Wait, was a queen edited out of RuPaul's Drag Race UK season 5?

Lydia Venn
·3 min read

RuPaul's Drag Race UK returned to our screens last night bringing us a strong runway to start the season, a shock no-elimination twist and an introduction to the now iconic nightclub Tickety Boo. Seriously, how do we get on the guestlist? But there was one thing fans on X (formerly known as Twitter), were speculating about: Was a queen edited out of the first episode of RuPaul's Drag Race UK?

The series premiere introduced us to 10 brand new queens from around the UK, who all bring their own unique sense of style and comedy to the series. Cornish queen Vicki Vivacious was the first of the season to win a coveted RuPeter badge after her military inspired look and lip sync to 'Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit' by Gina G.

However, while we've been loving getting to know the 10 new queens, some fans have been theorising online than an 11th queen was actually part of the first episode, but they were edited out, after a few different scenes seemed to suggest an extra person could have been part of filming.

One person on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared a shot from the Club Tickety Boo segment of the episode last night, in which they counted 11 pairs of legs but only 10 queens, they captioned the image: "11 pairs of legs. Red thigh high boots #DragRaceUK."

And while it's difficult to know for sure, it does appear as if there was another person in the line up for Club Tickety Boo, in between Banksie and Miss Naomi Carter.

Another person posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that there were no group shots of the queens in the episode, which suggested someone could have been edited out, they said: "They’re not showing the queens as a whole group or with any long shots cause one of them has been edited out it’s kind of annoying ."

Subsequently many other viewers of the series said they spent much of the series looking out for "hints" an 11th queen was there, with one person saying: "Me scanning every frame for a glimpse of the edited out queen" and another said: "Is anyone else playing the Drag Race version of 'Where’s Wally?' trying to spot the edited out queen in #DragRaceUK."

So far there's been no confirmation an 11th queen was included in the starting lineup, and so as one person on X (formerly known as Twitter) pointed out: "Can we maybe stop focusing on the queen who was edited out and focus more on the queens that are, you know, in the show…."

We couldn't agree more.

Cosmopolitan UK has reached out to the BBC for comment

RuPaul's Drag Race UK airs every Thursday at 9pm on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer


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