Congratulations to Mama Ru and the Drag Race family for winning Best Reality Series in this year’s Television Critics Awards! After an Emmy Nomination snub, RuPaul’s Drag Race comes out triumphant! It only took 6 seasons and All Stars for them to finally realize what all Drag Race fans have known since its inception, it’s the best!
The “glow” and limited budget of season 1 might explain why RuPaul’s Drag Race did not spread interest like wildfire, but for those of us who watched that first season, we knew, finally we’d found what we’d been missing for years. A reality show with people we could relate to and a great way to party with drag queens without worrying about a designated driver. We were watching them from home!
Season 2 upped the ante a bit when it had 12 queens instead of 9 from the previous season but still didn’t quite capture the crowd it’s earned through the years. But every year the queens are challenged in short periods of time to come up with the fiercest looks fit to whatever host RuPaul threw at them.
By season 3 we had a whole new series with the exchange of judges from Merle Ginsberg with Michelle Visage and a new “Untucked” lounge layout. There seemed to be more of a budget with the prize money ever increasing along with the audience.
With seasons 4 & 5 the implementation of the audience with Social Media like Twitter and Facebook, the word got out even more! While the decision will always ultimately be up to RuPaul, she wanted to hear what the fans had to say. Making the show more interactive allowed fans to spread the word and have their friends and family know what to watch on Monday nights, or Tuesday night if you couldn’t stay up late to watch and had to wait for Logo to put in on demand or online.
But season 6 was a little different. The difference? Two big-openings, two “Idols” and too much shade! There was a lot of talent this season, even the young talent had some really hot looks to them. Oh and there was of course the fact that this was said to be the hottest boy cast ever, in that there were so many really good look guys on the show when they were out of drag. The finale was filmed with all three of the top 3 winning but wasn’t announced until a tapped version was aired almost two weeks later. The crowning was done live in Las Vegas.
People who’d never watched the first 5 seasons were hooked by the reality dramedy (drama/comedy) that was RuPaul’s Drag Race. Death drops and tear drops, drag drama and drag mamas season 6 did not disappoint, except for some of those BenDeLaCreme, Adore Delano and Courtney Act fans who thought Bianca Del Rio wouldn’t win.
With every year we’ve been thrilled to see who’s coming, swore we couldn’t love the next season’s queens as much as the past and end up in love all over again. Congratulations again RuPaul and the entire Drag Race crew, cast and family. You deserve every single award in the world!
To read more about the Television Critics Award winners, check out TV Line.