RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars is a spin-off of the Critics’ Choice Awards-winning series RuPaul’s Drag Race. The series premiered on October 22, 2012, on Logo TV, before switching over to VH1 like its predecessor. With the launch of Paramount+, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars found a new home on the streaming service beginning with season six.
The show has seen success because they continue to invite back queens that have been successful after leaving their original season, a formula that has yet to fail them seven seasons later. The show also follows the formula of the original series, with each episode consisting of a mini and a maxi challenge, then a final runway look, judging, and the always-amazing lip-sync battle, which has one major difference from its predecessor. Instead of the “Lip Sync For Your Life,” they have the “Lip Sync For Your Legacy,” where the best contestants either battle each other or a “Lip Sync Assassin” for control of the game. Although each season has had its differences, season seven was a completely fresh idea for the world of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
The Drag Race All Stars: All Winners
Passion Distribution
One new thing we saw this season was that all the queens were winners of a past season which was either their original season or their All Stars season. The only winner to ever compete on an All Stars season before was BeBe Zahara Benet (winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season one) on season three, which was deemed to be allowed by RuPaul due to how long it had been since BeBe had won. But season seven gave us eight superstars that have had massive careers, including in movies and TV series, since leaving their debut seasons.
The queens of this season were Raja (RuPaul’s Drag Race season three), Jinkx Monsoon (RuPaul’s Drag Race season five), Shea Couleé (RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season five), Yvie Oddly (RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11), The Vivienne (RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season one), Jaida Essence Hall (RuPaul’s Drag Race season 12), and Trinity the Tuck and Monét X Change, who were co-winners for RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season four. Fans of the series knew all these winners well and their talent jumped off the screen, making it no surprise why they were selected.
Zero Eliminations
The formula for RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars varies with each season. The first season made the queens pair up with a fellow contestant for the entirety of the season while the other seasons had the queens choosing who to eliminate. Season seven did neither of these things and instead had a massive twist: there would be no eliminations.
The queens would instead be competing to win Legendary Legend Stars, which were given to the top two queens of each episode. Those queens would then compete in a “Lip Sync For Your Legacy,” where the winner earned a cash tip of $10,000 and the power to block a fellow queen from receiving a star the next week, with the “Legendary Plunger.” In the finale, the top four queens competed in a Lip Sync Smackdown for a $200,000 cash prize and the title of “Queen of All Queens.” The other four queens went on to compete in a parallel smackdown for a cash prize of $50,000 and the title of “Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses.”
Drag Race’s Best Season Yet
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: All Winners quickly rose to the top of all the seasons just with their cast alone. This season saw eight powerhouses fighting it out for the biggest prize ever, and they did not disappoint. These queens brought everything thing they had to this season and pulled out every stop in each performance. As being a cast of all winners, the queens are clearly seasoned performers and are incredible artists in their own right, which led to some of the best content RuPaul’s Drag Race had ever seen.
The fact that there were no eliminations originally felt cheap, but in actuality was a genius idea by the producers. For the first time, fans got to watch all the queens compete through all the episodes. Even at their caliber we still saw growth throughout their time on the show and all of these legends together set for a very entertaining season.
In seven seasons, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars has gone from a prize of $100,000 to $200,000, and they have gone from a simple spot in the Drag Race Hall of Fame to being crowned the “Queen of All Queens.” The show has progressively gotten better over the years even though it has kept a similar formula to the original. Part of that reason is the queens themselves have gotten better, and they have raised the bar for drag. As drag is being accepted into the mainstream these queens are living examples of successful people being able to live their authentic selves in a world that told them they couldn’t.
It was clear throughout every episode how much fun these queens had with each other, and it made for an enjoyable season. With Jinkx Monsoon becoming the first queen to win Drag Race twice and the level of talent they brought in this season, it will be very hard to top going forward. But fans are excited to see what the future will bring as the original RuPaul’s Drag Race has announced it will be returning for its 15th season, which will be airing on VH1. You can stream all of RuPaul’s Drag Race and all of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars on Paramount+.
