30+ Facts We Never Knew About “RuPaul’s Drag Race”

RuPaul’s Drag Race has been thrilling crowds for 13 seasons now — with wild costumes, unforgettable lip sync battles, and funny one-liners. Even the most ardent viewers, however, might be unaware of what goes on behind the scenes…

Something you may have not known about Rupaul’s Drag Race is the fact that the queens need to actually walk the runway twice — once with music and once with the judges’ commentary over it. There have also been rumors about the challenges that take place on the main stage, in that these scenes are also shot repeatedly.

Since the show’s start in 2009, 179 contestants have competed, resulting in 13 winners. A Louisiana native, Roy Haylock — better known by the stage name, Bianca Del Rio — has been the most successful drag queen from RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Not only has she hosted several international tours but she’s also dabbled in stand-up comedy and even published her own book entitled Blame it on Bianca Del Rio: The Expert on Nothing With an Opinion on Everything. In 2019, she was even named ‘one of the most powerful drag queens in America’ by New York magazine. Not too shabby, Bianca!

Kade Gottlieb — also known by the stage name, Gottmikk — was the first transgender man to compete in Drag Race. Described as someone transmasculine who does high femme drag by Out magazine, Gottlieb uses she/her pronouns when portraying Gottmik.

Kade is a make-up artist by trade and has worked with several celebrities including Paris Hilton, Tinashe, and Cindy Crawford. During a Halloween festival, he transformed Lil Nas X into Nicki Minaj.

Joshua Allen Eads — known by the stage name, Ginger Minj — is a drag queen, actor, comedian, singer-songwriter, and reality television personality. The Florida native is best known for placing as the runner-up on the seventh season of the reality television competition.

During her time on the show, Ginger Minj was part of is an alliance/clique called the “Bitter Old Lady Brigade.” So, it may come as a surprise to some viewers that she was actually only 29 years old when the season began.

Willam Belli, simply known as Willam, is an American drag queen, recording artist, and critically acclaimed actor. Willam rose to prominence as a contestant on the fourth season, during which he became the first person to get disqualified from the show. During a post-season interview with RuPaul, it was confirmed that Willam was removed from the show after he repeatedly met with his spouse in his hotel room, which is a breach of contract as contestants aren’t allowed to reveal their involvement with the show until the cast is announced.

However, Willam — along with our sources — contested that the details of his disqualification were fabricated by the producers. Although the details differ between accounts, it’s known that Willam had been cast in an LA-based theater production called The Jersey Shoresical. If Willam had continued his time on Drag Race, he wouldn’t have been able to appear in the musical. And so, he began committing a series of violations in order to get fired from the show.

Alex Cubb, widely known as Scaredy Kat, is a British drag queen who competed on the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. The queen, who placed ninth, was actually only 19 years old when she became a contestant on the show — making her the youngest queen to compete in a RuPaul’s Drag Race season, and second youngest in the Drag Race franchise overall.

Scaredy Kat considers herself to be a “bedroom queen,” a queen who only does drag in privacy rather than a live performer. Alex, however, spends much of his time working in comedy.

Believe it or not but when the RPDR contestants aren’t competing in a lip-sync battle, some of them are recording songs — or, even album(s)! Season five winner Jinkx Monsoon released a debut studio album called The Inevitable Album in 2014.

Inspired by Bette Midler’s debut studio album, the tracks on the album “come across as both a homogenous and eclectic blend of music,” according to David Clarke of the theater news website, Broadway World.

It’s no secret that the Rupaul’s Drag Race grand prize has changed quite a bit throughout the years. The first season’s prizes included $20,000 courtesy of the V&S Group, top billing on Logo TV’s Drag Race Tour, an appearance in an advertising campaign for L.A. Eyeworks, a photo spread in Paper magazine, and a crown from Fierce Drag Jewels.

Today, however, contestants compete for the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar”, a one-year supply of Anastasia Beverly Hills cosmetics, and a cash prize of $100,000.

Considering the number of spin-offs that came from the original RuPaul’s Drag Race reality show, we’re not at all surprised about this next fact. Thanks to the success of the franchise, LEGO even launched an ideas project at one point that was inspired by the long-running television series.

The set was supposed to include a cast of fan favorites, along with a panel of judges and more. And although we still haven’t spotted that set, we did find minifigurines versions of Mama Ru in both feminine and masculine attire.

When Tyra Sanchez won season two of RuPaul’s Drag Race, she became the youngest contestant in the show’s history to do so, at just 22 years old. It wasn’t until the 10th season in 2018 that Giovanni Palandrani — better known by the stage name, Aquaria — gave Tyra a run for her money when she was crowned the winner at the same age of 22.

So, with that, we think it’s safe to say that these ladies are tied for the youngest contestant to have won the reality competition show.

