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RuPaul's Drag Race

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RuPaul's Drag Race
File:Rdr logo.png
Series logo
GenreReality television
Directed byIan Stevenson
JudgesRuPaul Charles
Michelle Visage (2011- )
Santino Rice
Merle Ginsberg (2009-10)
Country of originUSA
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes51
Production
Executive producersFenton Bailey
Randy Barbato
Tom Campbell
RuPaul Charles
Chris McKim
Running time45–48 minutes
Original release
NetworkLogo
ReleaseFebruary 2, 2009 (2009-02-02) –
present

RuPaul's Drag Race is an American reality television series produced by World of Wonder for Logo. RuPaul plays host, mentor and inspiration for this series, which details RuPaul's search for "America's next drag superstar."[1]

The show was greenlit in May 2008, according to a press release by MTV Networks. It premiered in the U.S. on February 2, 2009 on Logo. It premiered in Canada on the MuchMore network on February 15, 2009.[2] The show also airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the VH1 network.[3]

The show was marked as the most watched series on Logo in its first season, and it became the most streamed series ever on LogoTV.com during its second.[4] The title of the show is a play on drag queen and drag racing, with the title sequence and theme song "Drag Race" both having a drag racing theme.


Format

Casting calls are announced online, where prospective contestants submit audition tapes in hopes of being cast. All contestants selected must be 21 years of age or older at the time of taping, and all contestants must be biological men. While sexual orientation is not important, to date, all contestants have been gay men. Transgender women, faux queens, and drag kings are ineligible. Despite these requirements, there have been instances where contestants have entered the competition as biologically male, but then began transitioning after their elimination. Sonique (a season two contestant) was the series' first transgender contestant; revealing her status as transgender during her season's reunion special.E-2.12 Season 3 contestant Carmen Carrera, announced her own transition during an episode of ABC's Primetime: What Would You Do?.[5]

RuPaul plays dual roles in the show. USA Today's Lifeline explains: "RuPaul the drag queen will be the final word in judging and eliminations, while RuPaul the man will offer guidance to contestants for each challenge."[2]RuPaul's Drag Race uses progressive elimination to reduce the initial field of drag queens (which was established as including thirteen in the third season) down to three before the final challenge. Each episode (with the exception of the casting special, "recap" episode, and reunion special) follows a format consisting of a mini challenge, a main challenge, a runway walk (where the contestants model fashion on a runway, usually in a theme based on the main challenge), and the judging panel.

Mini challenges

In the mini challenge, each contestant is asked to perform a different task with varying requirements and time limitations. Special mini challenges sometimes repeat themselves across seasons. For instance, the first mini challenge of each season is a photo shoot with photographer Mike Ruiz that includes some kind of special twist (such as being doused with water while in full drag,E-1.01 having a high-powered fan turned on during the shoot,E-2.01 or needing to be photographed while jumping on a trampoline).E-3.02 A mini challenge is also dedicated to "reading," which is a drag term referring to insulting one's peers based on observation for comedic effect.E-2.07 E-3.08 The winner of the mini challenge is sometimes rewarded with some kind of advantage in the main challenge. An example of such an advantage would be the one given prior to the "make over challenge," where contestants must put a random individual with characteristics atypical of a drag queen (like elderly menE-2.08 or masculine, male athletesE-3.12) into drag. The winner of the mini challenge given during these episodes is allowed to choose the guest they'll be making over, and also gets to pair their competitors with the guests that they'll be working with.E-1.05 E-2.08 E-3.12

Main challenges

The requirements of the main challenge vary across each episode, are usually individual challenges (though group challenges do occur in each season), and initially grant immunity to the winner (until RuPaul announces the discontinuation of that policy mid-season). The winner of the main challenge receives a special prize for their win. In the past, challenge winners have been rewarded with custom designer clothing, cruises, and quality cosmetic items.

RuPaul has jokingly said of the show: "Tell Tyra [Banks] that the Queen has returned, and while you're at it have Heidi [Klum] clear the runway. I'm going to pump some 'realness' into reality. To be a winner on this show the contestants need to be a fashion designer, an American Idol, and a top model all rolled up into one. And they definitely have to be smarter than a fifth grader."[6] The goal of each main challenge involves a new theme and outcome. Contestants are often asked to design and construct a custom outfit, sometimes incorporating unconventional materials.E-3.11 Other challenges focus on the contestants' ability to present themselves on camera,E-1.03 perform with music,E-2.06 or perform comedically.E-3.08 Some challenges become a tradition across seasons. For instance, Snatch Game is a challenge where the contestants re-enact Match Game: the drag queens impersonate celebrities of their own choosing, RuPaul stands in as host, and two celebrity guests stand in as Match Game contestants.E-2.04E-3.06

