{"id":219323,"date":"2026-01-04T02:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T02:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/219323\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T02:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T02:53:09","slug":"rupauls-drag-race-winners-on-show-changes-after-18-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/219323\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u2019 Winners on Show Changes After 18 Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRuPaul<\/a>\u2019s Drag Race has kicked off its eighteenth installment<\/a>, crawling closer and closer to a milestone 20th season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPremiering almost 17 years ago, the series has gone through plenty of changes as the franchise worked out its now polished structure: a batch of drag artists compete in weekly challenges; one queen earns a win for their performance; two queens land in the \u201cbottom\u201d of the competition and perform against one another in a lip sync for their life; and the winner of said lip sync stays in the running for the title of America\u2019s Next Drag Superstar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a tried and true format that has remained steadfast over all 18 seasons, its three varying network homes and a plethora of international spinoffs<\/a>. But in the early days of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race, before they snatched up 29 Emmy Awards, there was no preexisting framework for queens to reference going into the competition. They simply went into things blind, as all first-season reality TV contestants do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen we started, we had no blueprint,\u201d season one winner BeBe Zahara Benet tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cWe were going in with our full potential of who we are. There wasn\u2019t anybody before us to see how to deal with [being] part of a platform or a show like that. Everything you saw, it was just authentic. It was real and it was pure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNowadays, competitors know they\u2019re filming a TV show and that their careers will receive a boost from extra screentime. That\u2019s not necessarily a negative \u2014 plenty of beloved reality TV moments are somewhat fabricated. But that doesn\u2019t mean viewers aren\u2019t catching onto the inauthenticity that overproduced moments create, especially in the context of the show being a competitive series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think a lot of times now, people go in [to Drag Race] with a bit more planning than they need, because they think, \u2018I need to be this character. I need to play this role. I need to create this persona,’\u201d BeBe adds. \u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily authentic to who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason 11 champion Yvie Oddly argues that fundamentally, \u201cthe competition itself really hasn\u2019t drastically changed that much.\u201d Of course, Drag Race has implemented minor format shifts over the years, \u201cbut the heart of the competition is really the same thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe production of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race on a TV level has undoubtedly heightened. Take season one for example, which notably implements a glossy look that viewers have dubbed the \u201cVaseline filter.\u201d Nowadays, the quality is noticeably pristine, further pointing toward a growth in resources<\/a> that comes after years on air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA lot of [it is] money (laughs),\u201d BeBe points out. \u201cLet\u2019s not even talk about just the artistry, but just even production. To see the amount that is going into producing the show, and how much people are actually spending to be on the show, it\u2019s like, wow, to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeBe\u2019s not wrong \u2014 the opportunity to appear on the world\u2019s largest Emmy-winning drag competition show, combined with the production level increasing each year, has created an expectation for how queens should present themselves on the series. Season 13 competitor Gottmik revealed<\/a> she spent $20,000 on her runway package for the show, while Plastique Tiara allegedly<\/a> spent somewhere around $250,000 preparing her looks for RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race All Stars season nine.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe demands of competing on RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race have become a conversation in the show\u2019s orbit, one that, unfortunately, doesn\u2019t have a clear solution. The standards expected of drag performers have intensified over the past 17 years, and that raised standard comes with a few pros and cons.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThrough the years, drag queens have been incrementally causing each other to step up their game,\u201d Jinkx Monsoon<\/a>, winner of season five and All Stars season seven, explains to THR. \u201cI think of the way I do drag today versus the way I did drag 15 years ago when I started \u2014 it\u2019s a whole different world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason nine aired in 2017, and Sasha Velour says she\u2019s certainly noticed a contrast when it comes to the show\u2019s fashion standards, a shift she noticed beginning around the time of her installment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo many queens brought the most incredible fashion on the show, and that was not something that happened so much in the nine years that came before me,\u201d the winner says. \u201cI look back on some of those costumes and was like, oh, we could never get away with that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAquaria, season 10 winner, echoes Velour\u2019s thoughts, pinpointing a change in runway standards around 2017-2018.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhether it was season nine, but particularly season 10, particularly me, I feel like I was the teeny straw that broke the camel\u2019s back of runway production or the expectation for how you\u2019re supposed to come into the game. The drag scene globally was changing, but especially in terms of television, it was really elevating,\u201d Aquaria notes. \u201cI think a lot of the fingers point back to me, that era and that season in particular. Not even just me, a lot of the queens on my season thought about what they were bringing into the competition. It quickly snowballed from there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking back, season eight victor Bob the Drag Queen<\/a> recognizes the natural change in the show over the years, and ponders if the slate of crowned winners would still be the same.