‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 11’ proves even fan favourites aren’t immune to backlash in its second bracket

It’s rare that, nearly two decades into its existence, RuPaul’s Drag Race can truly shock me. I’ve seen a frontrunner sacrifice herself with a self-elimination. I’ve seen nearly the entire cast of a season bomb Snatch Game. I’ve seen a former host compete in an international season and storm it, only to be sent home in a blindside. I’ve seen whatever the hell Down Under Season 1 was.

So I don’t mean it lightly when I say that RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 11 has managed to genuinely surprise me in a way I could’ve never expected: it has made some fans suspect the season is being rigged for Crystal Methyd.

Yes, that Crystal Methyd, the fan favourite from the beloved Season 12. The queen who, until Anetra came along, had the most popular #Team post on Drag Race’s Instagram ever. The quirky underdog who didn’t win a challenge until Final 6 on her season. That Crystal is the one that some fans—not all, but a vocal group— suspect is being pushed toward the crown, much like they feel Ginger Minj was in All Stars 10.

“Crystal Methyd is the new Ginger Minj,” one YouTube video title reads, making that comparison explicit. “Crystal Methyd is getting a winner edit,” says another, with the word “predictable” in the thumbnail. This sentiment didn’t even wait for multiple episodes to air—accusations started flying after the very first episode of the bracket, when Crystal and her duet partner Aura Mayari won the duets challenge. The decision to judge in pairs when there was a queen in another group who was arguably among the best (more on her in a second), plus the extensive stage setup that Aura and Crystal got for their number, had some viewers looking askance at Crystal’s win in particular.

The fact that this is happening to Crystal of all people, whose appearance in this cast was the best-received by a mile—only Dawn managed even half Crystal’s likes on her announcement post—speaks to a bigger problem with Drag Race in its current incarnation. It’s not about anything Crystal has done; she’s an elevated version of herself from Season 12, sure, but she’s still distinctly Crystal.

No, what this backlash speaks to is that even fan favourites aren’t immune to backlash—and that’s because the contract of trust between Drag Race production and its fans has been almost completely broken.

In order to understand how we got here, we need to understand how fans’ relationship with Drag Race production has deteriorated so significantly. So indulge me, if you will, in a tangent—a trip through time back to 2016.

Here’s the thing: seasons have been angled in favour of certain queens for years. All Stars 2 is considered one of the best seasons of all time, and yet there was little doubt that Season 5 fave Alaska would be crowned by the end. In fact, this is true of most All Stars seasons. (I would argue only All Stars 3, All Stars 6 and All Stars 9 had surprising champions—though the tie in All Stars 4 was, of course, not something we’ve ever seen before or since.) And sure, there was a bit of annoyance that the true fan favourite that season, Katya, didn’t get the win.

But by and large, Alaska was seen as deserving of the title, and there was little dispute of any of her wins during the season. (Even though, looking back, that branding challenge win was a little iffy.) Fans still liked Alaska, and the show had made an effective case that she was the right queen to win it all. The prevailing sentiment from the fandom about her win was not one of skepticism, but one of celebration at best and acceptance at worst.

This is because, circa All Stars 2, the contract of trust between the show and its fans was still intact. A decade ago, Drag Race was just starting to break out of niche success. All Stars 2 was the first season to be simulcast on VH1, with Season 9 moving to the channel full-time the next year. Greater Emmy recognition started rolling in, with RuPaul winning his first “Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program” prize in September 2016. Fans who had been around for a while appreciated the increased attention to their favourite program, while new fans eagerly binged previous seasons. Vibes were good! The overwhelming feeling was gratitude for the show’s existence, particularly as American fans mourned the first election of Donald Trump later that year. The show was a comfort, not something to be scrutinized.

