RuPaul's Drag Race season 12


The twelfth season of RuPaul's Drag Race premiered on February 28 and concluded on May 29, 2020. The competition was broadcast on VH1 in the United States and saw 13 new queens competing for the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar". VH1 renewed both RuPaul's Drag Race and its spin-off RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars for a twelfth and RuPaul's [Drag Race All Stars season 5|fifth] season respectively on August 19, 2019. At the time of the renewal the Drag Race franchise had earned VH1 a total of 14 Emmy nominations. Casting calls were opened in January 2019 while the cast was revealed by season 11 winner Yvie Oddly on January 23, 2020.
Following multiple revelations of misconduct, Sherry Pie was disqualified from the show and mostly edited out of the American broadcast, although initial overseas screenings retained the original edit.
Due to the ongoing Impact of [the COVID-19 pandemic on television in the United States|COVID-19 pandemic], the reunion and finale were held virtually across the country.
The winner of the twelfth season of RuPaul's Drag Race was Jaida Essence Hall, with Crystal Methyd and Gigi Goode being the runners-up, and Heidi N Closet being Miss Congeniality.
The Halloween variety show Bring Back My Ghouls, hosted by Jaida Essence Hall and featuring season 12 contestants, was broadcast on WOWPresents on October 30, 2020.

Contestants

Ages, names, and cities stated are at time of filming.
ContestantAgeHometownOutcome
Jaida Essence Hall32Milwaukee, WisconsinWinner
Crystal Methyd28Springfield, MissouriRunners-up
Gigi Goode21Los Angeles, CaliforniaRunners-up
Sherry Pie27New York City, New York
Jackie Cox34New York City, New York5th place
Heidi N Closet24Ramseur, North Carolina6th place
Widow Von'Du30Kansas City, Missouri7th place
Jan26New York City, New York8th place
Brita34New York City, New York9th place
Aiden Zhane29Acworth, Georgia10th place
Nicky Doll28New York City, New York11th place
Rock M. Sakura28San Francisco, California12th place
Dahlia Sin28Los Angeles, California13th place

Notes:

Lip syncs

Legend:

Guest judges

Listed in chronological order:

Special guests

Guests who appeared in episodes, but did not judge on the main stage.
;Episode 1
;Episode 2
;Episode 3
;Episode 6
;Episode 7
  • David Benjamin Steinberg, record producer
  • Erik Paparozzi, record producer
  • Jamal Sims, choreographer
;Episode 8
;Episode 9
;Episode 13
;Episode 14

Episodes


Disqualification

On March 4, 2020, Ben Shimkus, a 25-year-old actor, posted an update to Facebook detailing his experiences with the contestant Sherry Pie, whose real name is Joey Gugliemelli, and accusing him of catfishing when the two studied together in the musical theater program at State [University of New York College at Cortland|SUNY Cortland]. Shimkus' post alleged that Gugliemelli deceived him using a fake identity of "Allison Mossey" to make promises of a musical career on Broadway. Shimkus also claimed that Gugliemelli coerced him into sending sexually suggestive fetish videos as part of the audition process.
In these videos, Shimkus was asked to play the character of Jeff, a steroid-dependent individual obsessed with growing muscle and gaining physical strength. In the script provided by Gugliemelli, Shimkus explained, the character of Jeff was supposed to appear ostensibly pleased with his body odor that resulted from taking steroids.
In an article with BuzzFeed News published on March 5, 2020, four other men came forward with similar allegations of Gugliemelli posing as Mossey and leading them to believe that recording sexually daring audition videos would increase their chances of being noticed by casting directors.
Another former classmate at SUNY Cortland alleged that Gugliemelli similarly deceived him to film various provocative scenes wearing revealing clothing as part of his audition for a musical production of The Nightmare Before Christmas, which he was told was affiliated with the director Tim Burton. One victim claimed that Gugliemelli had explicitly asked them to masturbate on camera. As of March 6, 2020, a total of seven victims of Gugliemelli's alleged misconduct have come forward, including Season 12 contestant Jackie Cox.
Gugliemelli posted an apology on his Facebook page, staying that he was sorry for " such trauma and pain" and that he had been "seeking help and receiving treatment since coming back to NYC". On March 6, 2020, VH1 released a statement regarding the incident, and made the decision to disqualify Gugliemelli from the contest. According to the statement, the season would air as planned but Gugliemelli would not appear in the live finale. After both episodes 3 and 5, wherein Sherry Pie won the challenge and received $5,000 cash tips, World of Wonder donated $5,000 to The Trevor Project.
The contestant was originally one of the Top 4 queens, alongside Gigi Goode, Crystal Methyd and Jaida Essence Hall but due to her disqualification, she finished in 4th place, resulting in Season 12 being the first to feature a top 3 since Season 8.

''Bring Back My Ghouls''

Bring Back My Ghouls is a Halloween variety special presented by World of Wonder, which streamed on the company's YouTube channel and WOW Presents Plus subscription service on October 30, 2020. The broadcast saw the season 12 contestants performing lip-syncs and participating in interviews. RuPaul also appears with a "special message". Viewers could submit requests and send tips via Cash App, PayPal, or Venmo, which were split evenly between the performers. Participants lip-synced to the songs "Bring Back My Ghouls" and "I'm That Witch" and wore Halloween-inspired costumes. Gigi Goode appeared as Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film The Birds, Rock M. Sakura dressed as a squid, and Widow Von'Du dressed as the Wicked Witch of the West, a fictional character in L. Frank Baum's children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and subsequent adaptations. Season 12 winner Jaida Essence Hall spoke with fellow contestants about their Halloween plans. The "Time to Vote" segment was a collaboration with Crooked Media and Vote Save America and saw Brita and Heidi N Closet emphasize the importance of voting in the 2020 [United States elections] in a parody of the music video for RuPaul's song "Peanut Butter".

Awards

At the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards the season won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Competition Program. With "I'm That Bitch" as the submitted episode, it also won:
Rupaul also won for Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Competition Program.