After 13 years, 14 regular series, six All Stars seasons and eight international spin-offs, there’s a tried and tested formula to a Drag Race opening episode. There’ll be fellatio jokes, killer outfits and heavily workshopped entrance lines – and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Versus the World is no different. But in a first for the show, we’re watching queens from five different spin-offs – from the UK, US, Canada, Thailand and the Netherlands – compete to be named RuPaul’s “global superstar”. It’s not yet clear what the hell that means, but if you wanted proof that drag has not only gone mainstream, but global – this is it.
With so many queens having walked through those werkroom doors at this point, the pool to pick from is wide. There are returning US girls with millions of followers (this is fan-favourite Jujubee’s fourth time competing), while other queens have never even met RuPaul before. But just by nature of existing within the Drag Race Industrial Complex™, there are pre-existing friendships to play off, such as between Jimbo and Baga Chipz (who brand their work station “clown corner”) and Cheryl and Lemon.
