Joel Kim Booster shared some behind-the-scenes tea about the latest episode of Drag Race season 16.
For this week’s maxi-challenge, Ru split the seven remaining queens – Dawn, Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige, Morphine Love Dion, Nymphia Wind, Jane, Q, and Sapphira Cristál – into groups so they could devise drag awareness employee seminars.
Q and Plane were placed in the first group and given the ‘Do you know your drag herstory’ topic.
Mhi’ya and Dawn made up team two, and their topic was ‘Are you a drag queen?’
Due to the odd number of queens, Sapphira, Nymphia, and Morphine rounded out the last group and were tasked with the ‘Are you a drag queen?’ seminar.
While some ladies were less than thrilled about their upcoming presentations, Sapphira was cool as a cucumber due to her previous public speaking experience.
“I am a host. So this is something I’m pretty good at,” she explained in a confessional.
Fortunately, the struggling queens received helpful tips from Michelle Visage and guest judge Booster during a surprise workroom visit.
The next day, the ladies headed to the main stage to present their drag awareness employee seminars in front of a live audience of Ford employees.
After delivering hilarious presentations and walking down the runway in their sickening “Flashback: Drag Con 1980s” ensembles, the queens were given critiques.
While Plane, Q, and Nymphia received good reviews, Sapphira’s performance stood out to the judges, resulting in the Philadelphia-based performer earning her third challenge win.
Ru’s decision didn’t go over well with Q, who looked visibly upset over her safe placement.
“I look over, and Q is very sour on the face. Mama is about to pop,” Sapphira said in a confessional.
Shortly after the episode aired, viewers took to social media to share their thoughts on the awkward moment, including Booster.
While doing an AMA (ask me anything) on the Drag Race subreddit, the Fire Island star spilt some eye-opening tea about the judges’ deliberation and why Sapphira was named the winner.
“I ultimately do agree with the winner and think it was well earned, but what I will say is: after the challenge, we went to lunch before judging, and when I came back, it felt very obvious to me that Plane and Q had (as I said) the most joke dense, tight presentation that played extremely well in the room, and I was a little gagged when I got back and they told me who the tops were,” he explained.
“In the room at the time I probably thought Plane felt very clearly like the winner just based on the performance with Q as top. But the thing that is hard to deny is that while Plane and Q had the technically “better” presentation, Sapphira has an undeniable charisma and stage presence that probably doesn’t read fully through the edit.”
Booster went on to say that while he enjoyed Plane and Q’s presentation as a whole, Sapphira had “the most compelling individual performance,” which is why Ru selected her as the winner.
“The thing you have to remember is that it’s not about necessarily who the audience thought was funniest, it will almost always always always be who Ru is most impressed by and Ru will always choose star power above everything” he added.
On next week’s episode of Drag Race, the queens will be starring in the hot new design show “Bathroom Hunties.” The aftermath of Sapphira’s aforementioned win will also be explored.
Drag Race season 16 is available to stream on WOW Presents Plus and MTV.
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