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI feel like, to be honest, a lot of us who won Drag Race back in the day, maybe we wouldn\u2019t win Drag Race now,\u201d Bob says. \u201cMaybe some of those people who couldn\u2019t win Drag Race back then could actually win it now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the upsides of entering the pressure cooker that is RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race is that competitors undergo a branding master class. With each new installment, season 13 champion Symone explains \u201cthe kids have to be much more aware of their brands and what lane they want to go in after the show,\u201d noting that a wide array of learned experience brooded by competing in the series\u2019 challenges diversifies the contestants\u2019 post-show opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re able to be on TV and do acting or Broadway or tour and do music. The lanes are so much more diverse now,\u201d Symone adds. \u201cYou\u2019ve always had to be a jack of all trades when it comes to drag, but now you really have to brand yourself, but also be able to do more than one thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA trending contrast in modern seasons of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race is the cast\u2019s youthful age. It\u2019s a point Bianca Del Rio (\u201cEverybody\u2019s fucking young!\u201d), Bob the Drag Queen (\u201cThey\u2019re a lot younger\u201d) and Sasha Colby all reference to THR, one that viewers have critiqued of the show\u2019s casting for leaving out a valuable sector of the drag community \u2014 old school drag queens.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, with season 17, the eldest contestant, Lexi Love, was 33. Compare that to 10 seasons prior, when Tempest DuJour competed on season seven at 47. (The average age of season 17 was 24, whereas season seven\u2019s average was 30.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn response to audience feedback, season 18 features an array of age groups in its cast, with the oldest competitor being 38, signifying RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u2019s willingness to apply criticism to better represent the wider drag community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, even as a plethora of young queens \u2014 referred to as \u201cbaby queens\u201d \u2014 have been cast in recent years, season 15 champion Colby asserts this factoid signifies the positive effect of the art form becoming more accessible.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey\u2019re just getting younger and starting off so much sooner. I think that\u2019s the really great power of how mainstream Drag Race and drag in general has become,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause of the show, it\u2019s allowing people, queer kids and aspiring artists to find their voices a lot quicker. I love how drag is definitely a lot more accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBianca, the oldest ever crowned queen from the show, jokes it\u2019s \u201cwild to look at it from this perspective\u201d over a decade after she won the sixth installment in 2014. With 2026 marking her 30th year as a professional drag queen, she\u2019s admittedly \u201camazed by the popularity of drag\u201d and how the show has continued to excel despite rocky political waters.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe levels [drag has] gone, the opportunities it\u2019s given me \u2014 I\u2019m just amazed by all of it,\u201d Bianca says. \u201cIn this world, even though things are somewhat upside down politically, in other areas I go, \u2018Drag Race is really thriving,\u2019 which is something I didn\u2019t expect to see in my lifetime, in my career or 11 years ago when I did the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother change in RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race has nothing to do with the show, but more so to do with its prominence in pop culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe only difference between the old era and new era is, I would say, what Drag Race means to the people and the culture, what it represents, what getting on the show represents, and how the industry works,\u201d season 11\u2019s Yvie says. Velour reiterates this sentiment, adding that the show has positively expanded the mainstream reach of drag.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA beautiful impact of the show [is] the fact that straight people, families, people who maybe had a bit of curiosity but no connection to the world of drag, or even to queer and trans people in real life, have been able to fall in love with the art and see us as the real, complex, full people that we are,\u201d Velour notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd with so many eyes on the series comes a brand-new world of opportunities for the competing queens. Jinkx Monsoon is a Broadway darling. Bob the Drag Queen toured the world with Madonna and is a New York Times best-selling author. Bianca Del Rio has changed the drag comedy scene with her solo headlining tours. There\u2019s truly no limit to what a drag queen can or can\u2019t do anymore, and RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race influenced this.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBy putting [drag] on television and making it mainstream in the way it has become in the last 18 years, it shows that we have grown this from what it was into something even bigger than I think any drag queen thought it could be,\u201d Jinkx says. \u201cIt used to be that being a drag queen was a good way to kill your career. (Laughs). But now, you can make it anywhere as a drag performer, and I think that\u2019s the way it should be. We\u2019re just people with talents, and we choose to do it in certain costumes. It\u2019s no different from Orville Peck wearing a mask, or Cher wearing a billion wigs in her lifetime. We all do drag a little bit, just some of us are better at it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the arrival of season 18, one thing is for certain: to stand out from the shiny pack of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race alumni, the new batch of RuGirls must possess a little more than RuPaul\u2019s recommended charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn this new era, you have to really surprise everyone,\u201d season 14 victor Willow Pill says. \u201cEveryone feels like they\u2019ve seen it all at this point, so I think you have to be even more ingenious at being creative, versatile and shocking, and having this level of drag that is so well-rounded and outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWillow adds, \u201cI think the winners of the original nine seasons of Drag Race were all just icons and really incredible at what they do. This new era is about adding new layers and levels to what drag is all about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason 18 of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race premiered Friday on MTV<\/a>. Read THR\u2019s full feature with the show\u2019s winners here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race has kicked off its eighteenth installment, crawling closer and closer to a milestone 20th season.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[121072,146,85,46,121073,1290,92383,55108],"class_list":["post-219323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bob-the-drag-queen","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jinkx-monsoon","tag-mtv","tag-rupaul","tag-rupauls-drag-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}