RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16 - Potential Spoilers/Discussion

Gellar2013uk

Hi all

Season 16 is due to start in January 2024. Promos are due to be released SOON. Some say today, this week or next.

Keep you all posted

bean_of_sb

I assume MTV will revert the show back to longer episodes after the backlash of season 15? I can't believe that we are at season 16 - it feels like just a couple of years ago that I was excited about Series 8 starting (my first "live" season).

Gellar2013uk

Season 16 Premieres 5th Jan 2024

plinkiplonk

... I'll go out on a limb and guess the theme was "green" this season; Michelle will be delighted...

And the names of these queens are getting dumber and dumber.

Gellar2013uk

Slight spoilers from EW entertainment interview regarding the premiere episodes

The show's two-part premiere will also introduce a new twist, as two groups participate in maxi challenges divided into themes: MTV’s Spring Break and the Queen Choice Awards. Following the talent show performances, the queens will be tasked to Rate-A-Queen and rank each other’s performances. This will determine the tops and bottoms of the challenge. The new episodes will again be followed by regular episodes of Untucked.

LM

Guest Judges confirmed

Charlize Theron, Becky G, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Adam Shankman, Icona Pop (Caroline Hjelt + Aino Jawo), Isaac Mizrahi, Jamal Sims, Joel Kim Booster, Kaia Gerber, Kelsea Ballerini, Kyra Sedgwick, Law Roach, Mayan Lopez and Ronan Farrow.

Gellar2013uk

Confirmed list of Episide titles and challenges released:

Rate-A-Queen - Talent Show. (Charlize Theron)

Queen Choice Awards - Talent Show (Becky G)

The Mother Of All Balls - Ball Challenge (Isaac Mizrahi)

RDR Live! - improv (Sarah Michelle Gellar)

Girl Groups - Singing (Icona Pop)

Gellar2013uk

A good.first episode.

My personal favs are Dawn and Sapphira.

The talent show...out of 7 only 3 were good or above.

A great lip.sync...a good twist and Charlize......was AMAZING

Come on S16 keep.up this standard

Pele-thefiregoddess

Q, Saphira and Dawn were the stand outs for me.

FluxCapacitor

The “talent” shows were a huge letdown for me. They’ve morphed into “write and lip-sync your own introductory track” from
Most queens which - IMO - becomes a very dull watch. There’s a reason why those displaying real talents (such as Sapphira Crystal) do well compared to yet another lip sync.

Speaking of lip syncing, Plasma’s choice to lip-sync her impressions should have come under fire. They would have been impressive live, but it’s a real cop-out to mime along to impressions. It could be anyone on the tape!

So far, quite a lacklustre season; not helped by a strong UK season preceding it. I’m hoping it picks up when we get down to business with all the queens and an elimination next week.

LM

I hit the fast-forward button when lip-synching is involved in talent or variety shows on this show. I find them quite boring. It's that one aspect of drag I increasingly dislike each passing year, to be honest. It's fine for the lip sync for your life aspect of the show but I don't find it entertaining as a whole. I often wonder if that is why the likes of Trixie, Katya, Bob, Bianca, DeLa, and Jinkx are among the most successful acts to come out of the show because they are the full package and not just a drag queen in a nice outfit lip-synching to pop songs doing the splits.

LM

That Judy Garland outfit was gorgeous

If there is a Drag Race in the afterlife somewhere, I would like to think Divine is the host and Judy Garland has guest judged every season.

LM

That RPD Live challenge was dreadful. Not the fault of the girls. More on the scripting side.

The Cher Runway category was great and I thought they all did Cher proud. Especially if you compare it to a few of the previous "Night of a Thousand" runway challenges. The Kylie and Grace Jones ones from last year were not entirely great.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is already up there as one of my favorite guest judges ever.

LM

I also want to add that I liked SMG as a judge because not only was she there as a fan, I felt she was there to be a judge as well. I loved her critiques. She was good. I also love her appearance backstage on Untucked. I often find when the guest judges appear on Untucked, it feels like filler. But her appearance to pop in and say Hi felt genuine. It was lovely to see an Idol of mine growing up (yes Buffy Summers was one of my idols growing up) showing love and support to this community. She's a private person who lives in Hollywood but doesn't play the Hollywood game. She's not someone who speaks up on things because everyone else is. She keeps herself to herself. But for her to come on this show and show her support, spoke volumes IMO.

FluxCapacitor

Another big thumbs up for Sarah Michelle Gellar. Best thing about that episode, I think. Not often a guest judge feels so genuine, invested and is witty and quick enough to keep up and impress Michelle/Ru/Ross.