Judging

As of season three, Santino Rice and Michelle Visage are the staple judges alongside RuPaul (Visage replaced fashion journalist Merle Ginsberg, who was a regular judge in the first two seasons). Prior to the grande finale, the two are joined by a celebrity guest judge and an extra-special guest judge each week. Celebrity judges have included Kathy Griffin,E-2.01 Henry Rollins,E-2.06 Jackie Collins,E-2.07 Sharon Osbourne,E-3.12 LaToya Jackson,E-3.04 and Eliza Dushku.E-3.07 In certain instances, Rice has been absent and replacement judging has been provided by make-up artist Billy Brasfield,E-3.04 Mike Ruiz,E-3.13 Jeffrey Moran (Absolut Vodka marketing executive),E-3.10 or Lucian Piane.E-4.08

The judges each provide their opinion on the contestants' performances on the runway and in the main challenge before RuPaul announces which drag queen is the episode's winner and which two had the weakest performances. The day before judging, the contestants are all provided with a song that they must learn the lyrics to. The contestants deemed as being the bottom two must "lip sync for their lives" to the song by a female artist in a final attempt to impress RuPaul. After the lip-sync, RuPaul alone decides who stays and who leaves. RuPaul describes the qualities the contestants must have to be crowned winner of the show as "Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent... These are people who have taken adversity and turned it into something that is beautiful and something powerful."[7] The phrase "charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent" is used repeatedly on the show, the acronym of which is CUNT

RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked

During the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race, an online video segment called Under the Hood was posted on LogoOnline following each episode. The companion content depicts behind-the-scenes footage not shown on Drag Race.[8][9] Starting with the release of season 2, a new televised show with behind-the-scenes content similar to Under the Hood began airing directly after each Drag Race episode in a half-hour format. Titled RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked, the show is hosted by RuPaul (in menswear) who also narrates the footage through voice-overs.[10] The majority of the show depicts what happens in the "Interior Illusions Lounge" and bar backstage where the contestants wait while the judges are deliberating. On occasion, scenes that didn't make it into the main episode are also shown as exclusive unaired footage.

Seasons

Season Premiere Finale Winner Runner(s)-up Second Runner-up Ms. Congeniality winner Number of
contestants 		Number of
episodes
1 February 2, 2009 March 23, 2009 BeBe Zahara Benet (Nea Marshall Kudi) Nina Flowers (Jorge Flores) Rebecca Glasscock (Javier Rivera) Nina Flowers (Jorge Flores) 9 9
2 February 1, 2010 April 26, 2010 Tyra Sanchez (James Ross) Raven (David Petruschin) Jujubee (Airline Inthyrath) Pandora Boxx (Michael Steck) 12 12
3 January 24, 2011 May 2, 2011 Raja (Sutan Amrull) Manila Luzon (Karl Westerberg) Alexis Mateo (Alexis Mateo Pacheco) Yara Sofia (Gabriel Burgos Ortiz) 13 16[11]
4 January 30, 2012 April 30, 2012 Sharon Needles (Aaron Coady) Chad Michaels (Chad Michaels) Phi Phi O'Hara (Jaremi Carey) Latrice Royale (Timothy Wilcots) 13 14
All-Stars ★ October 22, 2012 November 26, 2012 12 6
5 January 28, 2013 May 13, 2013 14 16

Music

Almost all music used comes from RuPaul's albums. More specifically, RuPaul's recent albums, Champion and Glamazon. The exception are the songs from the LipSync for Essentially, Champion is the series soundtrack, but an EP album called Drag Race, was also released to iTunes and other digital markets. Composed of remixes from RuPaul's Champion album, it also serves as a soundtrack.

  1. Main Event (Matt Pop 80's Tribute) (4:16)
  2. Let's Turn the Night (Matt Moss' Vidon Remix) (5:11)
  3. Never Go Home Again (Moss Moss' Vidon Remix) (3:20)
  4. J.O.M.B.2.0. [Jealous of My Boogie] (RevoLucian's Redux) (3:35) - featuring Tilly Key
  5. Destiny is Mine (Matt Moss' Vidon Remix) (3:35)
  6. Hit the Floor (Matt Moss' Vidon Remix) (3:20)
  7. Champion (DJ BunJoe's Olympic Mix) (3:42)
  8. LadyBoy (DJ BunJoe's Bangkok Booty Mix) (3:08)
  9. Main Event (Joe Carrano's TKO Mix) (3:41)
  10. Let's Turn the Night (Matt Pop Bootleg Mix) 6:43)
  11. Never Go Home Again (Matt Pop Amsterdam Jam) (4:01)
  12. Main Event (Matt Pop 80's Tribute Extended) (8:37)
  13. Cover Girl (Matuchi's Taterz Deep Edit) (4:49)
  14. Main Event (Chris Thomas' Hi-NRG Mix) (5:07)

