Hairspray Live! college sophomore Maddie Baillio, as her first professional role. In November 2016, it was announced that Ricki Lake and Marissa Jaret Winokur (who portrayed Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film and the Broadway version respectively) would make cameo appearances; Winokur and Lake appeared as employees of Mr. Pinky's boutique. Darren Criss served as an on-air host, hosting a half-hour "Countdown to Hairspray Live!" show on NBC with Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes, as well as behind-the-scenes reports throughout the live broadcast. Oreo, Reddi-wip, and Toyota broadcast live, themed commercials during "Hairspray Live!"; Oreo's ad featured the character of Corny Collins,
Charm School with Ricki Lake for Risky, saying that she did because she knew Risky would not be sent home. K.O. votes for Marcia. At elimination, Ricki is baffled because she did not expect any of the girls to be on the carpet, and she says there are other deserving candidates to be on the carpet. She asks K.O. what happened and why was she in the hospital. K.O. says she is fine, and she just has a cardiac block. Ricki says that does not sound fine. Then, Marcia tells Ricki about K.O. offering her alcohol. K.O. says that she was just kidding around. Risky