‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7’ premiere recap: Winner, winner, eight chicken dinners

Even having now watched the first two episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7—or, as Ru repeatedly refers to it, “All Stars All Winners”—I still can’t quite believe the season is real. It had already been a fan dream for years before Ru and Michelle Visage openly discussed the possibility on an episode of their podcast years ago. But really, would they ever actually do it? And when Bob the Drag Queen spent most of the Pit Stop during All Stars 5 asking other winners if they were up for another go, it felt the closest it had ever been to becoming a reality … only for Bob to later emphatically say the season would never happen. Dreams dashed.

But then last summer, rumours bubbled up from the Drag Race Reddit world: an all-winners season was filming. Even then, it felt like the whole thing could be a fan theory run amok. True, that two years prior, Survivor had aired its “Winners at War” season, and Project Runway did an All Stars season that brought back only former victors from across the globe. But Drag Race has the unique challenge of bringing together queens who are booked and busy. Plus, who would want to come back just to get eliminated again?

As we see in this premiere episode, Drag Race has put together one hell of a format change to make this happen: no eliminations, and just a point system. (Technically a “legendary legend star” system, but Ru says that phrase so much in the season’s first two episodes that I’m going to give us all a rest from it.) Each week, the top two “legends,” as the show repeatedly and deservedly calls them, will win a point and a corresponding pin. Then, they will compete in a Lip Sync for Your Legacy for $10,000, and the power to block one of their fellow queens from getting a point the following week.

It’s such a clever invention, both because it makes coming back safer for the queens (no risk of being the first-out winner), and because it means we get to see all of these superstars participate in all the various Drag Race challenges. It’s the best of both worlds, and it pays off to spectacular effect in the first two episodes. We’ll have a recap of the Snatch Game installment later, but first, we have to dig into what must be one of the most fun, engaging premieres in Drag Race herstory: an episode simply titled “Legends.”

Our eight returning champions enter the workroom in reverse chronological order of their crowning (with one exception), starting with All Stars 5 champion Shea Couleé. Clad in a radiant orange look, Shea is über-confident, and for good reason. She has six maxi-challenge wins under her belt from across two seasons, and has excelled in many of the show’s signature challenges: a Ball, Snatch Game, the Rusical and so on. Sure, her All Stars 5 competition may not have been the stiffest, but Shea proved herself a star nonetheless.

She’s joined by her crowned-in-summer-2020 sister Jaida Essence Hall, who is here to remind us that she’s a) stunning, b) absolutely hilarious and c) is the only queen to ever be crowned over Zoom. She’s here for a real crowning, and considering she beat some legendary queens in Season 12, she’s used to a fight. Also here is Yvie Oddly, the body-contorting champion of Season 11 who has seemingly really stepped up her fashion game. That’s true across the board—you can tell these are winners who have reaped the financial benefits of doing so—but it’s especially notable with Yvie, as she’s channelled her very distinct aesthetic into more impressive looks.

Next in are the co-winners of All Stars 4, Monét X Change and Trinity the Tuck. Their herstory-making joint win is already a big storyline, as you can tell both see this as a way to break the tie. Then we get to a couple of returning legends from the Logo era of the show: Jinkx Monsoon, winner of Season 5, and Raja, champion of Season 3. It’s a gag to see them both back, not just because the last time we saw them was a decade-plus ago, but because they’re both so good at Drag Race. Jinkx in particular seems most set up to benefit from the top two format, considering how often in Season 5 she was second place in various challenges.

Finally, the one queen who enters out of chronological order is The Vivienne, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 1. She’s the only international queen of the lot, which likely would’ve been more of a wrinkle had UK vs The World not aired earlier this year. True, she’s on American soil, but it’s all RuPaul’s Drag Race at the end of the day. Her drag will translate because it’s proven to do so already. More interesting to me is that, after a season in which she often came off as feeling above her competitors not named Baga Chipz, Viv is more of the underdog in this group, and she recognizes it. I’m perhaps most excited to see how she does in this format.

After they all enter, Season 2 and All Stars 1 runner-up Raven walks in wearing a comically oversized hat and pretends to be a secret ninth competitor. I am going to say something perhaps controversial: I am bored of “Raven robbed” jokes. Say what you will about James Ross, formerly known as Season 2 champion Tyra Sanchez, but he absolutely dominated the competition in Season 2. And Raven, paired with her fellow frequently returning sister Jujubee, couldn’t manage a single maxi-challenge win in All Stars 1, while Season 4’s Chad Michaels ran the board. Raven was not robbed, and more to the point, Raven has gone on to amazing things—including literally winning an Emmy! She’s doing great. We don’t need to belabour this incorrect point anymore.

But belabour the point they do, with Raven even standing with the girls for the RuMail message and Ru’s first greeting. She’s only finally sent off after an extended bit with Ru before they start the Reading Is Fundamental mini-challenge, which Jinkx Monsoon aces to earn a $2,500 cash prize. (More on some of the best reads in the final thoughts section.) Ru then teases that he does have one more queen to introduce to them on the main stage: Naomi Campbell!

Naomi’s introduction is a moment, with Shea practically doubling over screaming upon seeing her. Each queen gets some runway-walk feedback from Naomi, but no interaction is as special as hers with Shea. The All Stars 5 champion is actually speechless when Naomi calls her walk “perfection,” finally managing to express just what an inspiration the British supermodel is to her. If this is the kind of interaction we can expect all season, we’re in for a great run.

