Two years ago, I wrote that 2022 was the year Drag Race went global. I had actually pitched the idea even before Paramount announced that they had greenlit RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars, a multi-country crossover series that would pit queens from 12 different franchises against each other in one Olympic-style battle royal. Drag Race was already moving in that direction with RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World and Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. The World. This kind of international spectacle seemed to be the franchise’s future.
“Global All Stars will only further make Drag Race feel like a big international brand,” I wrote at the time. “You want to know more about this Global All Stars-level queen? Better watch their original series!”
Imagine telling me two years ago just how disastrous Global All Stars would end up being. Or that despite the massive influx of new series in other countries, the actual production of those series has slowed tremendously. Yes, some are thriving, with España hosting its first All Stars season this year and France announcing one of their own to come. But others didn’t produce new seasons this year (Brasil, Italia), and others don’t even have second-season renewals announced (Germany, Sverige). The rumoured Asian expansion failed to materialize beyond the return of Thailand—unfortunately with a season that has underwhelmed relative to fan expectations.
Yes, Drag Race South Africa was recently announced, but that’s the only major movement toward an expanded Drag Race universe that we’ve seen in some time. Instead, it feels like the areas where Drag Race has already taken root are growing fastest, with Canada, España, France, Philippines and UK all putting out strong seasons this year. And of course, Drag Race continues to grow at its home base, with Season 16 establishing itself as one of the best American seasons in years.
The end result of 2024 is a Drag Race landscape that feels distinctly international but not interconnected. Perhaps the best sign of that is the reception to the international crossover seasons this year: disappointment in the seemingly inevitable winners of the vs. The World series, and the utter collapse of Global All Stars from the word “go.”
Alyssa Edwards in RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars, episode 101, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: World of Wonder Productions, Inc./Paramount+ Credit: Courtesy Paramount+
I’d compare what happened to Drag Race this year to what has been happening to Marvel Studios. For a while, it seemed like the interconnected nature of both franchises was a feature, not a bug. Want to know who Captain Marvel is before she joins the Avengers in Avengers: Endgame? Make sure to see her origin-story film. Are you loving La Grande Dame on UK vs. The World Season 2? Drag Race France Season 1 is just a WOW Presents Plus subscription away from you diving in to see more of her.
But like Marvel, fans soon felt overwhelmed by having to watch so many movies, TV series and even one-off specials, and so too did Drag Race fans get burned by their investment in various international series. Though the vs. The World series did feature a few queens from franchises outside the US, U.K. and Canada, no one outside of those countries has yet won. Three of the four seasons have given crowns to hometown queens (Blu Hydrangea, Tia Kofi and Lemon), and the fourth crowned a U.S. queen in Canada (Ra’Jah O’Hara). It felt almost like a slap to be so invested in a queen like Marina Summers, truly the breakout star of UK vs. The World Season 2, only for her to be unceremoniously eliminated in the finale.
No failure stung worse, however, than that of Global All Stars. It’s safe to say that this was one of the most anticipated seasons in Drag Race herstory. The promise of bringing together 12 queens, all from different countries, was exciting enough. The cast itself, stacked with finalists and fan favourites—including the grand return of Alyssa Edwards—had fan fervour at a fever pitch. It should’ve been effectively impossible to screw up a season like this.
Yet screw it up they did. The three RuGirls coming into the competition—Alyssa, Kitty Scott-Claus from UK and Kween Kong from Down Under—all received heavily preferential treatment in the judging. Only four queens besides them managed to win a challenge: Vanity Vain from Sverige (in a challenge no RuGirls competed in), Tessa Testicle from Germany (in a design challenge using Alyssa’s materials), Pythia from Canada (the only other queen from a primarily English-language series) and the eventual fourth queen in the finale, Nehellenia from Italia.
Nehellenia became the fan favourite in part because she was the only queen from a non-English language series who seemed to have a shot at the crown, but in even larger part because of how she was treated by the RuGirls. All of them, but especially Kitty and Kween, were depicted as being remarkably rude to Nehellenia throughout the season. So not only were the queens Ru had previously judged receiving preferential treatment but they were also being accused of bullying by the fans.
