Drag Race fans are gagging after Nicky Doll appeared to ‘leak’ a Zoom reunion for season 12
Drag Race season 12 queen Nicky Doll shared a photo of a Zoom reunion call. (Twitter/Nicky Doll)
Drag Race season 12 is hurtling towards an inevitable Gigi Goode vs Jaida Essence Hall showdown – which, judging by Nicky Doll’s latest tweet, might be taking place over Zoom.
With just six queens left in the competition, Drag Race season 12 is headed into its home stretch.
After this Friday’s episode (May 1), there are just four episodes left to air.
Two of these will presumably be the reunion and the grand finale, both of which are usually filmed just a few weeks before they air (the rest of the season is produced months in advance).
But with coronavirus shutting down the TV industry, how RuPaul plans to pull these off remains a matter of concern for fans.
This is extremely unimportant and very low priority but I stress daily about how they’re about to pull this Drag Race Finale off
— Laiana (@lai_lenae) April 24, 2020
I wonder if #DragRace will be able to film the reunion & finale episodes for Season 12. My thought: if it’s not safe to film them yet, then delay them cause the girls (excluding “you know who”) deserve proper reunion & finale episodes. They’ve worked so hard!??@RuPaulsDragRace
— Andrew Dixon (@AndrewDixon8) April 22, 2020
So how they gone film the finale with all this corona mess going on? I do t want a virtual lip sync for your life #DragRace pic.twitter.com/wwJuRaabGw
— It Appeared To Be Neverland (@MartelDHarris) April 25, 2020
World of Wonder has confirmed that there will be a Drag Race reunion of some sort, asking Instagram followers on Wednesday (April 29) to “comment below with your burning questions for the queens… and they might just get answered at the reunion”.
Fans have speculated as to whether this and the finale will be delayed until the queens are able to be in the same place at the same time, or whether RuPaul will simply crown the winner over video link.
Now, Nicky Doll appears to have hinted that it will the latter.
The French queen shared a photo of herself on a Zoom call with her season 12 sisters Rock M Sakura, Jackie Cox, Gigi Goode, Heidi N Closet, Jan and Crystal Methyd.
SISTERS. #DragRace12 pic.twitter.com/NyAKrhe62X
— Nicky Doll (@thenickydoll) April 27, 2020
Nicky gave no explanation for the call, but fans quickly jumped to the assumption that it had something to do with either the reunion or the finale.
This is a preview of the reunion episode, isn’t it?
— VinnyM27 (@VinnyM27) April 28, 2020
you’re gonne get in trouble for leaking the reunion
— jem (@jemsivan) April 27, 2020
Gurl, are you filming the grand finale via digital conference? #DragRace12
— John Hikaru (@iJohnPeter) April 27, 2020
Of course, Nicky’s tweet came two days before World of Wonder put out its request – but it’s entirely feasible that production has already begun on the final episodes, which are due to air in just a few weeks.
It’s also possible that the series might revert to the format it used before the current lip-sync showdown, with a prepackaged clip show followed by a single reunion/finale.
Should Drag Race turn to Zoom, it wouldn’t be the first unscripted show to do so.
American Idol has already switched to a socially-distanced format, returning last Sunday (April 26) with judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan judging their top 20 hopefuls as they performed from their homes.
Saturday Night Live has put out two experimental editions made up of sketches self-filmed by its cast, while chat show hosts including Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Kimmel are all airing shows from home.