All fans of RPDR know that the show premiered in 2009 but what many of you probably don’t know is that “RuPaul’s Drag Race was bought during my first pitch meeting,” according to Ru himself, which ain’t no easy feat in Hollywood!

Now, considering the success of the show — 13 seasons, a 14th season on the way, and several spin-offs — we’d say that the television producers made the right choice in trust Ru and buying the pitch.

While some people have never connected the two before, RuPaul believes that Jimmy Fallon’s Lip Sync Battle — featured on his talk show — is a ripoff of RPDR.

During a sit-down interview with Vulture, the drag queen stated that “regular, straight pop culture has liberally lifted things from gay culture as long as I can remember. And that’s fine, because guess what? We have so much more where that comes from. Take it!”

While viewers spend time every week tuning in to watch the competition series, we can bet that they have no idea how much time actually goes into the filming process. It turns out that the finale is usually filmed three separate times, with each finalist filming their winning moment.

The true winner, however, isn’t revealed until the show airs. This is done to prevent the results from being leaked to the public.

Jonathan Ross — an English television and radio presenter, film critic, actor, and comedian — announced in 2014 that he was developing a British version of Drag Race. While there had been attempts to sell the format in the United Kingdom in the past, Drag Race judge Michelle Visage claims that those attempts were unsuccessful because British channels considered it to be too “niche.”

And while that may have been the case for quite some time, Ross finally convinced the right people. Today, there’s already a season of the UK version and another two in the making!

If you just can’t get enough of Drag Race, don’t fret — there are tons of spin-offs to keep you entertained. The series’ companion aftershow, Untucked, airs after each new episode and frequently includes never-before-seen footage.

You can also watch Whatcha Packin’, a web series hosted by panel judge Michelle Visage in which she interviews contestants who have just been eliminated. If you’re looking for a quick recap, look no further. After each episode, The Pit Stop airs on YouTube, where former contestants discuss the most recent events of the show. Plus, there’s also RuPaul’s Drag U, RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars, and RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race.

As fans know, the Werk Room is a room on Drag Race where contestants perform mini-challenges, and prepare for or work on main challenges and runway presentations. This also happens to be the room in which contestants create costumes, apply wigs and make-up, and prepare for the day’s main challenges.

What not many know, though, is that the bricks in this room are completely fake. In fact, those bricks are really just printed vinyl. At certain points during the show, you may even see the walls move if an object or contestant gets too close and causes an air current.

Speaking of the Werk Room, you can often see the queens listening to music in this room. But, it’s not just any song or tune that they’re jamming out to.

In reality, the queens are given iPods that are filled with all of the lip-sync songs that could be used. A night or two before the main stage, the contestants are told which song will actually be used. And so, the rehearsals begin!

Believe it or not, people, but there’s a reason contestants wear the same outfit during all their confessionals. From season six and on, contestants are required to wear the same outfit or two during all their confessionals, the reason being that it makes it easier to edit clips together from two different sound bites — known as “frankenbites.”

Before this rule came about, it was often evidently clear when various testimonials were spliced together, as contestants’ outfits would suddenly change even when the audio never cut out.

Throughout the show’s run, there have been some questions and theories as to whether or not RuPaul’s witty commentary is scripted — although it’s presented as off-the-cuff on air.

Season one contestant Tammie Brown even publicly slammed the host in the past, contending that all of RuPaul’s clever lines are actually fed to him through an earpiece. Hmmm, plausible but not proven. What do you RPDR fans believe?

Phi Phi O’Hara rose to prominence and gained international attention as a runner-up on the fourth season of Rupaul’s Drag Race. She was then supposed to return to the series for the first season of All-Stars. Unfortunately, though, she couldn’t compete due to her arrest.

According to her interview with Vulture, “I got arrested for some stuff that was on my background, stuff that I didn’t take care of, so that was the reason I couldn’t do the first season — because my background check came up dirty.” Phi Phi did, however, make her comeback for season two of All-Stars!

Right, so, we’ve already covered the fact that Ru has been accused of scripting all of his witty remarks and commentary, but get this.

In 2015, a Reddit user claiming to have inside information on Drag Race attested that lip-sync battles are edited in favor of the contestants that the production team prefers, and that the order of elimination is used to create more intriguing storylines. And while we don’t have hard proof, past contestants and fans have made similar accusations in the past.

RuPaul and Michelle Visage first crossed paths in ’87 or ’88, and from that point on, they knew they were destined to be close. According to Michelle herself, she “was voguing with my kids… I was the first biological female to vogue in the ballroom scene and compete.”

That’s when nightlife personality and host Susanne Bartsch noticed and asked Michelle to vogue at her parties. Naturally, Ru was working at these parties and instantly knew that Michelle would be an absolute superstar — and the rest is history!