But WHAT was that lip sync? It would have been embarrassing even had it not been a Cher song, but for two queens to do such a lacklustre performance to an iconic Cher number…? I’m surprised they weren’t both sent home.

babyegg

Obviously far less viewers now it's not on Netflix.

Gellar2013uk

I have been enjoying this season so much. Loving queens like Plane Jane, Sapphira, Nymphia, Dawn and Q. But all the queens are fun to watch.

Every episode has been decent and tbh haven't really disagreed with the judging.

The elims seem fair and just living for the drama this year.

babyegg

Gellar2013uk wrote: »

I have been enjoying this season so much. Loving queens like Plane Jane, Sapphira, Nymphia, Dawn and Q. But all the queens are fun to watch.

Every episode has been decent and tbh haven't really disagreed with the judging.

The elims seem fair and just living for the drama this year.

I'm up to date now and can say it's been really good so far. Just the right amount of bitchy queens.

Getting a bit sick of Dawn's makeup though. She's a cute elf but needs to stretch herself a little bit.

I love Sapphira, loved Q until she turned into Jan, Plane Jane is an excellent stirrer.

Excellent series so far.

LM

I'm really enjoying this season ATM. My only real complaint was the girl group challenge. It's a staple of Drag Race now but I'm bored of it now and very much like Snatch Game, I would happily retire it. It will never happen. But a number of challenges in the show overall really are becoming stale and it has become more apparent in the last few years. They either need to be retired, rested or have some sort of overhaul.

I thought Law Roach was a superb guest judge. Having seen them on Legendary, I knew they wouldn't be one to hold back. He would be a brilliant permanent judge. His insight into fashion is far greater than anything Carson Kressley has ever brought to the show. Dump Carson and Ross. Bring in Law and promote T.S Madison from Part-Time/Rotating Judge to Permanent Judge.

pburke90

LM wrote: »

I thought Law Roach was a superb guest judge. Having seen them on Legendary, I knew they wouldn't be one to hold back. He would be a brilliant permanent judge. His insight into fashion is far greater than anything Carson Kressley has ever brought to the show. Dump Carson and Ross. Bring in Law and promote T.S Madison from Part-Time/Rotating Judge to Permanent Judge.

Funnily enough, I said the exact same thing to my husband yesterday when we watched the episode. Ross is just not funny and gives awful and unhelpful "critiques" and Carson practically says the same thing for most of his critiques. TS is a breath of fresh air and Law was very knowledgeable and fun. Perhaps its time to retire the concept of "extra special guest judges" and just have a strong 4 judge line-up that can see the queens as they go through the competition and be able to properly judge and critique them. Have a 5th guest judge if they want, but the same 4 main judges throughout the season could give much more informative and constructive advice.

plinkiplonk

I don't know whether we have confirmation from anyone about this, but watching the latest Rusical, I was reminded just how much BS all the haggling about the roles is.
I mean, all the costumes are obviously provided by production, so are we supposed to believe that they made every costume in every size just in case???

bean_of_sb

Costumes are tailored on the day,. So whilst there is much of Drag Race that is artificial, the castings in the rusical are legitimate.

plinkiplonk

Ah, thank you. That also explains some of the more questionable aesthetics...

FluxCapacitor

The one thing I do hate about the US Rusicals is that they’re lipsynced. Queens are praised for comedy timing and hilarious choices, but they can only work with whatever the recording gives them. If a recorded vocal line is bland, there isn’t much they can do.

The Sound of Rusic, especially, felt doubly unfair as so many of them were lumped together in groups of 3 styled the same with no real chance to shine. It became a defacto Girl Groups challenge just with a handful of queens at an advantage since their roles genuinely stood out.

At least in the UK the Rusicals are performed live, so Queens genuinely have an opportunity to lift material and put their own spin on it. In the US it always falls flat and the feedback is often overhyped.

LM

Another very painfully bad Snatch Game. The biggest shame for me was Plasma as Patti Lupone. She nailed her perfectly but she wasn't funny.

FlakeWhip

New minor gripe about Snatch Game - I don't think they should be allowed to invent people (I.e. the Gold Tooth Fairy, Shaquita). Kind of defeats the purpose of the whole task, and is then quite unfair on the others as their mannerisms/voice/look can't be compared.

I'll add this to "choosing fictional characters and then just performing their material verbatim" (hello Michael Marouli's Catherine Tate and Tayce's Kath Day-Knight).

Generally quite a poor episode, with only really Sapphira and Plane Jane getting a laugh from me. I have no idea what the judges found so funny about Mhia's Shaquita.