After ‘Drag Race’ Exhaustion, Season 12’s Premiere Gave Us Life

Looks like Ru has a few more tricks up her sleeve!

There’s a whole lot of RuPaul’s Drag Race coming to television — too much arguably. So far, this year alone we’ve pretty much confirmed: RuPaul’s Drag Race, RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars, RuPaul’s Celebrity Drag Race, RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K., Canada’s Drag Race, and Drag Race Thailand. This doesn’t count all of the programming that includes alums or cast members of the show. And with this sheer load of content, people have reached what has been called “Drag Race exhaustion,” and also feared that there’s no way that the series could keep finding queens talented enough to make the show interesting, year after year. Well, season 12 premiered and proved us all wrong.

Last week, Drag Race found a gem in its guest judge Nicki Minaj. As we’ve said here before, Minaj was one of the best panel members in herstory, giving insightful and witty commentary that rivaled anything the permanent judges had to offer. She put her all into it, writing down notes and lyrics for almost every contestant who performed on stage, and for that we applaud her. That dedication to the show certainly upped the viewing experience, but it was not alone.

This season’s crop of queens seem to be among the most polished, while still being hungry for the challenge, of any season. Gigi Goude and Nicky Doll are look queens seemingly at the top of their game while Widow Von’Du and Heidi N. Closet, are truly explosive stage performers. Sure, everyone has room for improvement, but none of the queens seem like filler (so far at least) and it really could be anyone’s game.

And who knows, maybe Drag Race U.K. did benefit the show a little? Ru returned back to us with what seems like a new pep in her step, a new glow in her look, and a few, fresher jokes for RuMail — whoever is in Ru’s writing room (even if its just Ru herself) deserves a raise. Raven and Curtis William are doing what they need to do in the makeup and hair department, respectively, as well as Zaldy with the premiere look. 

Plus the gag of using the lip sync to award the winner an extra $5,000 tip a la All Stars, instead of as a punishment … if this is the type of television we can come to expect from Drag Race moving forward, we can certainly welcome another two or three seasons!

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