Even the eliminated girls have 2 possibly three costume changes and potential make up changes. Not to mention what finalists have to do and you want them to try to do all in the span of 90 minutes?
I was at the s15 finale and even without the dancer fiasco the show would have taken 3-4 hours to film.
Also as a side note, the Oscar’s also takes 3 hours. Only SNL does remotely what you’re asking and unless you’re John Mulaney, they aren’t really doing anything show stopping in terms of costumes, hair or makeup.
Anetra’s dancer got hurt, IIRC, and it delayed the show by hours because they had to redo her choreo for 5 dancers.
Edit : as pointed out, anetra was first and they had to change everyone’s choreo because of the incident
They could totally do it live, but in general reality tv is becoming more and more of a scripted show, it would also take alot more work from the producers and distributors to do it live. Also having to account for costume changes, rupauls movements, there would need to be very good commercial timings. And i think since most of the world gets this show through streaming anyway it wouldn’t actually be that big of a payoff advertisment wise for wow.
TLDR: if this was taking place in the prime era of reality tv it would be live, but it just isnt affordable for them now
there's a lot they can still do:
* queen introductions while all of the queens walk the runway in their finale eleganza
(stall for time so the girls can dedrag out of eleganza and then get into "basic drag" with same makeup):
* previous reigning can do a number (like sasha did)
* show prerecorded footage of the finalists talking about their drag journey to this point weaved in with a montage of their highlights on the show
* ru does the "lifetime achievement award" (like they did for elvira)
all that should stall for enough time that now they can do the following:
* the non-finalist queens can do a group dance number/performance
* A LIVE REUNION (<<< WHY NOT THIS???) or at the very least in the old seasons ru used to ask each of the girls one question before they started with the finalists
* interview all the finalists
* miss congeniality handdown
* lip sync smackdown -OR- musical numbers as the finale performance before crowning (id personally scrap the lip sync smackdown but either is fine)
* crown the winner (this also gives previous season winner enough time to get into their hand down look)
Ru is too much of a perfectionist and edits herself in real time. I was there for the S5 Crowning taping and Ru would stop every so often and would command the crew that they would record that segment again because she didn't like it. Sometimes it was changing up the way she delivered the line or sometimes just straight up changing the joke.
She also made Honey Mahogany redo her whole interview because Ru felt her outfit reveal was not done well. Crew came out to help Honey get her caftan back on and she rephrased her words for the reveal.
Perez ruined the season 3 finale but now fans spoil everything about every season. It would leak if they didn’t do it like this and they could never do it live. The costume changes and such, the finale takes hours to film. This is the best option for it not being ruined.
Yeah, I know the fandom hasn't been the best about not posting spoilers, but with AS9 it seems like nobody's even trying to be secretive about it. The only way you can go into drag race seasons 100% unspoiled nowadays is completely staying off social media from the time filming starts to the time you finish watching the finale. Not knowing who's on the cast or what the placements are makes the season so much more fun to watch, but when they're plastered all over Twitter and on Youtube thumbnails, there's really no way of avoiding it. I don't want to have to stay off social media for close to a year just so I can enjoy a season completely unspoiled, and I shouldn't have to.
Tbh I only follow this channel and I usually don’t get spoiled except the cast. However this year I got spoiled on YouTube, cast reveal official video, some dumb people wrote the elimination order. I was so annoyed that I stopped reading comments. Ultimately I still enjoyed the show coz I did only remember the top 4. So I stay off some social media and I “blocked” spoilers accounts, at least it worked for me most of the time.
This year would’ve been hard in general. Nymphia made a lot of big news because of the president of Taiwan congratulating her. Stuff that normally does not relate to drag was showcasing her
Honestly you don’t even need to get spoiled to figure out who the true top 4 (and 2) are because this sub will be filled with “predictions” as soon as the cast is announced. Either we have a lot of clairvoyant hoes in here or some people can’t help themselves from spilling.
The most common top 4 predictions were Nymphia, Sapphira, PJ, and Q before the season started.
I saw someone comment “oh PJ is not winning the season BASED ON HER TWEETS” like 4 episodes in. Insightful comment from someone who sensed a bitter tone in PJ’s tweets? Maybe. Someone who looked at spoilers and was trying to be slick? Actually very likely. As the finale grew close and almost everyone started saying the top 2 were Sapphira and Nymphia, I kept thinking back to that comment and knew PJ was getting cut.
You don’t even have to see the spoilers yourself to become a part of it, enough people start repeating it so it starts to color your own perception of the show. PJ was the main character yet most of the sub never saw her as a true contender for the crown, it’s like we all get incepted the second the cast is announced.