Season 3

The song, Champion (DJ BunJoe's Olympic Mix) was used during the show and was the basis for the final video challenge. After the closing of the third season, the album, Glamazon was released through iTunes. Songs from that album were used in the season were:

  1. Superstar
  2. Glamazon
  3. The Beginning

DVD releases

Season Release date Episodes Special features Discs
2 December 6, 2011[12] 12
  • Bonus scenes
  • Interviews with contestants
  • Extended reunion moments
 3
3 December 6, 2011[13] 16
  • Bonus scenes
  • Interviews with contestants
  • Extended reunion moments
  • Bonus footage from the NYC finale party
 4
4 June 26, 2012[14] 14
  • Uncensored episodes
  • Episodes of Untucked
  • Drag Ya Later with Jon & John
  • Bonus footage
 5

DVDs for seasons 2 and 3 are only available in Region 1 and are produced on demand by Amazon.com.[15] Season 4 will be available in Region 1, produced on demand by Amazon.com, is expected to play back in DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives.[16]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Result
2009 NewNowNext Award Most Addictive Reality Star — Ongina Won
2010 GLAAD Media Award Outstanding Reality Program — RuPaul's Drag Race Won
NewNowNext Award Best New Indulgence — RuPaul's Drag Race Won
Most Addictive Reality Star — Jujubee Nominated
2011 NewNowNext Award Most Addictive Reality Star — Carmen Carrera Nominated
Critics' Choice Television Awards Best Reality Series – Competition Nominated
2012 NewNowNext Award Most Addictive Reality Star — Willam Nominated
NewNowNext Award Superfan Site Award - lipsyncforyourlife.tumblr.com Nominated
Critics' Choice Television Awards Best Reality Show Host — RuPaul Nominated

Criticism

RuPaul's Drag Race has been criticized for appearing to favor glamorous drag queens over comedic or camp queens. For example, Popbytes commented "Drag Race has been accused numerous times of keeping some of the more unpleasant but fishy queens in the competition for the sake of keeping the drama high, but Rebecca was the first ever recorded case of this happening. Rebecca segregated herself from the other girls, regularly placed low in the competition, was unprofessional in challenges (she walked off the Mac Viva-Glam Challenge and showed up late to the video shoot for Cover Girl) yet somehow managed to stumble into the top three. Akashia had a poisonous attitude, going after both contestants and judges alike, and in one instance, she even had Destiny Child’s Michelle Williams calling for security. But for all her baditude, Akashia was kind of a mess. She placed in the bottom two for the first three episodes in a row, she tripped over her own dress on the runway, and she even showed up to the reunion special with stains on her dress."[1] Entertainment Weekly cited the elimination of comedienne and eventual season two fan favorite Pandora Boxx as the season's most controversial.[17] In response, RuPaul has said, "What we're looking for is someone who can really follow in my footsteps: Someone who can be hired by a company to represent their product, someone who can put together a sentence on television and present themselves in the most incredible way."[18]

International airings

  • The series airs on OUTtv in Canada at the same time as the US airing. MusiquePlus is also airing the first three seasons.
  • During Summer 2009, TIMM – a former gay television channel from Germany - aired the first season every Friday night.[19]
  • The first season was also aired in Australia on cable television channel LifeStyle YOU.[20]
  • RuPaul's Drag Race has also been aired in Denmark, on the channel TV2-zulu, where the two first seasons have been aired in the time-frame of a couple of weeks, including the "extras" of the show.
  • In Israel, the show aired on yes stars Next in Summer 2010.
  • In Finland the programme started airing on TV Viisi as Huippu- drag queen haussa ("Searching for the Top Drag Queen") on Thursday, 18 November 2010 at 20.00.[21]
  • In Hungary the show aired on FEM3 channel as RuPaul - Drag Queen leszek! ("RuPaul - I'll be Drag Queen!").[22]
  • In Latin America, The second season premiered in January 2011, while later that same year, the first season was made its debut in May 2012. The third season made its premiere on April 5, 2012 and wrapped up on July 19th, 2012. Season four starting airing on July 26, 2012 and wrapped up on October 25th , 2012. The entire series has aired on VH1 Latin America.
  • Season 1, immediately followed by season 2, started airing in Sweden on TV11 early 2011. All four seasons have since aired.
  • In honor of Manila Luzon, the Philippines aired season 3 on the Velvet cable network every Tuesday at 11pm with RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked, airing directly after the show. Season 4 started airing on April 17,2012[23]
  • In Italy, the third season began airing as "America's Next Drag Queen" on FOXlife on July 13th, 2011 at 21.55 with dialogue dubbed in Italian.

