morris?
00:05Rig-a-Morris!
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're delving into the times when former
00:10contestants and insiders spilled behind-the-scenes secrets about the beloved reality franchise
00:15RuPaul's Drag Race. There are some Drag Race spoilers on this list, so beware.
00:20You're here because I saw something in you, but you have got to learn how to own your stardom.
00:26The confessionals are heavily edited.
00:30I love my girl Stacy, but I don't feel that she's completely confident in what she's saying,
00:35so I'm wondering, is she gonna be able to pull this off?
00:38Reality TV depends on narration in the form of one-on-one interviews.
00:42These clips are then edited into the episodes to tell the best story.
00:45That's why the Drag Race queens always wear the same outfit in the confessionals.
00:49This allows editors to place a clip wherever they want to craft the narrative.
00:53So, yes, they may have said it, but when did they say it?
00:56My girl Plastique, she's relying on her looks to get her safe.
01:00I love you.
01:00I love you.
01:02Nina, what's the tea, girl?
01:04How you feeling?
01:05Empowered.
01:06Trixie Mattel and Katya explained how the shooting schedule was inconsistent from season to season.
01:11In Season 7, they filmed them at the end of the day. In later seasons,
01:15they filmed interviews in the morning or even at the end of an entire week.
01:18On All Stars 2, we did them on the weekends once. So I would have to go in for four hours and
01:23describe the whole week. This, I actually, while it was very difficult, this was much more natural.
01:29You have to wonder how the recall of events might change given the schedule.
01:33RuPaul's Jammies. At the start of every episode's runway segment,
01:37the luminous host appears in a glorious gown generally made by Zaldi, her designer of choice.
01:42You're a girl. Put the base in your wall. Get your toe. Get your whole body top.
01:49So beautiful.
01:51However, during long shooting days, she's only committed to glamour from the waist up.
01:56After making her entrance, RuPaul goes back to her dressing room,
01:59swapping out the heels and bottoms for jammies and comfy shoes.
02:02For years, it was just a rumor. Season 13's Utica Queen got a playful
02:07two-finger salute from the host when she made reference to it.
02:09RuPaul, you are such a fashion icon.
02:12If you could stand up for us, please.
02:17But eagle-eyed fans have been on the lookout for Ru's comfy bottoms ever since.
02:21And if you still don't believe us, RuPaul confirmed the rumor in 2023.
02:26I guess I should have said I was wearing some gorgeous high heels.
02:29They were beautiful. And a lot of people are into that kind of thing.
02:33RuPaul's Earpiece. The host is famous for coming up with puns and quippy
02:38one-liners at pivotal moments during the show.
02:40Cynthia Lee Fontaine, your ginger snap was loca. But the judges were not crazy about your roller
02:48girl.
02:48According to some former contestants, RuPaul has actually fed lines and information through
02:53an earpiece. This seems pretty standard, but it does make us sad that the host's quick wit is
02:58producer-supplied.
02:59Yeah, yeah, where's Jack Skellington when you need him?
03:02She's got charisma, uniqueness, and one last damn nerve.
03:06Contestant Tammy Brown was an early whistleblower on this one. During a 2012 radio interview,
03:11she revealed this filming tidbit, while calling the show a, quote,
03:14Hollywood machine that was all fake.
03:16Same thing with RuPaul. I've told him off before, too, because no tea, no shade. They feed him
03:21everything in his ear.
03:22Oh!
03:23You know?
03:23This was backed up by Season 8 queen Cynthia Lee Fontaine and a series of deleted tweets.
03:28Willem's disqualification
03:30Season 4 saw many firsts for the show, but one scandalous moment stands out. Willem
03:35Belli's mysterious, sudden, and perplexing disqualification shocked everyone.
03:39Your actions have consequences, and I'm afraid you leave me no choice. Willem,
03:46I have to ask you to leave the competition immediately.
03:50Although many references were made to Willem's rule-breaking on the show,
03:54it took years to get the whole story. Even now, we're not sure if we've gotten all of it.
03:58She alleges producers supplied an untrue reason for her disqualification,
04:02which she dutifully repeated at the reunion.
04:04You were receiving conjugal visits from your husband,
04:07and unfortunately, that was a violation of the rules.
04:10Visiting makes it sound like we were visiting, and there was no talking.
04:14However, she has since exposed the show's mistreatment of cast members,
04:17her frequent misbehavior on the set, and alleges she knew she would leave early due to a scheduling
04:23conflict.
04:23You do not call Latrice La-something.
04:26Yeah.
04:26So, I had it with them at that point, but, um, so I broke those rules with going to the store and
04:32getting stuff, but I brought other girls so they couldn't kick us all off.
04:34Since then, she's had a famously contentious relationship with RuPaul and the show itself.
04:40Max's Elimination
04:41Max, you are a true original.
04:46Thank you for taking us all to the Max.
04:50Max's Elimination
04:50During Season 7, this regal and deeply creative queen went home in a shocking and incredibly
04:55awkward elimination. Max landed in the bottom due to a weak performance in the Snatch Game.
05:00During critiques, a wardrobe malfunction saw a clearly distracted Max holding up the shoot.
05:05Her decision to start singing is met with baffled looks from the judges.
05:09Max, are you okay?
05:10So I can't quite be called overnight sensation.
05:18I took advantage of the moment.
05:20Max herself alleges that the scene was manipulated to make her look delusional,
05:24and that RuPaul had asked her to sing.
05:26And so she asked me to sing a few bars of Swanee, but I think she said,
05:29somewhere over the rainbow.
05:32Because I was like, no, I'm going to sing the thing she sings in a starboard instead.