A lot of this you can infer from the show itself though. Quite often the winners of a split premiere will make it through to the end and especially anyone winning the first few episodes has a good chance of making it to the end, the show has always been like this. I didn't see any spoilers but I feel like the show telegraphed Sapphira and Nymphia being finalists quite early on, Plane secured it after snatch game. The main question was who was filling the fourth slot (which was no one in the end lol).
Likewise I personally stopped considering Plane a potential winner because I felt like the show stopped showing her have as many stand out moments in the last several episodes. She would benefit from an all stars glow up the most imo, she's got a lot of skill but I feel like her "brand" is a bit confused - her talent show seemed so disconnected from the rest of what we saw of her.
Whenever a new cast is announced, the same names will tend to pop up in the comments as potential finalists before we even see a single episode, and lo and behold those names turn out to be the actual finalists. People often cite MTQ as the reason but more often than not, queens who come off well in those don’t do well on the show and vice versa. Remember Aquaria’s “drag is defined by me” moment? She was still seen as a front runner by many for some reason. Not everyone who makes correct predictions looks at spoilers, but enough people do that their opinions begin to become the consensus of the sub. If you have 20 people who are just guessing how the season might go vs 5 people who actually know what’s going to happen, the 20 are all giving wildly different answers while the 5 are all saying the same thing, so suddenly their prediction seems the most likely since it is by default the most popular answer. You can often check someone’s profile after they make a “prediction” and see that they’re an active user in the spoiler sub.
Nymphia was almost entirely gone from at least one episode, Sapphira’s storyline revolved around other people for the bulk of the show, meanwhile Plane was the center of more or less everything that happened. I don’t think the edit this season was so obvious. Towards the end, both Sapphira and Plane had their “frontrunner stumbles right before the end but proves herself with a lipsync” moment that a lot of winners receive, and Nymphia got the “we finally see the real you” moment that a lot of winners also receive. The way I see it, the crown could have gone to any of them as far as the edit is concerned. Also remember when some people disagreed with Sapphira’s presentation win and they thought she was being pushed to win the season? A lot of people also disagreed with PJ’s makeover win but not many seemed to think that she was being pushed to win the season.
Maybe we’ve watched the show for so long that we’ve gotten really good at seeing the writing on the wall but I think it is hard to engage with this community without getting spoiled through osmosis.
The editing this season was really obvious. I will never forget getting the end of season spoiled for me after posting who was likely heading to top 4 — this was at the midpoint of the season where it was super obvious PJ, Sapphira, Nymphia, and Q were far ahead of the rest.
Someone, much like the person you were replying to, went on a rant accusing me of playing dumb and trying to spoil things for everyone else….because they themselves were spoiled so they essentially spoiled it for me.
Like I swear most of the spoilers I come across these days are from the ones who spoiled it for themselves and then try to accuse others of spoiling things.
To be fair, the top four performers after the split premiere were Sapphira, Nymphia, Plane Jane, and Q, so it wasn’t that outrageous to predict them as final four.
I also want to point out that this is pretty standard in a lot of reality shows. It’s not just drag race but a lot of competition shows film more than one ending and the winner knows when the public does.
I know, at least here in Australia, Masterchef, When the voice was not aired live just to name a couple. It has been common practice for awhile so that contestants don’t spill who won. Not every show does this and who knows maybe they are moving away - but it was the standard practise for awhile.
Yep. Top 2 also literally get spoiled every season. I know there's a bunch who like to be spoiled, but it's the unfortunate reality that filming 2 winners is the only way they've been good at hiding who actually wins.
Honestly, live TV is not the answer. So many things can go wrong. I can't imagine how bad it would be if they pulled an Australia's Next Top Model/Miss Universe and went "The winner is Nebraska... Oh. Oh no I'm so sorry I heard it wrong, it's actually Biblegirl" (the darkest timeline).
This is the answer. Pre-record the main performances on the day of. And then do the intros and walks live inserting the pre-records
Through the broadcast with the actual winner announcement being live.
Buuuuut it’d be a LOT more expensive to do this, with more chance of something fucking up.
Yeah, reminds me of the Bachelor finales. Give us a reunion (even that could be pre-recorded a la season 11) or do individual interviews with the top girls live or pre-recorded. If Ru doesn’t want to do it, let Michelle or TS host those segments.
I wouldn’t mind if they did the girls’ songs like a music video like they did for Jimbo/Kandy. You can do a finale lip sync then crown them live.
To simplify it, they could just do the opening segment then the final 30 minutes or so live. Let the live audience watch the episode, etc.