As ridiculous as it might sound, during the production of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the contestants are essentially cut off from the outside world.

Everyone is kept in separate hotel rooms, and after the Willam debacle — in which he snuck his husband into the hotel room on multiple occasions — producers now put tape on the contestants’ hotel room doors in order to see if they’ve left their rooms or not.

Since its premiere in 2009, RuPaul’s Drag Race has only gotten more popular with each episode and season. If you’re wondering what the most-viewed episode is, well, the Season 13 finale — “Henny, I Shrunk The Drag Queens!” — is the clear winner to date.

This episode, which aired on April 2nd, 2021, drew in 772,000 total viewers, making it the most-watched episode of the award-winning competition reality show since the Season 10 finale in 2018!

Although there have been claims that the show is rigged or scripted, it turns out that the contestants actually have no idea who they’re up against and what other queens are competing — not until the moment they walk through the Werk Room doors.

They’re not even permitted to open the blinds in their hotel rooms in case they see another queen. What this means is that the reactions you see onscreen are completely authentic.

As we mentioned before, while filming RPDR, contestants can’t really interact with the outside world or have any contact with people that aren’t competing.

This means that those competing have to adjust to life without their phones, and pretty quickly at that, as all cellular devices — and any other internet gadgets — are strictly prohibited while on the show. These drastic measures are taken to ensure secrecy during the filming of the show. Unsurprisingly, though, there are contestants that have broken the rules.

Mimi Imfurst appeared on the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars, and was a founding member of the girl group, Xelle. On December 31st, 2016, she became the first American drag queen to perform in Cuba.

An exciting moment, Mimi lip-synced to Madonna’s “Express Yourself” with a team of local dancers. Due to an embargo on American culture in Cuba, this was the first time they had ever heard the 1989 hit single — 27 years after it was first released!

There’s no denying that the queens look absolutely fabulous when they get all glammed up. According to Drag Race judge Ross Matthews, though, these incredible looks actually take hours.

RuPaul, for instance, takes six hours to get ready, although Ru admitted to the fact that he really could get it done in an hour. “But we like to take six hours. Mathu [Anderson] and I, we get back there, we start at six in the morning, we have tea, we eat, we dance…we look at the outfits, we just get into it.”

Since RuPaul’s Drag Race first aired, it has only grown in popularity — and it has even become an international sensation! The show has earned RuPaul five consecutive Emmys (2016 to 2020) for Outstanding Host of a Reality or Reality-Competition Program.

The show itself has been nominated for 39 Emmys, 19 of which the show won. It has also been nominated for nine Reality Television Awards, winning three. Plus, the show has won three of the six NewNowNext Awards it has been nominated for.

Even some of the most ardent Drag Race fans haven’t seen the first season of Drag Race — which actually might for the best. Season one had some seriously questionable production value, even though it was only eight episodes long.

It’s probably best known for its use of the “Vaseline filter,” which was applied to all of the footage and gave it a slightly blurry appearance. RuPaul has mocked the freshman season, claiming that it’s more of a pilot than a legitimate season.

So, what does RuPaul’s Drag Race have in common with Charles Manson? While most of you wouldn’t even attempt to connect the two, it turns out that the show is actually filmed on a soundstage in Simi Valley — in the same area that was home to the Manson family, as well as several other notable events.

RuPaul has even acknowledged the sketchy history of the show’s setting, revealing to Vanity Fair that “we’ve come to cleanse the whole area of its checkered past.”

Have any of you RPDR fans ever wondered how the contestants know what to bring to the competition? Well, the truth is, the queens receive a lengthy list of possible themes and outfits to prepare for challenges and the runway.

Still, this list is fairly vague and doesn’t give very many specifics — plus, not all of the themes are actually used during the competition. But, at least the queens are adequately prepared for when they arrive on set.

As many of you fans know, Drag Race has featured a variety of notable celebrity guest judges, including Christina Aguilera and Nicki Minaj among many other known celebs. Minaj was an extremely memorable judge on the show, strictly based on the enthusiasm and excitement she had about being there.

Not only did the queens have to rap for her, but she also ended up freestyling for everyone. And naturally, when it came to Aguilera’s appearance on the show, the queens were pleasantly surprised because, well, it’s Christina Aguilera.

In a sit-down interview with Vulture — “Real Talk With RuPaul” — Ru was asked what some of his favorite moments are from the show.

He recalled one in particular, revealing that “because the kids are so courageous and their stories are so rich, they bring such a unique story every single time. I always think about Roxxxy’s story when she revealed she was abandoned at a bus stop as a four-year-old. It’s usually their stories that surprise me of how resilient and strong they are.”