RuPaul’s Drag Race came hot out of the gates last Thursday with an extravagant season premiere. Entering its tenth year, the show didn’t hold back on upping production, expectations and drama.
With a redesigned Werq room, the queens entered with a charisma that would set the tone for the first mini-challenge: walking the runway. Personalities were strong with every queen that walked through the door, especially once it became clear that most of them had all worked with each other in the past in different drag circuits. The shade flew left and right in all ways to be expected, but personal rivalries from outside the show reared their heads among competitors like Aquaria and Miz Cracker. Each queen’s entrance look gave a taste of what their mini and maxi challenge would look like, so it is exciting to see what the rest of the season will bring.
The mini-challenge revealed the likes of Jinkx Monsoon, Jiggly Caliente, Adore Delano, Laganja Estranja, Yara Sofia, Kim Chi, Raven, Manila Luzon, Trixie Mattel and other Drag Race alum to be the judges of the runway challenge and give their experienced opinion on the look of the new cast of the new girls. It was imaginably daunting to see those legends from past seasons looking up at them, but a bit foreshadowing of the big shoes RuPaul expects the new queens to fill. It was interesting, however, to see transgender season 9 queen Peppermint after RuPaul’s comments regarding trans contestants. RuPaul said that he would “probably not” let an actively transitioning trans woman be a contestant on the show. Peppermint was openly transgender during her run on the show, so it seemed a bit awkward to see her present following Ru’s transphobic comments.
For the maxi-challenge, the queens were challenged to create looks out of dollar store items, “Drag on a Dime.” There were mixed results among the queens, with some shining in the design challenge and others struggling to create an entire look from scratch. Drama arose among several competitors over similar looks and makeup, among Blair St. Clair, Aquaria and Miz Cracker. This gave prospects towards bubbling drama for the rest of the season, especially with The Vixen expressing how she felt that the queens were too friendly to each other in the past season.
During the critiques of the looks, RuPaul and the other judges, including special guest judge Christina Aguilera, all echoed the same sentiment: it is season 10. The bar for what is expected of the queens as they compete is set very high by their predecessors, and it is the tenth year of the competition’s history. Even for the premiere, queens being judged for their looks was reminiscent of those in the past and that originality will be vital for success as the season runs on.
It was evident that there are incredibly large heels for the season 10 queens to fill, so the eventual winner will have to work harder than ever before if she wants to secure the crown and become the champion.
RuPaul’s Drag Race airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on VH1.
Meet the queens here and get ready for the charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent of season 10!