Here’s Why ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Isn’t on Tonight (Sort Of)

RuPaul’s Drag Race has really changed things up this season! First the show did essentially a four-part premiere, waiting nearly a month before sending a single queen home (and that was great, BTW). Now the show’s hitting pause for a hot sec and doing something it’s never done before: we’re gonna get to see how the show made things work in the middle of the most chaotic summer ever.

Wait—so Drag Race isn’t on tonight because Drag Race is on tonight? If you’re confused (and to be fair, it does sound confusing), here’s everything you need to know.

Is RuPaul’s Drag Race on tonight?

No—but yes? Okay—a regular episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 will be pre-empted tonight in favor of… a RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 documentary. So while you won’t get to watch the queens compete in a new challenge, you will still get an hour of Drag Race content in the form of the behind-the-scenes documentary RuPaul’s Drag Race: Corona Can’t Keep a Good Queen Down.

What is RuPaul’s Drag Race: Corona Can’t Keep a Good Queen Down?

Corona Can’t Keep a Good Queen Down is an hourlong, behind-the-scenes look at how RuPaul’s Drag Race pulled off the impossible and safely filmed a season of the show during the height of the COVID pandemic in summer 2020. The doc will follow the production starting with casting, from the moment the queens find out they’re going to be competing on the show while in lockdown.

For a preview of what it was like filming during COVID-19, you can check out Decider’s conversation with the cast about that very topic, from getting looks together during quarantine to having to isolate for over a week before even setting foot in the Werk Room.

And if you’re curious about how drag queens handled COVID-19 across the pond, you can pair Corona Cant Keep a Good Queen Down with its UK companion, Queens on Lockdown streaming on WOW Presents Plus. That half-hour episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 2 showed how that cast of queens weathered a seven-month break in filming while the UK was on lockdown. And if you’re curious, yes, RuPaul’s Drag Race filmed all of Season 13 while the British queens were waiting to return to the Werk Room. So the show figured out how to safely film during COVID in the US (as depicted in Corona Can’t Keep…), and then presumably exported those lessons to the UK so they could wrap up their filming. What a wild year.

When will RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 return on VH1?

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 will return with the next regularly-scheduled challenge on Friday, March 5 at 8 p.m. ET on VH1. And that challenge? Y’all, it’s time for SNATCH GAME!

RuPaul’s Drag Race: Corona Can’t Keep a Good Queen Down premieres on VH1 on Friday, February 26 at 8 p.m. ET. RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 resumes with the Snatch Game episode on Friday, March 5 at 8 p.m. ET on VH1.

Where to watch RuPaul's Drag Race