Sugar Rush Season 3 Includes One of the Last Taped Appearances of Naya Rivera
Naya Rivera’s fans saw her sweet smile on Netflix’s Sugar Rush today which is believed to be her final on-screen appearance. Netflix dedicated the episode “Birds of a Feather,” which was shot in February, to the late actor’s memory.
Since Naya Rivera’s untimely death, fans all over the world have been paying homage by revisiting her career from The Royal Family to Glee. Most loved for playing the character on Santana Lopez on the musical comedy-drama, Rivera,33, died in July while swimming in Lake Piru. As per reports, Rivera’s appearance on the Netflix food competition series is supposed to be her last. Sugar Rush has four teams of bakers compete against each other and a ticking clock, in a series of sweet, yet tricky challenges. The winners take away a prize of $10000 as they make everything from creative confections to cute cupcakes. The show’s hosted by Hunter March with chefs Candace Nelson and Adriano Zumbo on the judge’s panel. Every season has six saccharine-sweet episodes with a different guest judge for each one of them. The late actor appears as a guest judge on the second episode of the hit reality show’s third edition, Sugar Rush: Extra Sweet.
The first challenge on the memorable bird-themed episode had the bakers create bird-themed cupcakes. When March asked Rivera about her favorite bird, she agreed with Nelson’s answer, “Flamingo,” making the host give a shout-out to the episode’s title. The late singer also spoke about baking chocolate chip cookies with her son Josey at home. "I have a four-year-old son, so you’re kind of required to know how to bake at that point," she told her fellow judges. Rivera had fantastic feedback to share with all the participants and she even said how she wanted to take an edible hummingbird from a cupcake creation home with her. She listened intently to all of the stories shared by the contestants as they spoke of the inspirations behind their creations.
The late Glee star seemed intrigued by the pavlova, a soft meringue that contestants Marcy and Brittany were preparing. “I can’t believe I’m eating crickets,” exclaimed Rivera about a confection and flaunted her lovely smile out of approval for every effort shown on the Sugar Rush episode. The announcement of the final vote on the baking reality show had her mimic an evil laugh which was surely a highlight of the episode.
A story by Deadline states that Netflix released the Sugar Rush episode after careful consideration following Rivera’s death. The streaming platform consulted the actress’ manager Gladys Gonzalez, who’s been working closely with her family and only then decided to move forward with the episode. Netflix honored Naya with an on-screen note which appeared before the episode with the words, “Dedicated to Naya Rivera.” Fans have been emotionally remembering Rivera and expressing their gratitude to Netflix and Sugar Rush for honoring their favorite star’s memory in the sweetest way possible.
All episodes of Sugar Rush: Extra Sweet are available to stream on Netflix.
Source: Deadline