We got two separate surprises from the World of Wonder/RuPaul’s Drag Race people over the past two weeks. First they announced a special one-off episode that will crown America’s First Christmas Queen on December 7th. Then, one week later, All Stars 4 will premiere, making it the first time that two separate All Stars seasons aired within the same year (not entirely, but you get the point).
It’s clear that the hunger for more Drag Race is evident given the immensely successful year the show has had. They won a ton of Emmy’s back in September (including their first for Outstanding Reality Competition Program), had its highest ratings ever and further solidified what a force this show is to be reckoned with. And it shows no signs of slowing down soon with All Stars 4 being released before 2019 begins which will (assumedly) lead to season 11 premiering sometime in the late winter/early spring. GAG.
The promos for All Stars 4 were released on Friday morning… and they look incredible. The list of this season’s queens competing for the coveted All Stars crown has been rumored for a couple of months now and I’m thrilled that all that chatter online became a reality as I can see any of them winning.
I think this crop of girls will fare much better than All Stars 3 did, mainly because it was a season that just didn’t really work for the most part. AS3 was kind of the spinoff equivalent to season 7: great group of girls, just not intertwined with one another.
It was just… confusing. You had two quitters (BenDeLaCreme and Chi Chi DeVayne was bursting at the seams to get off that set), two somewhat delusional competitors (Milk and Bebe Zahara Benet), two queens who are amazing in real life but aren’t cut out for the Drag Race gameplay (Thorgy Thor and Morgan McMichaels) and the rest were really there for the right reasons and to win in the end (Aja, Trixie Mattel, Shangela, Kennedy Davenport).
In the end the twists and turns that this show provides once again got f***ed up and Trixie won due to the popular vote from the eliminated queens and not what was right in presumably Ru (and many other eyes) for Shangela to win. It’s nothing against Trixie, but her track record paled greatly in comparison to Shangela and it really was a head scratcher as to how she won in the end when she never won a single competition in both her seasons. So yeah, meh, bad season.
Perhaps All Stars seasons do better as even numbers, given how electrifying AS2 was and how god awful AS1 was. It appears as if this show has listened to the fans and maybe figured out a formula that will actually work this time around so that in the end they crown the deserved queen.
The group itself consists of girls that are extremely real, blunt and will keep it that way throughout. Farrah Moan and Naomi Smalls may seem like the reserved ones from the bunch but based on their promos I think they are trying to overcome that. For as much hate as Valentina gets, she’s held her own, especially during the S9 reunion when everyone was coming at her for winning Miss Congeniality.
Then you have those bold personalities that are some of the most loved to this day. Latrice Royale and Monet X Change are the other two Miss Congeniality’s competing in AS4 where its hard to find anyone who really has anything bad to say about them. I’ll throw Manila Luzon and Monique Heart in there are they are also beloved in their own ways and will be fun to watch all over again.
The wild cards to me for this will be Jasmine Masters, Trinity Taylor and Gia Gunn. Trinity is someone who I would not want to mess with, yet she’s in a group of girls who won’t put up with her mouth for one second just like some of the S9 queens did like Charlie Hides. Jasmine and Gia went out very early in their seasons and are more known for being catchphrase queens (“No tea, no shade no pink lemonade,” “ABSOLUTELYYYY”) than anything else. They are two very smart choices as it gives them a second chance to show the Drag Race fandom a hopefully elongated side to them that they didn’t really show the first time around.
This grouping just feels more cohesive and not a hodgepodge like AS3 was. There’s a lot of pressure moving forward for this show to be good, given how popular it has gotten, and I really think that they have developed the right formula for AS4. Here’s hoping that it will be everything and more when it premieres December 14th on VH1… henny.
This post was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.