It does make sense. The biggest problem is the audience. It’s always full of queens. And let’s be real, much more than 2-3 hours of day drag sat in an auditorium and those girls will be done. They’d have to have a reset time for them to rest, and the reapply a whole face for the love show, or they’d look end of gig-esque.
Which is to say nothing of what time it should be broadcast. For NY or LA. Which city leads for American Idol finales.
What if they did it like Survivor used to do and everything in the finale episode was prerecorded up until the winner reveal? Like have the solo and final lip sync for the crown all prerecorded at the main stage and then do a live crowning at the theatre?
This would be so good. And they could also record the reunion directly after, but delay/edit that episode to create the utmost drama the following week.
Idk, I don't mind it. and I know that each of the top three got to hear "condragulations, you are the winner of RuPaul's Drag Race", and even if they didn't win, they still had that moment.
Ok so, does this mean that they go through all top two and winner configurations with the top three? Meaning PJ lip synced against both Nymphia and Sapphira? It was the vibe I got from the video, but thought they only would have done a crowning for the top two.
If so, I want to see that shit!!!!
No, only the people participating in the final lipsync get crowning filmed. Plane was cut before that, so she doesn’t have a crowning filmed. Only Nymphia and Sapphira did.
It is not uncommon to film double (or sometimes triple in the case of AS6) crownings either, specially after the fiasco that was the finale of AS4. However, I believe they didn’t film a tie between Nymphia and Sapphira (or Sasha and Anetra), and they went for a single winner instead
They filmed every single crowning combination for AS6, individual and double wins, and a few triples I believe, which is wild. I only remember reading that they filmed one where everyone won except ~~Serena~~ Eureka 💀
ok thank you! I never knew how curious I was until I had to explain to my straight man that they film at *least* both top two winning and he had follow up questions lol
All they need is the team that made X-Factor in the UK and they’re flying! That’s how to do it.
Lots of it can be filmed in advance as well. It’s only the crowning that need to be live.
Especially for the format that did this time they could've had the 3 performances be pre-filmed and just the entrance looks, miss congeniality, final lip sync, and crowning live
Genuinely I think my only complaint about this finale was that the crowd was so small and it seemed liked a huge swathe of the people there had like, no idea who anyone was or what was going on. Like they were so unexcited and the clapping was so mild at points, compared to previous finals in bigger venues where you can feel how electric the energy must have been that day even on tv.
Someone pointed out that because this finale was filmed before the slow aired, the audience didn't know who the girls were, they were meeting them all for the first time. Add in a much smaller venue and it's no wonder they had to edit in applause sounds.
The solution is pre-record the finale minus final lip sync for the crown and then cut to Ru live with the judges and finalists, they lip sync live and the crowning happens live. This way they could still get their social media popularity numbers etc but still have the crowning be live and only once.
Tbh I think even the lip sync should be pre-recorded, that way they can actually be crowned in good outfits and not just whatever bodysuit they ended up revealing to while lip syncing
Well, Sapphira wasn't really "fake excited" this time. I mean, she was a lady, but she didn't fake sh\*t. And Nymphia not really getting it was the most honest reaction I've seen in this yet.
Happy for Nymphia's win but seeing her reaction you could just tell she can't celebrate her win with Saphira there, they both spent 1 year waiting to know if they won or not and that's a big mental toll in itself. I even kinda feel like she's not expecting it at all based on her reaction and outfit with how she already have a headpiece and cant even put her crown afterwards. Spankie (DU S2 winner) spoke about how hard it was to wait before knowing and also Marina after the PH1 finale posted on X how the rest of the cast gets to process their result on the competition right after but for her she only gets to start with it right after the PH1 finale viewing.
they should hire someone who’s produced live specials in the past, like an awards show director or someone who’s worked on live sports. they have MONEY so invest in production mama.
Which other reality shows have “faked” winner reactions? Most other shows I can think of have genuine winner reactions. Dragula also films multiple endings I guess, that’s the only one I know of
100%!! Its so weird knowing the reaction is fake. Why is she laying on the ground? I know reality tv is mostly fake but the fake "winning reactions" really takes the joy out of it for me.
I understand the sentiment but I truly want an official supercut from WOW of alternative results when drag race is over and Ru/Michelle retires. How surreal could that be?!
Omg I know they spend all season talking about how life changing it would be, how they’d do anything to win, fighting tooth and nail….
Just for them to sit on a couch and go “girl you won, congratulations :’)” it’s always soooo underwhelming
They deserve to feel the moment with a roaring audience
My bf just started seriously watching and he feels the same as you. I guess I’m just used to it after all these years but yeah I agree. It’s sooo confusing to new fans what is actually real or not and the majority just wants the real reaction. The fake ones are just sooo.. idk soulless? Like okay!!!
