RuPaul's Drag Race season 9 finalist Peppermint revealed that she was actually eliminated from the show prior to the finale, but that the producers changed their minds and decided to include her in the top four grand finale. Starting with the first-ever season of Drag Race, the show always included three finalists to compete for the crown at each season's grand finale. These three-way finales remained largely unchanged for eight seasons of the show, but things changed in season 9.
With the moving of Drag Race to VH1 during season 9, the producers felt the need to elevate the stakes and change the dynamic of a grand finale for the show. Over the years, some fans had complained about most Drag Race winners being too obvious going into the finale, which made that episode somewhat irrelevant. In other cases, it was hard for certain viewers to understand the rationale that was used for a particular queen to be crowned over another. To address both of those concerns, the team behind Drag Race changed up the finale so that it would be a Lip Sync For The Crown smackdown competition.
Under this new format, it made sense for the RuPaul's Drag Race season 9 finale to include four contestants so that the episode would have three rounds featuring two queens lip syncing against one another. However, during an interview with Joseph Shepherd (included below), Peppermint revealed that this new finale format was a last-minute change made by producers, and that she was actually eliminated from the season when it was originally filmed. "But then they called us back in," Peppermint explained, "and said, 'Let's just film some other endings just in case.' (...) And they filmed one where we all stayed and moved on to a final four. So then that's what it was." In fact, Peppermint revealed that she only found out about going to the top four when the episode aired, just like the fans.
When it comes to spilling the tea about the actual Lip Sync For The Crown format that started out with Drag Race season 9, Peppermint said that it was way harder to prepare for it than some people may assume. According to Pep's retelling, the producers were initially vague about what the finale would be. And even after it was decided that it would be a lip sync smackdown, the producers were still being very unclear about which songs they would have for the finalists to lip sync. Peppermint said that they were originally given eight songs to learn and prepare for, despite the fact that only three songs were actually used for the finale. In the interview, Peppermint also recalled how her outfit for the Britney Spears' "Stronger" lip sync had actually been made for her to lip sync to Christina Aguilera's "Fighter" at the finale.
It is not uncommon for TV series - and particularly reality competition shows - to make last-minute changes based on an audience's reaction to an ongoing season. With that said, many fans will be very surprised to learn how chaotic the behind-the-scenes process for the Drag Race season 9 finale actually was. Kudos to the producers for ultimately pulling it off, and to the queens for making it all look very easy despite so much mystery and back-and-forth.
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 6 premieres Thursday, June 24 on Paramount+.
Sources: Joseph Shepherd on YouTube
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