After a three-week run on FOX last summer, RuPaul’s talk show ‘RuPaul’ will be sashaying away. The drag artist turned LGBTQ empire-builder and talk show host entered house holds for a brief trial run with special guests like Paula Abdul, Iggy Azalea, Cory Booker, Blac Chyna, Ciara, James Corden, Ricki Lake, Adam Lambert, Leah Remini, Lisa Vanderpump, and Property Brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott. RuPaul’s Drag Race favorites Michelle Visage and Ross Mathews joined Mama Ru as his commentators and co-hosts. The Los Angeles Times reported that Warner Bros. will not take the show into syndication.
I had the pleasure of attending two tapings of the show during its run last summer. Guests were asked to enter the set strutting their way down RuPaul’s runway and serving their best runway walk. During commercial breaks, RuPaul walked through the audience and got up close and personal with as many people as possible. He made them feel at home–it was unlike any other audience I had been a part of–he was very welcoming.
RuPaul, who had a talk show from 1996-1998 on VH1, is no stranger to the talk show format–but this time he wasn’t as lucky. ‘RuPaul’ had challenging time slots that competed with local news and prime time programming.
As we know of RuPaul, this is just a mere hiccup in his universe. RuPaul will star in the Netflix original series AJ and the Queen, which releases January 10, 2020. This project is co-created by Michael Patrick King. VH1 has also ordered Season 12 and All-Stars Five of RuPaul’s Drag Race–not to mention World of Wonder and RuPaul have taken over convention centers on both coasts and over the pond with the ever so popular DragCon.
RuPaul told the LA Times:
I’m going to keep doing it ’til the wheels fall off this. What I love about what drag has offered me is the ability to be creative in this way. That’s my passion. That’s what I live for.
Source: The Los Angeles Times
I think its a shame they aren’t taking the show forward, though I do admit I didn’t think they would.
As the article says its time slot wasn’t great and I think the time of year was wrong for a test run as well.
Uploading it to YouTube probably wasnt the best idea either. Shame I think with time it would have blossomed into a great talk show