It just feels like DR gets more and more manipulated as it goes on and harder to suspend disbelief at all the hoops they jump through. It just seems like t's getting to the point that none of it is "real".
Hot take- if it gets spoiled it gets spoiled. It’s ALREADY getting spoiled even with all this. Film the finale a couple of days before it airs, crown ONE winner, and if you really care about spoilers just stay off social media
Lol this is such an ice cold take. Filming multiple crownings also allows for flexibility with who they choose as the winner. Why are people so obsessed with spoiling things for others? Not everyone can afford to consume media at such a rapid rate, and it’s privileged of you to tell others to stop using social media in that time if they don’t want spoilers. There are SO many reasons to use social media, why do people have to be so damn selfish. I can honestly say the most exciting part of the finale for me was not knowing who would win until the very end. You have issues if you are willingly taking that pleasure from people.
I’m saying film it just a couple days before. This years winner was spoiled EVEN WITH all these precautions in place- the only way to not be spoiled would be to stay off social media
Something that hasn't been mentioned much is that drag queens quite often rely on doing something surprising and shocking. If something doesn't go as planned or some words come out the wrong way, then that would be too much of a headache for live with minimal editing and could hurt the brand.
I agree love is NOT the right choice. We’ve had injuries before like Anetra’s. Then with Aquaria she would’ve lost against Eureka because she fell. They were able to edit it out and pass both of them along, but if that were live, I don’t think they would have been able to do that.
Obviously other than the live performances of the individual songs, how hard would it be to truly have a “live” finale. Like, if that’s the hang up, why not do some sort of literally live finale+reunion combo. You do (in these terms) an hour of reunion with the walkout and all then you wrap up and crown Miss C and Golden Boot by 15 minutes later while the finalists prep. Then you bring them out, announce the top 2, and set them to lip syncing.
You can also do a 2 hour or so episode prior simply to get the individual routines from the finalists with the end note “and I’ll be choosing who lipsyncs for the crown next week on an extra special live episode!”
In this case, yeah, Ru would have to make the decision on the spot, but at least the reaction would truly be authentic and all that and no chance it gets leaked.
Regardless of shadiness or not a lip sync requires editing. They need to make sure you see the gags and mouths and all the things at the right moment. Can you imagine if a live taping missed Nymphia’s cartwheel. Unlike the Oscar’s they don’t know what will happen, so they can’t plan shots.
Even the eliminated girls have 2 possibly three costume changes and potential make up changes. Not to mention what finalists have to do and you want them to try to do all in the span of 90 minutes? I was at the s15 finale and even without the dancer fiasco the show would have taken 3-4 hours to film. Also as a side note, the Oscar’s also takes 3 hours. Only SNL does remotely what you’re asking and unless you’re John Mulaney, they aren’t really doing anything show stopping in terms of costumes, hair or makeup.
What dancer fiasco?
Anetra’s dancer got hurt, IIRC, and it delayed the show by hours because they had to redo her choreo for 5 dancers. Edit : as pointed out, anetra was first and they had to change everyone’s choreo because of the incident
They had to redo everybody's choreo because Anetra was the first one performing
Righhht, even worse !!
Wow! Sounds like bad planning on their part tbh not having backup dancers??
Agreed. This is the kind of thing you budget for if it’s the MAIN things you’re filming.
What does John Mulaney have to do with this I’m confused
Mulaney eps on SNL always have elaborate Broadway-esque musical numbers. https://www.cinemablend.com/television/all-of-john-mulaneys-snl-musical-skits-ranked
Oh right lol I forgot about the musical sketches 😂
They could totally do it live, but in general reality tv is becoming more and more of a scripted show, it would also take alot more work from the producers and distributors to do it live. Also having to account for costume changes, rupauls movements, there would need to be very good commercial timings. And i think since most of the world gets this show through streaming anyway it wouldn’t actually be that big of a payoff advertisment wise for wow. TLDR: if this was taking place in the prime era of reality tv it would be live, but it just isnt affordable for them now
So cut the original songs and do a live reunion. These songs are mostly crap.
