Drag Race just concluded a stretch of episodes unlike anything the franchise has ever seen before. Hot on the heels of the conclusion of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 11, no less than three different international All Stars seasons hit WOW Presents Plus. Even more gaggy: all three of these series represent three different flavors of the All Stars format.
There's Drag Race Mexico: Latina Royale, which brings queens of Latinx heritage from all across the globe to the stage of Drag Race Mexico; there's Drag Race Down Under vs. the World, which is similar to the "Royale" format except without the cultural celebration aspect; and, lastly, Canada's Drag Race: All Stars, the venerable series' take on All Stars: Original Recipe — namely, bring back a bunch of Canada's Drag Race queens for a second shot at the crown.
(Oh — and during all of this, a crop of new queens are competing Drag Race France Season 4, 99% of them angling for a future slot on any of these All Stars formats)
That is a helluva preamble, but I have to set the scene in order to recount the miracle we just watched: Canada's Drag Race All Stars just hit the reset button on the entire concept of an All Stars season — and the world needs to take notice.
It may seem a little surprising since Canada's All Stars didn't pull from the global stage (aside from Jackie Cox, a previous contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race (US) who's also a born-and-raised Canadian). It played the format as expected with just the right amount of twists — let me restate that specifically for the American franchise: the right amount of twists. While the OG All Stars franchise is twisting itself into knots whilst bending over backwards to award a predetermined crown, Canada's Drag Race All Stars put on a show like a professional contortionist.
First, the format was familiar but fresh. Eliminations played out like a regular degular season with the bottom two queens lip syncing for their lives. (That is, admittedly, different from the now standard All Stars format of the week's winner choosing a queen to chop) But Canada has long had a trick up its sleeve, one that other franchises are now copying: I'm talking about the Golden Beaver. This tweak usually plays out thusly: judges name three bottom queens of the week, and one of them gets saved by the winning queen. This time around though — here's the twist — the Golden Beaver recipient was not picked solely by the winner. This time, the rest of the cast voted to save one queen.
And that's it. No points. No brackets. No lip sync assassins. No game within a game. That one twist on the Golden Beaver was enough to shake up the entire game. It's like the producers of Canada's Drag Race All Stars knew that the queens would take the tiniest twist and make the absolute most out of it. Essentially, this one twist led to near weekly gags, like:
- Pythia, the season's undisputed frontrunner, landing in the bottom in Episode 2 — and most of the queens seizing the opportunity to put her up against lip sync queen Makayla Couture.
- Tiffany Ann Co. pulling directly from the Survivor playbook and pleading her case as a consistent bottom queen with no chance of winning the crown, thus making her a no-brainer to shield all the way to the finale. This earned her the Golden Beaver twice.
- And if you need any proof that drag queens are fantastic TV producers, look no further than the cast immediately clocking the opportunity to see a Makayla Couture vs. Aurora Matrix lip sync and giving us what we want.
This cast came to play and — setting them apart from some recent Drag Race casts — they came to win. This led to a lot of tension ("Ya named us Tea Bags! Great!"), a lot of campaigning (Nearah Nuff giving iconic one-liners in every deliberation), and just a lot of heart (Tiffany Ann Co. didn't win any challenges, but she really won hearts). And then the glow-up of Sami Landri, Jada Shada Hudson's continuing affair with ghosts, Juice Boxx's determination to not Porkchop again, and Jackie Cox's surprise inclusion (and phenomenal cabaret number, I'm just saying!) — this was a perfect cast.
This season took almost a back-to-basics approach to the challenges, making the queens run a gauntlet that felt familiar but never tired. There was: a talent show in Episode 1, tweaked by placing it in a pageant format; a straight-up girl group challenge, with the added bonus of having regular judge — and hitmaker — Priyanka as a coach; a design challenge with regular judge Jimbo holding an auction for materials; and a political campaign ad that folded in elements of a roast. And then, in the penultimate episode, the CUNTest.
If there's a fatal flaw in the Drag Race format, it's inextricably tied to what is often the best part of the show: treating lip syncing as the only talent that ultimately decides the winner. Thus, Pythia, a god-tier drag artisan, always getting the chop due to flopping in dance challenges and lip syncs. The CUNTest — a series of three challenges topped off with lip syncs — allows queens to get to the season finale based on their specific talents. Snatch Game, a photoshoot, and a jazzy spoken word number — those definitely are three very different skillsets! The All Stars iteration of the CUNTest, the second time it has appeared, acts as a fantastic penultimate episode.
Of course, the season's top two ended up being the best lip syncers of the season because, well, you can't expect Canada's Drag Race to work out all the kinks. Plus ... lip syncing is so entertaining. Shrug!
The format was expertly calibrated for maximum entertainment, and it was overseen by — for the first time ever — an all-drag-queen panel of judges. Why it took 18 years for this to happen is, well, up for speculation. But it finally happened, and Canada delivered. But having Priyanka and Jimbo there — and, in Episode 5, Lemon — wasn't just a major moment for the franchise on the whole. It was, specifically, a display of Canadian excellence. Three winners all from Canada's Drag Race Season 1. Three very different queens. Three very different winners who all took very different paths to the crown. Seeing them all on the panel next to Brooke Lynn Hytes, who is probably the second most award-winning-est drag queen after RuPaul and deservedly so, it gave the viewers and the queens an episodic reminder of what is at stake, what winning the show can do for you. Damn, it was just so cool.
And we got all of that in six episodes. Six. Episodes. I want more, and that is the feeling we should have at the end of a Drag Race season. International seasons of all types tend to come in under 10 episodes, but the American seasons are bloated. Twelve episodes is too many, America! By limiting the season to six episodes, Canada's All Stars gave us all killer, no filler (except the filler on display in all the confessionals).
That is the legacy of Canada's Drag Race All Stars Season 1. This was a season that did not waste a second of our time. The stakes were high, the twists were clear, and the queens were determined. This is what it takes to make an instant classic All Stars season. Canada's Drag Race All Stars punched the reset button on the entire concept of All Stars. Take note, world!