05:36Her castmate Katia recalls it somewhat differently,
05:38remembering RuPaul's request as more sarcastic than anything else.
05:42Regardless, the suggestion that she sing something was edited out to help
05:46craft the narrative that it was Max's time to go.
05:48I think the subtext of that comment was,
05:51hey, why don't you take all the time you need down there? It's not like we're just
05:54filming something.
05:55Oh.
05:55That was the vibe.
05:57Pearl's experience with Mama Ru.
05:59There's something on my face.
06:03No, I'm just not convinced. I'm just not convinced. And I want you to do well.
06:07One of the big storylines of Season 7 was this finalist's
06:10detached attitude toward the competition.
06:12Pearl was clearly distracted during her time on Drag Race.
06:15You gotta loosen it up, girl. Come out of your shell.
06:18We want more vitality and more energy and more star power.
06:23However, she contends that her reasoning was due to an early experience on set with RuPaul.
06:28During some downtime on set, Pearl told her how honored she was to meet her.
06:32RuPaul's alleged response has gone down in history among fans.
06:36And she turned to me and she said,
06:42Nothing you say matters unless that camera is rolling.
06:45For many fans, those words shattered the show's image of the benevolent Mama Ru,
06:49who sees all the queens as her children.
06:52The crownings are staged.
06:53It's the culmination of every season.
06:56The Drag Race finalists finally learn which of them has snatched the crown,
06:59and the crowd goes wild.
07:01Jinx Monsoon!
07:02Jinx Monsoon!
07:06But this live reaction is anything but real.
07:09Since the show's fourth season, the show films several different endings in front of a live
07:13audience to hide who actually won.
07:15If you did end up in a tie with the door, how would you have felt?
07:18Uh, yes, they did film.
07:19Uh, so we film, uh, as most people know, it's been, you know, said many times,
07:23they film all of us winning.
07:25This largely came about because of leaks that spoiled the Season 3 winner.
07:29It also means that we need to go elsewhere to see the real-time reactions when the contestants
07:33win the show.
07:34The show releases footage of the moment the queens actually find out they won.
07:38Willow Pill!
07:39Ahhhhh!
07:40Woohoo!
07:41Yes!
07:43Yes!
07:43Yes!
07:44Asia and the Vixens Heart to Heart
07:46Season 10 opened up a conversation about reality TV narratives about Black contestants.
07:51Two queens, Asia O'Hara and the Vixen, had a discussion about their differing approaches to this problem.
07:56Maybe subconsciously you might go to a place of Angku because
08:00Eureka is a representation of a lot of what you don't like in the community.
08:06In the edit, it looks like Asia is doing most of the talking,
08:09having a character-building breakthrough with the Vixen.
08:12However, it's alleged that this conversation was heavily manipulated to suit the show's narrative.
08:17All of that anger has been bottled up and it is now directed towards Eureka.
08:22Is Vixen handling it the wrong way? Yes.
08:25Do I understand where the Vixen is coming from? Absolutely.
08:30The Vixen revealed that many of her responses and talking points were cut out of the conversation
08:34as it appeared in the episode.
08:36What was actually a back-and-forth meta discussion about the show
08:39became a moment of personal growth for Asia on her way to becoming a finalist.
08:43Sometimes to be strong, you have to be a little soft.
08:46You have to learn how to take that and turn it into strength from a place of love.
08:51All-star seven queens call out favoritism.
08:53Jada Essence Hall! Look over there! It's the exit!
08:58The all-winners season of the show was a celebration of Drag Race's amazing roster of champions.
09:03Despite the non-elimination format, the queens had plenty to say once the cameras stopped rolling.
09:08Social media and interviews with many of the cast indicated that the production team
09:12essentially papered over Jinx Monsoon's weaknesses over the season.
09:16There are some legitimate fashion icons and bona fide seamstresses in this room.
09:24And I am not one of them.
09:26They insisted that her win, though deserved, was almost a foregone conclusion.
09:30In fact, the entire cast got together for an unsanctioned, unofficial reunion to hash things out.
09:36According to Evie Oddly, Jinx agreed with their complaints.
09:39All of the girls just aired their grievances about how the competition felt rigged around.
09:45And then we get affirmations from the one person that it would have mattered from.
09:50Release of the reunion was blocked, presumably by World of Wonder, the show's production company.
09:56Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
10:02You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
10:06If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
10:11Ginger, is there anything you'd like to say?
10:16It's been 10 years of coming to this competition, and I'm f***ing ready to reign.
10:23Fan reaction to the show's 10th All-Star season was not what RuPaul and Company would have hoped.
10:28After her fourth attempt at a crown, Ginger Minj walked away a winner, and the response was tepid to hostile.
10:34Many former contestants joined the fray.
10:37Several queens, including Candy Muse, Willem, and Naysha Lopez, questioned some of Ginger's wins,
10:42and by extension, RuPaul and the producers.
10:45You went from one iconic lip-sync to another iconic lip-sync.
10:52Most of the controversy centered around the see-you-again lip-sync between Ginger and Denali.
10:57The result was contentious, to say the least.
10:59The last time I freaked out, I just kept looking down.
11:02A sister started, baby, after what I'm thinking about.
11:06Feel like I couldn't breathe.
11:08You are so drunk with me.
11:09Whether or not this is true fakery is not really easy to say.
11:13It depends on who you ask.
11:15But enough former contestants had questions that it makes it hard to ignore.
11:18I'm gonna be honest.
11:20I'm gag, because the vibe was Denali, Denali, Denali.
11:24But at the end of the day, I'm not the judge.
11:26Did these facts make you see Drag Race differently?
11:28Tell us in the comments.
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