Is There Such a Thing as Too Much ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’?

For the last year and a half, I’ve said “There’s no such thing as too much Drag Race” many, many times. “What else am I doing?” I’d add. That’s really the vibe, isn’t it? The world is terrible, we’re all in various stages of isolation, possibly working from home and spending most days—possibly weeks!—never putting on shoes. The RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise has been one of the only constants, and having new Drag Race content every week means that I always have something to look forward to. But… what if there actually is such a thing as too much Drag Race?

Before I unpack that question like a queen setting up her station in the Werk Room, let’s talk numbers. 2020 saw a massive expansion of the Drag Race franchise—and it came at exactly the right time. Not only did we get new seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 12) and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (Season 5), we also got the debuts of international spinoffs Canada’s Drag Race and Drag Race Holland. Four Drag Race series aired 40 episodes in 2020 alone—and that’s not counting episodes of companion shows (Untucked or Vegas Revue) or specials (RuPaul’s Super Secret Celebrity Drag Race).

Anyway—there was regular, weekly Drag Race content from February 28, 2020 to November 6, 2020. That felt right, though, because we were all locked at home! And to get really real, texting with my friends during Drag Race on Friday night was frequently the highlight of my week. That was 2020.

In 2021, we hit 40 episodes of Drag Race competition shows by the end of June. So far this year, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 aired at the same time as RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 2, followed by RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 1, Drag Race España Season 1, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6, Drag Race Holland Season 2, Drag Race UK Season 3 and Canada’s Drag Race Season 2. Starting with Season 13’s premiere on January 1, there has been a new episode of Drag Race every single week of 2021. Twenty-seven of those weeks have actually included two new episodes of a Drag Race! And we aren’t even done yet, because Drag Race Italia Season 1 is set to debut sometime in November.

By the end of 2021, the Drag Race franchise will have aired approximately 89 new episodes across 8 different series.

The circumstances that made 2020 horrible have also been in effect for most of 2021—because we are still not even close to being back to normal. America is so far beyond normal, it makes Crystal Methyd look like Krystal Versace. I needed the weekly, most of the time twice weekly, group watch text sessions. But sometime around late summer when Jan’s face cracked for good, the second España queen refused to lip sync, and a Holland queen turning it to Celine Dion while dressed like a gremlin was told to sashay away (!), it all just started to feel like too much. The live texting stopped. My husband tapped out. Each week’s two new episodes started to wash over me as I drifted into an ocean of Heidi Hydrates.

So, is there too much Drag Race? The nonstop double doses of Drag Race have stripped the makeup off of the franchise’s mug, revealing the franchise’s natural strengths and weaknesses. The strength is, of course, the queens. It is hard to argue with the existence of this much Drag Race when each new season brings us  t r u l y  unique perspectives. 2021 is the year we met Utica Queen, Bimini Bon-Boulash, Anita Wigl’it, and Hugáceo Cujiente.

This year gave us Ra’jah O’Hara’s much deserved rudemption arc, Denali’s “100% Pure Love” lip sync, LaLa Ri’s bag dress, “Bing Bang Bong” and “Big Drag Energy,” two trans winners, and “I said what I said.” There is truly not a better and bigger stage for such an incredibly wide-ranging, totally global queer spectrum of charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent, from Kita Mean to Kandy Muse, Gottmik to Ellie Diamond, Inti to Jan, and every Scarlet and Crystal out there. Each season introduces queens unlike any we’ve seen before, and every region showcases different kinds of drag. In that respect, it’s impossible to get too much Drag Race.

As for the franchise’s weakness? It’s… kinda the franchise itself. At first the uniformity across all the spinoffs was a feature and not a bug; Drag Race was taking us to new countries, sometimes with new hosts, but it still felt like Drag Race because the sets, while dressed differently, all felt like they were part of the same girl group. And one reason why all those personalities pop is because they’re set against the instantly recognizable and dependable structure, format, and formula of a Drag Race episode. It’s refreshing to hear Choriza May explain the TV-MA reason her runway character has an eyepatch during the main stage critique because that part of the show is often reserved for nerves. It’s why Inti refusing to lip sync was so gaggy. But when you stretch to 90 new episodes a year? Even those standout moments can’t prevent all of it from starting to blur together. I feel like I’ve watched hours of queens learning choreo this year, probably because I have.

I love Drag Race’s traditions—so much so that I was floored when the puppet mini challenge disappeared for a bit. I think Drag Race’s respect for its own history, even the way it makes fun of its own heavily-filtered beginnings, is one of the best parts of the show. And I love that over the course of six seasons, All Stars has developed its own unique flourishes (Snatch Game of Love, the always ridiculous design-a-whole-space marketing challenge). I think those unique touches are needed in every single spinoff. Drag Race UK has a bit of that thanks to the annual girl group challenges. It’d be great to see Holland, Down Under, Canada, and España create more of their own unique challenges and tweaks on the format. Maybe 2021 feels like so much Drag Race because practically all of these spinoffs are new and still playing by mama’s rules.

2021 really feels like a turning point in the franchise. I reiterate: it is massively important that this show’s rainbow is conquering the globe, especially in regions where maybe the LGBTQ+ representation is not sickening. And we can’t blame the franchise for having to air multiple episodes a week, either. Like, the BBC ain’t keeping track of when VH1 is airing Drag Race. ATRESplayer is not coordinating schedules with Paramount+. And because the internet exists, WOW Presents Plus has to drop episodes when they premiere overseas because we know Drag Race viewers love their spoilers. There’s no getting around this.

And real talk: all the competition shows you love—American’s Next Top Model, Project Runway, Top Chef, etc.—all had/have way more international spinoffs than Drag Race. It just doesn’t seem like it because they are impossible to find in the United States. World of Wonder has changed the game by not just selling off the Drag Race name to any country with dollars and drag queens. Instead, they are creating international spinoffs with the same standards as the parent series, featuring contestants that the queens and viewers readily embrace as part of the Drag Race family. This has never happened before, and that’s probably why it feels so overwhelming. That’s also why the spinoffs are worth watching and why I feel like I can’t miss an episode.

Since 2022 promises to deliver just as much Drag Race, if not more, let’s hope that all the many, many spinoffs refine their individual aesthetics. Maybe that means changing up the songs, the look of the main stages—maybe it involves bringing back immunity in one series and introducing a point system in another! We’re already getting peak Drag Race realness from RuPaul’s Drag Race itself. I’m here to see some format shenanigans elsewhere! But overall? I’m gonna watch all of it because the queens themselves always make every season worth it. And I mean… what else am I doing?

Stream Canada's Drag Race on WOW Presents Plus

Stream RuPaul's Drag Race UK on WOW Presents Plus

Stream Drag Race Holland on WOW Presents Plus

Stream RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars on Paramount+

Stream Drag Race España on WOW Presents Plus

Stream RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under on WOW Presents Plus