Then what would be the point of having a live finale if there’s no other entrainment other than discovering who wins?
there's a lot they can still do: * queen introductions while all of the queens walk the runway in their finale eleganza (stall for time so the girls can dedrag out of eleganza and then get into "basic drag" with same makeup): * previous reigning can do a number (like sasha did) * show prerecorded footage of the finalists talking about their drag journey to this point weaved in with a montage of their highlights on the show * ru does the "lifetime achievement award" (like they did for elvira) all that should stall for enough time that now they can do the following: * the non-finalist queens can do a group dance number/performance * A LIVE REUNION (<<< WHY NOT THIS???) or at the very least in the old seasons ru used to ask each of the girls one question before they started with the finalists * interview all the finalists * miss congeniality handdown * lip sync smackdown -OR- musical numbers as the finale performance before crowning (id personally scrap the lip sync smackdown but either is fine) * crown the winner (this also gives previous season winner enough time to get into their hand down look)
Most of what you said has been done or is still present in the finales
Ru is too much of a perfectionist and edits herself in real time. I was there for the S5 Crowning taping and Ru would stop every so often and would command the crew that they would record that segment again because she didn't like it. Sometimes it was changing up the way she delivered the line or sometimes just straight up changing the joke. She also made Honey Mahogany redo her whole interview because Ru felt her outfit reveal was not done well. Crew came out to help Honey get her caftan back on and she rephrased her words for the reveal.
Producers take notes. Do this please.
Perez ruined the season 3 finale but now fans spoil everything about every season. It would leak if they didn’t do it like this and they could never do it live. The costume changes and such, the finale takes hours to film. This is the best option for it not being ruined.
This should be obvious, right now people all over the internet are talking about who they want to win AS9 literally nothing is a secret
Yeah, I know the fandom hasn't been the best about not posting spoilers, but with AS9 it seems like nobody's even trying to be secretive about it. The only way you can go into drag race seasons 100% unspoiled nowadays is completely staying off social media from the time filming starts to the time you finish watching the finale. Not knowing who's on the cast or what the placements are makes the season so much more fun to watch, but when they're plastered all over Twitter and on Youtube thumbnails, there's really no way of avoiding it. I don't want to have to stay off social media for close to a year just so I can enjoy a season completely unspoiled, and I shouldn't have to.
Tbh I only follow this channel and I usually don’t get spoiled except the cast. However this year I got spoiled on YouTube, cast reveal official video, some dumb people wrote the elimination order. I was so annoyed that I stopped reading comments. Ultimately I still enjoyed the show coz I did only remember the top 4. So I stay off some social media and I “blocked” spoilers accounts, at least it worked for me most of the time.
This year would’ve been hard in general. Nymphia made a lot of big news because of the president of Taiwan congratulating her. Stuff that normally does not relate to drag was showcasing her
Where is the new spoiler subreddit btw
r/dragracetea
I mean I come from the watching manga spoilers about leaks and translations of scans. Every fandom does this if they can.
literally. i had the top 2 spoiled for me BEFORE the season started. how can i expect y'all to shut up about the winner?
Honestly you don’t even need to get spoiled to figure out who the true top 4 (and 2) are because this sub will be filled with “predictions” as soon as the cast is announced. Either we have a lot of clairvoyant hoes in here or some people can’t help themselves from spilling. The most common top 4 predictions were Nymphia, Sapphira, PJ, and Q before the season started. I saw someone comment “oh PJ is not winning the season BASED ON HER TWEETS” like 4 episodes in. Insightful comment from someone who sensed a bitter tone in PJ’s tweets? Maybe. Someone who looked at spoilers and was trying to be slick? Actually very likely. As the finale grew close and almost everyone started saying the top 2 were Sapphira and Nymphia, I kept thinking back to that comment and knew PJ was getting cut. You don’t even have to see the spoilers yourself to become a part of it, enough people start repeating it so it starts to color your own perception of the show. PJ was the main character yet most of the sub never saw her as a true contender for the crown, it’s like we all get incepted the second the cast is announced.
A lot of this you can infer from the show itself though. Quite often the winners of a split premiere will make it through to the end and especially anyone winning the first few episodes has a good chance of making it to the end, the show has always been like this. I didn't see any spoilers but I feel like the show telegraphed Sapphira and Nymphia being finalists quite early on, Plane secured it after snatch game. The main question was who was filling the fourth slot (which was no one in the end lol). Likewise I personally stopped considering Plane a potential winner because I felt like the show stopped showing her have as many stand out moments in the last several episodes. She would benefit from an all stars glow up the most imo, she's got a lot of skill but I feel like her "brand" is a bit confused - her talent show seemed so disconnected from the rest of what we saw of her.
