Shannel and Naysha Lopez revealed some major tea about Drag Race season one.
In 2009, the pop culture world was forever changed when the inaugural season of the popular franchise made its way to TV viewers.
Debuting on Logo TV, the nine delightfully campy episodes saw Bebe Zahara Benet, Shannel, Nina Flowers, Rebecca Glasscock, Ongina, Jade, Akashia, Tammie Brown, and Victoria ‘Porkchop’ Parker sashay into the Drag Race werkroom.
Despite its campy vaseline filter and small budget, Drag Race season one included an array of unforgettable moments – including Ongina’s emotional HIV-positive revelation and Shannel clapping back at the judges’ harsh critiques, to name a few.
However, during a recent appearance at Roscoes Tavern in Chicago, Drag Race alums Shannel and Nayasha revealed that the franchise’s first season almost featured a very different premise and format.
“The first season, we auditioned with a sidekick. Do you remember?” Naysha exclaimed.
In response, Shannel revealed that the initial idea for the show had the queens competing for the crown with the help of their respective costume designers.
“We [would have] been competing as pairs against other queens and their costume designers. So my costume designer, my very good friend Copra Vega, [she’s] done my costumes for 100 years,” she explained.
holy SHIT— apparently the queens that auditioned for S1 of Drag Race auditioned with a “side kick” to help them get ready as the season was ongoing but the idea got cut 4 days before filming?!? GAG 😭 pic.twitter.com/25lLgPacBi
— 𝔞𝔭𝔦𝔣𝔣𝔞𝔫𝔶 🪩 (@dragraceher) June 22, 2024
“She’s done 90% of everything that I own, and at the time we had got the letter, we got the phone call, and so she was like, ‘Oh, bitch, we going on television.'”
Shannel went on to say that the idea was thrown out days before filming started, adding that it was a significant blow to her costume designer due to the latter getting cosmetic surgery to prepare for their big TV debut.
Towards the end of their gag-worthy conversation, Naysha revealed that she auditioned for the first season alongside renowned designer Joshuan Aponte.
“Also, they gave you the option [to] bring [any type of] sidekick. Let’s say you know how to sew, but you don’t know how to do your hair and your makeup, you [could] bring someone who does your hair and makeup,” she added.
“So, I was like, ‘Oh my god, who am I going to bring? I do my own hair and makeup.’ So I had gotten Joshuan, and we had gone to New York and filmed this whole video.”
While Ru and company decided to nix the team component for the first season of Drag Race, a similar format was used for All Stars 1 – which resulted in not-so-favourable reviews from fans and critics.
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