In the maxi-challenge, a Rumix task for Ru’s song “Legends” with self-produced choreography on top, effectively every queen excels. You get the sense of just how strong this competition is going to be based on the rehearsals alone, when—after a bit of there being too many cooks—the queens all shape up with a swiftness to kill their choreo. Standouts of the pack are Monét, who has the best verse, and Shea, who continues her multi-season reign of smashing Rumix challenges. I would also give a shout-out to Jaida, whose verse is the most fun and engaging to me; I might’ve placed her in the top two instead, but I’m not sure who of Monét and Shea I would replace. It’s a very strong week for all three.

I’ll get into the individual runway looks in tomorrow’s power rankings, but suffice it to say our crowned queens look universally excellent in the “I’m Crowning” category. It’s obvious we’re going to get a very high calibre of fashion this season, and while I’m always wary of the financial arms race of Drag Race, it goes down much easier when you’re dealing with a set of champions. All of them are successful performers and artists, and thus they’re back to exhibit the evolution of their drag. Plus, it helps that the grand prize has been upped to $200,000—still a bit lower than it should be, but fitting for an all-winners season relative to the usual payout.

The one thing I can’t imagine us getting much this season is negative critique. Ru, Michelle, Carson Kressley and season opener guest judge Cameron Diaz seem content to just lavish praise on the queens—and why not? They don’t need to justify anyone being in the bottom, and when the drag is this great, nitpicking feels unfair. I don’t want this to become the standard on Drag Race (constructive criticism is valid!), but it feels right for this go-around.

Also feeling right: Monét and Shea lip-syncing to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” I’ll admit, I screamed when the song title first popped up—this song?—but the two absolutely smash the performance. Already we’re seeing the calibre of lip sync you’d expect from this crop of queens, and it’s only Episode 1! Shea earns the first $10,000 tip of the season, and then comes the Platinum Plunger. From the same school of camp as “It’s chocolate,” every episode will end with the lip sync winner wielding a shiny plunger, giving it to the queen they want to block in the next episode. It’s so funny, with the queens bantering as Shea decides, ultimately landing on her Season 9 sister Trinity the Tuck to block.

As a premiere, “Legends” is just spectacular. It reintroduces us to all these queens, sets up a convivial-but-competitive atmosphere, features stellar performances and runways and closes it all out with a campy new twist. I couldn’t wait to push play on the second episode after watching this, and that’s exactly what you want out of a Drag Race premiere. Speaking of that second episode: if you thought this one was as excellent as I did, you’re in for a delight.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ And we’re back! As I mentioned in my Season 14 finale recap, this is the 15th Drag Race season I’m recapping with Xtra. I first started contributing back in All Stars 4—which means I’ve recapped the seasons for six of these eight winners right here on this site. And the two other queens in the cast (Jinkx and Raja) are among my favourite winners ever. It’s helping what feels like a culmination season of the show feel even more special. No matter who ultimately wins, I’m just very excited to take this ride with all of you.

✨ It’s a small thing, but it’s weird to me that the queens pretend to be gagged by the no-eliminations twist, when we know from the cast’s Entertainment Weekly interview that they knew about it ahead of time. (Jinkx literally cites it as the reason she signed on.)

✨ This incarnation of Reading Is Fundamental is one of the all-time bests. Jinkx is obviously excellent (to Raja: “Roger! You’ve always been like a sis— You’ve always been like a mo— You’ve always been like a grandmother to me”), but I also love Jaida’s read of Trinity (“Trinity the Tuck! I don’t have no reads for you, bitch. You are the realest queen of this season from the knees down!”) and Trinity’s of Yvie (“Yvie Oddly! Your dad is so hot. What happened?”). Also great is Raja’s speed-run of the challenge, spelling out “BOOGERS” and then just tossing the monocle back to Ru.

✨ Monét and Trinity have formed a little All Stars 4 winner alliance, which is intriguing if others decide to play the same way. So far, they’re the only ones, and it doesn’t wind up impacting things since Shea wins the lip sync. But if more queens decide to pair off, it could lead to an interesting team-like dynamic for the season.

✨ It really can’t be understated what a legend Raja is. Jinkx talks about watching her and Dita Von Teese back in the day on America’s Next Top Model—Raja is literally a queer reality TV institution. Still so gagged that she’s back.

✨ Cameron Diaz makes for a very cute first guest judge, as her fandom comes across strong. I do feel for her that she gets stuck introducing Ru’s performance of “Just What They Want,” though. Ru’s an icon, but she sets herself up a little bit by performing right before eight of her most talented children chew the stage up.

✨ The scene of Jaida crying with joy over being among her fellow winning sisters—complete with Yvie crying in solidarity—is just so lovely and beautiful. Jaida is among my favourite queens ever, so I’m thrilled for her that she gets this second opportunity, considering COVID-19 foiled her first crowning.

✨ The runway theme is Ru’s excellent song “New Friends Silver, Old Friends Gold,” mostly instrumental except for the start and end. As much as I loved “Catwalk” during Season 14, this is a really good substitute.

✨ Already fascinated by the decision-making around who changes into a lip sync outfit and who doesn’t during Untucked. Is it based on confidence that they’ll win the challenge? Is it just who was uncomfortable in their previous look? I’m gonna be watching this like a hawk all season.

✨ “Say ‘clump’ again.”

The second episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 is streaming right now! The third episode will stream Friday, May 27, at 3 a.m. EST on Paramount+ in the U.S. We’ll be publishing recaps and power rankings all season long, and you can also subscribe to our drag newsletter Wig! for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.