‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Is Proving That You Don’t Need Eliminations to Make Great TV

Painted with Raven premiered on WOW Presents Plus during Thanksgiving 2021. Hosted by Raven, RuPaul’s Drag Race two-time runner-up and RuPaul’s personal makeup artist, Painted pitted a cast of makeup artists against each other in weekly face offs until a winner emerged and snatched the grand prize. The general idea of the show is one we’ve seen before, most recently on Netflix’s Glow Up, but Painted with Raven changed the game in a different way. For the first time in reality competition show history (as far as I know)… no one went home. As soon as Painted with Raven dropped this gaggy twist on the MUAs, I immediately wanted to see World of Wonder try this game-changing format on their other competition show: RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Cut to six months later: RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7, the all-winners season, sashays onto Paramount+ sporting the same twist as Painted with Raven. No one was going home, and the final four would be determined via points (or Legendary Legend Stars) rather than weekly eliminations. All Stars and Painted with Raven were now format twins — but was this twinning moment more of a Monét and Trinity victory, or a Phoenix and India embarrassment?

Now that the lip sync smackdown for the crown is imminent, I firmly consider this season’s format twist a victory — albeit a victory that owes much to many other factors outside of the non-elimination format. But let’s first talk about that format, since that’s the reason we’re here: the Drag Race franchise absolutely positively needed a no-eliminations season right now.

As I wrote in December 2021, the biggest problem plaguing the franchise was the consistency of inexplicable eliminations, frequently of contestants who emerged as fan favorites and/or surprise frontrunners (Denali, Anita Wigl’it, Trinity K. Bonet, Choriza May). RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 3 was downright chaotic because of what felt like a rigid adherence to a pre-determined elimination order. I have to note that any critique of who was eliminated when is not a critique of the queens, all of whom absolutely deserve nothing but accolades for giving their all on the biggest drag stage in the galaxy, but rather these are critiques of the editing and production of a television show. It frequently felt like the editors could not find the footage to justify the decisions made by production, and that led to confusing television.

Then in early 2022, just as RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 felt like a feel-good course correction, we got RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs. the World. Step aside Marvel, because UK vs. the World delivered the year’s real multiverse of madness. From week one I was calling for the eradication of eliminations, and then things somehow got even more wild. With a bit of temporal and emotional distance from UK vs. the World, I can look back at it as a bonkers ride with plenty of iconic moments. But while it was airing? Y’all…

This context is the main reason why RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 works. Eliminations have been a source of frustration recently and taking a break from them has… I mean, is it hyperbole to say “allow the healing to begin”? Instead of stressing about my fave getting dragged to the bottom and given the chop every week, it has been an absolute delight to just behold the art of drag on my TV every week.

That leads to another major reason why this format works: the artistry. All Stars 7 feels like a 100% match between cast and format. If there was ever a season wherein you’d want to see literally everything that every queen brought and everything they have to give every single week, it’s unquestionably this all-winners season. By virtue of being filled with crowned queens, this cast is stacked with queens who have the experience, resources, and funds to turn it out in addition to their inherent charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent.

Even the eight winners selected to star in this season feels deliberate. These are eight queens whose personalities all vibe, who know how to make quality television without causing actual drama. I’m talking about the kind of drama that would become increasingly untenable during a season wherein no one went home. Like, sure, Gia Gunn and Farrah Moan were great for a few episodes, and we all lived for India Ferrah’s shenanigans, but — call me too sensitive — I would personally worry for the wellbeing of a cast that was forced to endure an entire 12-episode production with that level of animosity simmering and exploding every episode. The shade would’ve been deep but the drag would have probably suffered. While this season has been the most kumbaya Drag Race season ever, I think that was done to make sure that this experiment actually worked.

And look at how it’s worked! Look at the material! We got the best Snatch Game(s) in Drag Race herstory, some pretty flawless girl group numbers, and — for the first time ever? — across-the-board hilarious improv and stand-up challenges. Every episode has delivered moments that make me cackle, cheer, or both. Shea Couleé’s first runway, Jinkx Monsoon pardoning her Season 5 drag daughter for killing Judy Garland, every queen’s face the instant they saw Vanna White, The Vivienne’s accent journey as Little Red Riding Hood, Raja’s cult leader character, Jaida rapping about diarrhea — the queens are crushing it even more than we knew they would.

Oddly enough, the only negatives are a result of the high quality. It is truly bizarre to go through a season where 95% of the judging is unanimously flattering. We aren’t getting any H&M speeches this go around. While that is a jarring change of pace, especially when there have certainly been moments that could have used a light critique, every queen is also doing really well in every challenge. And while that makes the race seem tight, even as the gulf between the queen with the most and least Legendary Legend Stars widens, it’s also robbed the season of urgency. These queens are pretty laid back. That’s resulted in some truly hilarious moments (god, the reveal that Jinkx has been sitting a foot away on the couch, ukulele in hand, watching Monét and Trinity have a tearful heart to heart killed me), but it also doesn’t feel like we’re near the grand finale.

The other downside to the season: the lip syncs have been mostly lackluster, which is especially surprising after the season got off to an inspired-yet-bizarre duel between Monét and Shea to “Old MacDonald.” Watching certified lip sync assassin Yvie Oddly watch Raja and Jinkx two-step their way through a Lizzo number was just a bummer. It’s hard to pin a season of serviceable lip syncs on the format change; the top two queens have been lip syncing on All Stars for six seasons now. But, I dunno, maybe knowing that the winner decides who gets blocked rather than who gets chopped has taken some pep out of the queens’ steps?

Ultimately, though, the negatives of All Stars 7 (a lack of critiques, urgency, and legendary lip syncs) don’t negate the positives (we’re seeing 8 of the greatest season-long performances in Drag Race herstory play out simultaneously!). As a test run, All Stars 7 has proven that eliminations do not inherently make for great TV. Any cast of queens who know the ins and outs of production, who have oodles of personality and caboodles of looks? World of Wonder should trust them to make this format work every time. That’s why I think this format should absolutely stick around for at least another round of All Stars, maybe with a few tweaks to fix the format’s few flaws. Give us a format that allows us to see everything a queen has to give and prioritizes sisterhood over negativity (especially at this hellish moment in time!). Maybe All Stars 7’s pairing of cast and format is lightning in a bottle, but maybe lighting will strike twice with All Stars 8.

Stream RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars on Paramount+