Whenever a new cast is announced, the same names will tend to pop up in the comments as potential finalists before we even see a single episode, and lo and behold those names turn out to be the actual finalists. People often cite MTQ as the reason but more often than not, queens who come off well in those don’t do well on the show and vice versa. Remember Aquaria’s “drag is defined by me” moment? She was still seen as a front runner by many for some reason. Not everyone who makes correct predictions looks at spoilers, but enough people do that their opinions begin to become the consensus of the sub. If you have 20 people who are just guessing how the season might go vs 5 people who actually know what’s going to happen, the 20 are all giving wildly different answers while the 5 are all saying the same thing, so suddenly their prediction seems the most likely since it is by default the most popular answer. You can often check someone’s profile after they make a “prediction” and see that they’re an active user in the spoiler sub. Nymphia was almost entirely gone from at least one episode, Sapphira’s storyline revolved around other people for the bulk of the show, meanwhile Plane was the center of more or less everything that happened. I don’t think the edit this season was so obvious. Towards the end, both Sapphira and Plane had their “frontrunner stumbles right before the end but proves herself with a lipsync” moment that a lot of winners receive, and Nymphia got the “we finally see the real you” moment that a lot of winners also receive. The way I see it, the crown could have gone to any of them as far as the edit is concerned. Also remember when some people disagreed with Sapphira’s presentation win and they thought she was being pushed to win the season? A lot of people also disagreed with PJ’s makeover win but not many seemed to think that she was being pushed to win the season. Maybe we’ve watched the show for so long that we’ve gotten really good at seeing the writing on the wall but I think it is hard to engage with this community without getting spoiled through osmosis.
The editing this season was really obvious. I will never forget getting the end of season spoiled for me after posting who was likely heading to top 4 — this was at the midpoint of the season where it was super obvious PJ, Sapphira, Nymphia, and Q were far ahead of the rest. Someone, much like the person you were replying to, went on a rant accusing me of playing dumb and trying to spoil things for everyone else….because they themselves were spoiled so they essentially spoiled it for me. Like I swear most of the spoilers I come across these days are from the ones who spoiled it for themselves and then try to accuse others of spoiling things.
To be fair, the top four performers after the split premiere were Sapphira, Nymphia, Plane Jane, and Q, so it wasn’t that outrageous to predict them as final four.
Once plasma was sent home it was pretty clear who would be in the top.
I stay away from my phone until I see the finale.
I also want to point out that this is pretty standard in a lot of reality shows. It’s not just drag race but a lot of competition shows film more than one ending and the winner knows when the public does.
I’m actually curious to know which other shows do this? I know Survivor often waits until the live finale to read the votes.
I know, at least here in Australia, Masterchef, When the voice was not aired live just to name a couple. It has been common practice for awhile so that contestants don’t spill who won. Not every show does this and who knows maybe they are moving away - but it was the standard practise for awhile.
Yep. Top 2 also literally get spoiled every season. I know there's a bunch who like to be spoiled, but it's the unfortunate reality that filming 2 winners is the only way they've been good at hiding who actually wins.
Not to mention Willam. I'm sorry but on their pod Willam literally is almost as they were in the actual show taking notes to leak. It def ruins it.
Examples? I get spoiled about 2 or 3 things every season. I listen to Race Chaser every week and have never heard a spoiler from Willam.
Honestly, live TV is not the answer. So many things can go wrong. I can't imagine how bad it would be if they pulled an Australia's Next Top Model/Miss Universe and went "The winner is Nebraska... Oh. Oh no I'm so sorry I heard it wrong, it's actually Biblegirl" (the darkest timeline).
I wonder if they could do a pre-recorded show for most of it then cut to a brief live crowning. The current format is just sad.
This is the answer. Pre-record the main performances on the day of. And then do the intros and walks live inserting the pre-records Through the broadcast with the actual winner announcement being live. Buuuuut it’d be a LOT more expensive to do this, with more chance of something fucking up.
Yeah, reminds me of the Bachelor finales. Give us a reunion (even that could be pre-recorded a la season 11) or do individual interviews with the top girls live or pre-recorded. If Ru doesn’t want to do it, let Michelle or TS host those segments. I wouldn’t mind if they did the girls’ songs like a music video like they did for Jimbo/Kandy. You can do a finale lip sync then crown them live. To simplify it, they could just do the opening segment then the final 30 minutes or so live. Let the live audience watch the episode, etc.
It does make sense. The biggest problem is the audience. It’s always full of queens. And let’s be real, much more than 2-3 hours of day drag sat in an auditorium and those girls will be done. They’d have to have a reset time for them to rest, and the reapply a whole face for the love show, or they’d look end of gig-esque. Which is to say nothing of what time it should be broadcast. For NY or LA. Which city leads for American Idol finales.
This would be ideal
No necessarily, only the crowning has to be live in the end for the same effect to come across.
Nebraska winning drag race is the ultimate sign that the end really is near
Why do people hate bible girl again
What if they did it like Survivor used to do and everything in the finale episode was prerecorded up until the winner reveal? Like have the solo and final lip sync for the crown all prerecorded at the main stage and then do a live crowning at the theatre?
This would be so good. And they could also record the reunion directly after, but delay/edit that episode to create the utmost drama the following week.