It was, to put it mildly, a clusterfuck. Small pleasures, like France’s Soa De Muse pulling out the win in a very fun LaLaPaRuZa episode, were drowned out by all the season’s failures and missed opportunities. By the time Alyssa was crowned, the dominant reaction online was not excitement for her, or even sadness for Nehellenia—it was just relief that finally, the season was over. What a tragic conclusion for one of the most anticipated Drag Race seasons ever.
An all-charity season of All Stars was an interesting idea, but was too drama-free to maintain audience interest Credit: Courtesy Paramount+
I guess it’s possible that we’ll see Global All Stars again—World of Wonder seems to get some kind of benefit from the country of Colombia for filming the series there—but I can’t imagine there ever being a real appetite for the format again. Even the vs. The World seasons are experiencing diminishing returns, particularly after Canada vs. The World Season 2 served as a slow, obvious march toward a Lemon crowning. It’s fun to think about queens from the international series getting a global stage, but how much benefit is there really when the odds are stacked against them from the start?
Global All Stars’ failure was part of a general trend of All Stars disappointments this year, with the first season of España All Stars becoming a similarly inevitable waltz to a crown for Drag Sethlas, while All Stars 9’s charity focus made for somewhat entertaining, but not particularly dramatically interesting, television. There will almost certainly always be an appetite for returning queens on Drag Race, but it’s interesting that when we look back at the year as a whole, it was the seasons that brought back veterans that disappointed most.
Meanwhile, by all accounts, most of the healthy franchises had a terrific year. UK Season 6, Philippines Season 3, Mexico Season 2 and España Season 4 have all been celebrated as being among some of the best Drag Race seasons ever. Season 16 refreshed RuPaul’s Drag Race in a major way. Stalwarts like Canada, Down Under and France each delivered something interesting this year, with Canada introducing the Golden Beaver, Down Under turning the hosting reins over to Michelle Visage and France crowning the second no-challenge-win champion ever. Only Thailand really managed to disappoint among the existing series, and I’m inclined to cut it slack since it finally returned after several years off the air.
Despite the disappointment of international crossover seasons this year, hometown series, like Canada’s Drag Race, have been surprisingly great across the board Credit: Courtesy Bell Media
So what can we deduce from Drag Race in 2024? Well, unlike Marvel, which has been seeing diminishing returns across all its projects not involving mutants or Agatha Harkness, it’s clear that there’s still enthusiasm there for new seasons of many different series. There also does seem to be an appetite for All Stars, though not at the expense of regular seasons (rumours online that France All Stars will be taking Season 4’s place as next year’s edition have not gone over well with fans), and not too far outside the typical format. Additionally, ambitions of more extensive expansion may need to wait for fan demand and interest to rise again.
With all that in mind, I have a proposal: Drag Race should suspend its international crossover seasons, at least for now. I make this suggestion with the understanding that it’s not realistic. I can’t really imagine World of Wonder turning down the BBC and Crave when they ask for more vs. The World series, and again, it sounds like Paramount has some financial incentive to produce Global All Stars. But for the overall health of the franchise, and for these global crossovers to work, pausing is for the best. Take some time to figure out what a truly fair and balanced international All Stars season could look like. Does it include various hosts and judges from across the brand, rotating in and out across many episodes? Does Ru remove himself from the judging process entirely, or at least until the very end of the season? Is there some kind of Olympic-style scoring system that could be put in place?
Whatever the solution is, I hope Drag Race takes the time to find it. The future of a truly global, interconnected Drag Race is still possible! But 2024 proved it can’t be half-assed or improperly scaled. With the success of these series in their home countries, fans get attached to their favourites—and while there’s no way to make everyone happy, there absolutely is a way to make these crossover seasons a celebration of how international Drag Race truly is.
The next episode of Canada’s Drag Race will be available to stream next Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. You can subscribe to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every month.
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