Drag Race royalty Peppermint was secretly eliminated before producers changed their minds
Peppermint (Getty)
Drag Race legend Peppermint has revealed that she was eliminated ahead of the season nine finale in unseen footage.
It’s common knowledge that Drag Race films alternate finale endings to avoid spoilers from getting out – but Peppermint has revealed that in her season, producers went a step further.
In case you’d forgotten, Peppermint’s was the first season to use the top four, lip-sync for the crown format – it featured that Sasha Velour rose petal reveal.
But going into the final, the queens thought there was going to be a top three.
Speaking about contestants in subsequent seasons, Peppermint told YouTuber Joseph Shephard: “The girls had preparation in a way that we didn’t. They all went in thinking there was going to be a top four. We went there thinking there’s gonna be a top three.”
She continued: “At that last episode, we were like, well: ‘One of us is going home, and I don’t know who it’s gonna be.”
She dropped the bombshell that she was the contestant eliminated to make the top four a final three, leaving Shea Coulée, Trinity the Tuck and eventual winner Sasha Velour.
Season finale contestants from left to right: Sasha Velour, Trinity Taylor, Shea Coulee and Miss Peppermint (Photo from VH1)
She explained that after her elimination, Drag Race producers “called [them] back in and filmed some other endings just in case”.
“And they filmed one where we all stay and move onto a final four,” Peppermint said.
“So that’s what it was, and we didn’t know which one it was gonna be.”
Peppermint only found out that she was advancing to the show’s finale with the other three queens when she watched the episode on TV.
“I was expecting to go home and I was watching with everyone else, and discovered with everyone else, I was going onto the final four.”
“And then I got a call: ‘You’re going to the final four, it’s gonna be crazy, we’ve never had a final four, so just get ready.'”
Sasha Velour and Peppermint at the Drag Race finale. (VH1)
Peppermint then went on to place second overall, beating Trinity the Tuck to face Sasha Velour in the final lip-sync for the crown.
Since then, both Trinity and Shea have returned for All Stars seasons – and won.
Surely, it’s time Peppermint returned for a second chance at the crown?