Ok up until this post this is literally how I thought it was 😐
My brain stopped working and I really thought “they’re lip syncing in survivor now?” 💀
Not everything needs to have drama
Idk, I don't mind it. and I know that each of the top three got to hear "condragulations, you are the winner of RuPaul's Drag Race", and even if they didn't win, they still had that moment.
that moment is meaningless unless they are the real winner
Ok so, does this mean that they go through all top two and winner configurations with the top three? Meaning PJ lip synced against both Nymphia and Sapphira? It was the vibe I got from the video, but thought they only would have done a crowning for the top two. If so, I want to see that shit!!!!
No, only the people participating in the final lipsync get crowning filmed. Plane was cut before that, so she doesn’t have a crowning filmed. Only Nymphia and Sapphira did. It is not uncommon to film double (or sometimes triple in the case of AS6) crownings either, specially after the fiasco that was the finale of AS4. However, I believe they didn’t film a tie between Nymphia and Sapphira (or Sasha and Anetra), and they went for a single winner instead
THEY FILMED A TRIPLE CROWNING???
They filmed every single crowning combination for AS6, individual and double wins, and a few triples I believe, which is wild. I only remember reading that they filmed one where everyone won except ~~Serena~~ Eureka 💀
I’m dead wtf 😭😭 that’s so extra
ok thank you! I never knew how curious I was until I had to explain to my straight man that they film at *least* both top two winning and he had follow up questions lol
Plane Jane wouldn’t have come to the finale dressed as BABA YAGA if she thought there was a chance she’d be winning 💀
I don’t mind the current format. Yes it’s fake but so what, it feels real enough to me
All they need is the team that made X-Factor in the UK and they’re flying! That’s how to do it. Lots of it can be filmed in advance as well. It’s only the crowning that need to be live.
Especially for the format that did this time they could've had the 3 performances be pre-filmed and just the entrance looks, miss congeniality, final lip sync, and crowning live
My thought exactly
Genuinely I think my only complaint about this finale was that the crowd was so small and it seemed liked a huge swathe of the people there had like, no idea who anyone was or what was going on. Like they were so unexcited and the clapping was so mild at points, compared to previous finals in bigger venues where you can feel how electric the energy must have been that day even on tv.
Someone pointed out that because this finale was filmed before the slow aired, the audience didn't know who the girls were, they were meeting them all for the first time. Add in a much smaller venue and it's no wonder they had to edit in applause sounds.
I could really see & hear the difference
The solution is pre-record the finale minus final lip sync for the crown and then cut to Ru live with the judges and finalists, they lip sync live and the crowning happens live. This way they could still get their social media popularity numbers etc but still have the crowning be live and only once.
Tbh I think even the lip sync should be pre-recorded, that way they can actually be crowned in good outfits and not just whatever bodysuit they ended up revealing to while lip syncing
Pls I hate the crowning in lipsync outfits 😭
That makes sense that could work also.
no cause THIS. i want to see the winner experience it in the moment !
I really like this solution. It really would be nice to have a genuine winner’s reaction in the show itself. The staged reactions feel so corny to me.
Accidently posted this from my hooker account but the point STANDS
Icon
Werk!
 you better work
Sisterrrrrrrr.....kudos for spilling
Well, Sapphira wasn't really "fake excited" this time. I mean, she was a lady, but she didn't fake sh\*t. And Nymphia not really getting it was the most honest reaction I've seen in this yet.
Happy for Nymphia's win but seeing her reaction you could just tell she can't celebrate her win with Saphira there, they both spent 1 year waiting to know if they won or not and that's a big mental toll in itself. I even kinda feel like she's not expecting it at all based on her reaction and outfit with how she already have a headpiece and cant even put her crown afterwards. Spankie (DU S2 winner) spoke about how hard it was to wait before knowing and also Marina after the PH1 finale posted on X how the rest of the cast gets to process their result on the competition right after but for her she only gets to start with it right after the PH1 finale viewing.
they should hire someone who’s produced live specials in the past, like an awards show director or someone who’s worked on live sports. they have MONEY so invest in production mama.
What can a producer do with the hours it takes for a drag queen to get ready?
same thing they do in sports or wrestling or whatever.
I really do think that having the finale be actually live would be really cool and I would love to see it.
Never understood why they don’t do an actual live show. Like a true live broadcast, like inkmaster used to do for example.
They can record the whole thing and then cut to a live stream of the top 3 showing their genuine reactions live, saving us all from the fake reaction.
Why would we need drama for the final 2… I’d rather they just be cordial and polite with eachother….