Former airing

  • The show was also first aired on E4, a UK entertainment channel, in September 2009, with the first episode airing on Wednesday 9 September 2009 at 11:00pm.[24] E4 announced through Twitter that it would no longer air the show.

Spin-offs

RuPaul's Drag U is a spin-off, in which biological women compete to discover and develop their female potential through drag. They are counseled, mentored and given makeovers by Drag Professors, who are contestants from "Drag Race." As the series is filmed in Los Angeles over a month's time, the majority of the professors are queens who reside in Southern California.

In March 2012, it was confirmed by Entertainment Weekly that an All-Star edition of "Drag Race" would commence this summer, and would air in the fall, as well as a fifth season of "Drag Race".[25] A new fan page on Facebook was created, asking fans to pick the queen(s) they would like to see in this spin-off;Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). Chad Michaels, Yara Sofia, Pandora Boxx, Mimi Imfurst, Jujubee, Nina Flowers, Manila Luzon, Shannel, Alexis Matteo, Tammie Brown, Raven and Latrice Royale were selected.[26]

Logo scheduled six one-hour episodes of the all-star series for the fall of 2012.[25]

Notes

References

  1. ^ Hughes, Scarlett (2008-5-16). ""RuPaul's Drag Race"!". Right TV. Right TV. Retrieved 2011-10-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b "RuPaul Leads Hopefuls in 'Drag Race.'". USA Today: D. 2008-12-1. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "VH1 Blog: RuPaul's Drag Race Season 4 Judges: Think Glee, Modern Family!". VH1 Blog. MTV Networks. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
  4. ^ "Logo's Season Finale of 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Burns Ratings Rubber, Clocking In as Network's Highest-Rated and Most-Watched Telecast Ever". PR Newswire. 2009-4-28. Retrieved 2011-10-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Avery, Dan (8 May 2012). "Drag Race's Carmen Carrera Comes Out As Trans On ABC's What Would You Do". Queerty. Queerty. Retrieved 2012-07-21.
  6. ^ "The Search For America's Next Tranny". Perez Hilton. 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
  7. ^ RuPaul's Drag Race Insider Clip (2008-10-08). "WOW TV". Wow.wowtv.tv. Retrieved 2009-03-18. [dead link‍]
  8. ^ "RuPaul's Drag Race Season 1". Retrieved 2011-12-31.
  9. ^ Corfe, Steven (2009-2-9). "UNDER THE HOOD OF RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE". The WOW Report. World of Wonder. Retrieved 2011-12-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Drag Race: Untucked! (TV Series 2010) - IMDb". Retrieved 2011-12-31.
  11. ^ Gorman, Bill (28 April 2010). "Logo Renews 'RuPaul's Drag Ra ce' and "Untucked"". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  12. ^ "RuPaul's Drag Race: Season 2". Retrieved 2011-12-31. {{cite web}}: Text "LOGOOnline Shop" ignored (help)
  13. ^ "RuPaul's Drag Race: Season 3". Retrieved 2011-12-31. {{cite web}}: Text "LOGOOnline Shop" ignored (help)
  14. ^ "RuPaul's Drag Race: Season 4". Retrieved 2012-06-23. {{cite web}}: Text "LogoTV Shop" ignored (help)
  15. ^ "RuPaul's Drag Race: Seasons 2 & 3". Retrieved 2011-12-31.
  16. ^ "RuPaul's Drag Race: Season 4". Retrieved 2012-06-23.
  17. ^ 'RuPaul's Drag Race' recap: Drag mamas, Cloris Leachman, and the season's most controversial elimination!
  18. ^ RuPaul on Drag Race, Hannah Montana, and 'Those Bitches' Who Stole Annette Bening's Oscar
  19. ^ RuPaul's Drag Race on TIMM
  20. ^ RuPaul's Drag Race at lifestyleyou.com.au
  21. ^ http://plaza.fi/tv/ohjelma/2467918
  22. ^ http://www.port.hu/pls/fi/films.film_page?i_film_id=113186
  23. ^ http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=310831608968704&set=a.157788814272985.54286.157755517609648&type=1
  24. ^ RuPaul's Drag Race at e4.com
  25. ^ a b "Logo launching all-stars edition of 'RuPaul's Drag Race' -- EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. 2012-3-12. Retrieved March 17, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ Eichel, Molly. "'RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race' cast revealed, including a Philly queen". Retrieved 7 August 2012.
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