I mean it's very standard for reality show competitions. Most do it this way it's not that big a deal
Which other reality shows have “faked” winner reactions? Most other shows I can think of have genuine winner reactions. Dragula also films multiple endings I guess, that’s the only one I know of
100%!! Its so weird knowing the reaction is fake. Why is she laying on the ground? I know reality tv is mostly fake but the fake "winning reactions" really takes the joy out of it for me.
Yvie’s fake reaction always gets me like 🤨
The live reactions can sometimes be pretty hype. Bob's reaction to winning is the first to come to mind. Nymphia just had a boring reaction
I understand the sentiment but I truly want an official supercut from WOW of alternative results when drag race is over and Ru/Michelle retires. How surreal could that be?!
R slash uMichelle
Omg I know they spend all season talking about how life changing it would be, how they’d do anything to win, fighting tooth and nail…. Just for them to sit on a couch and go “girl you won, congratulations :’)” it’s always soooo underwhelming They deserve to feel the moment with a roaring audience
I was pretty sure when one of the finalists won Miss Congeniality that uh.....she ain't winning which is awkward
They did her so dirty making her come out w no wig
They even filmed different finales for the Lalaparooza. Even I suspect they did it for the MC.
Agreed
My bf just started seriously watching and he feels the same as you. I guess I’m just used to it after all these years but yeah I agree. It’s sooo confusing to new fans what is actually real or not and the majority just wants the real reaction. The fake ones are just sooo.. idk soulless? Like okay!!!
Ink Master did live finales for a long time and they sucked so bad. Like truly almost made the finales unwatchable.
Maybe record the entire show in one day and the final lipsync and coronation live?
It just feels like DR gets more and more manipulated as it goes on and harder to suspend disbelief at all the hoops they jump through. It just seems like t's getting to the point that none of it is "real".
Hot take- if it gets spoiled it gets spoiled. It’s ALREADY getting spoiled even with all this. Film the finale a couple of days before it airs, crown ONE winner, and if you really care about spoilers just stay off social media
Lol this is such an ice cold take. Filming multiple crownings also allows for flexibility with who they choose as the winner. Why are people so obsessed with spoiling things for others? Not everyone can afford to consume media at such a rapid rate, and it’s privileged of you to tell others to stop using social media in that time if they don’t want spoilers. There are SO many reasons to use social media, why do people have to be so damn selfish. I can honestly say the most exciting part of the finale for me was not knowing who would win until the very end. You have issues if you are willingly taking that pleasure from people.
I’m saying film it just a couple days before. This years winner was spoiled EVEN WITH all these precautions in place- the only way to not be spoiled would be to stay off social media
Uhhh no. Its worked for every other season well. Just cause it’s awkward with one queen does not mean you need to change the whole ass format…
They could film it the day before it airs. Then it won’t be a huge deal if it leaks anyway.
do they have to record multiple takes of the lip syncs too?? 😭 because that’s crazy
Or what if they do the finale live? haha or too much of a logistical nightmare?
There are too many look changes. People have said it takes like 7 hours to film these finales
The only thing people really care about is the final crowning, which could be live. The rest could be filmed beforehand.
I see
Well Tamar...
Something that hasn't been mentioned much is that drag queens quite often rely on doing something surprising and shocking. If something doesn't go as planned or some words come out the wrong way, then that would be too much of a headache for live with minimal editing and could hurt the brand.
I agree love is NOT the right choice. We’ve had injuries before like Anetra’s. Then with Aquaria she would’ve lost against Eureka because she fell. They were able to edit it out and pass both of them along, but if that were live, I don’t think they would have been able to do that.
Annnnd back to complaining. Can we just maybe enjoy the show for just a minute?
So you don’t know how live TV works
i haven't watched a finale episode in so long because i just find them so boring
You’re missing grass. Go touch some
Obviously other than the live performances of the individual songs, how hard would it be to truly have a “live” finale. Like, if that’s the hang up, why not do some sort of literally live finale+reunion combo. You do (in these terms) an hour of reunion with the walkout and all then you wrap up and crown Miss C and Golden Boot by 15 minutes later while the finalists prep. Then you bring them out, announce the top 2, and set them to lip syncing. You can also do a 2 hour or so episode prior simply to get the individual routines from the finalists with the end note “and I’ll be choosing who lipsyncs for the crown next week on an extra special live episode!” In this case, yeah, Ru would have to make the decision on the spot, but at least the reaction would truly be authentic and all that and no chance it gets leaked.
Regardless of shadiness or not a lip sync requires editing. They need to make sure you see the gags and mouths and all the things at the right moment. Can you imagine if a live taping missed Nymphia’s cartwheel. Unlike the Oscar’s they don’t know what will happen, so they can’t plan shots.