But with more success comes more criticism, and we first saw the dam start to show cracks as All Stars 3 aired. RuPaul gave a disastrous interview to The Guardian in which he expressed skepticism about trans queens competing on the show. Fans and queens alike openly revolted against the host’s comments, and he wound up having to apologize on Twitter. (Infamously, he tweeted artist Ellsworth Kelly’s Train Landscape painting with the apology, making folks think he mistakenly posted a “trains flag” instead of a “trans flag.” Maybe this was nine-years-early, stealth Stop! That! Train! promo?)

The apology settled the waters somewhat, but the damage was done. Some fans were growing increasingly skeptical of the show’s motives, and the treatment of The Vixen in the subsequent Season 10 only furthered that feeling. It largely continued through the next couple seasons, with choices like the tie in All Stars 4 and the negative editing of queens like Ra’Jah O’Hara and Silky Nutmeg Ganache in Season 11 upsetting more and more viewers.

Funnily enough, considering that Crystal is the queen in question here, her original season was the one that repaired that broken trust for a time. Much like Drag Race was a salve in the wake of Trump’s election, Season 12 was a lifeline to people stuck indoors during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another new influx of viewers joined the fandom, and feelings sweetened for a time. Sure, Shea Couleé’s victory in All Stars 5 seemed preordained, and folks were sad for Jujubee, but who could really hate on Shea finally getting a crown? The fans were, by and large, so happy to have more Drag Race that questioning its motives was once again out of vogue.

It didn’t take long for things to change again, though—just two years later. All Stars 7, the first (and so far, only) all-winners edition of the series, brought about new levels of fan skepticism. “The three-star twist was only implemented to get Shea to the finale!” “Jinkx Monsoon is being too heavily favoured!” “Raja is getting robbed at every turn!” The finale, a masterclass in hackneyed editing to achieve a desired result, was the last straw for many. With the queens themselves so aggrieved by the season that they filmed (and later shelved) an unauthorized reunion, fans felt emboldened to call out production more and more.

There was no unifying event in the offing to rebuild trust between the show and its fans. Things have only devolved since then. When you’ve got a living legend like Sasha Colby stomping the competition, and fans are questioning if the show is rigged for her, you know the trust is gone. Ginger’s glide path to victory last season was scoffed at not just by fans, but queens on and off the show. And I would say Jane Don’t’s absurd elimination in Season 18 was emblematic of just how far off the rails things have gone: the show isn’t even bothering to try and disguise its production manipulations anymore, because they know the fans will be skeptical anyway.

That brings us back to All Stars 11 and this second bracket. Crystal did great in the first two episodes, and a few years ago that would’ve been happily accepted by the fandom. But instead, some viewers are looking for any evidence of favouritism of her—particularly in light of one queen’s overperformance being ignored in the first two installments of the bracket. That queen is … Season 15’s Salina EsTitties?

Unlike Crystal, Salina did not come into this season as a fan favourite. (Her announcement post only outperformed Mystique Summers, Aura Mayari and Hershii LiqCour-Jeté, meaning she ranked 15th of 18 total queens. Ouch.) I enjoyed Salina in Season 15, but she was pretty clearly outclassed by the final four of that season, which included both Sasha and Anetra, plus Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Luxx Noir London. Her off-show rant about Ross Mathews, while admittedly kinda funny, also left it in question as to whether she’d ever be allowed on the show again. Queens have been blacklisted for less!

So it’s been a surprise and a delight to see Salina really show up and show out in this bracket. She was one of the best performers in the duets challenge, up there with Aura and Silky. (I’d personally have put her in the top two over Crystal.) She had a great how-to video in the second episode of the bracket, but Silky was rewarded for what felt like an inferior version of a similar concept. Her runway looks have demonstrated significant growth since Season 15, and she’s been a much more natural, enjoyable presence in confessionals. In other words, she has experienced the archetypal “All Stars glow-up,” but without any wins to show for it.

That is, until the final episode of the bracket! After the episode began with Salina tearing up over her lack of wins, I had a good feeling about her chances. While I wouldn’t naturally think of Salina as the strongest contender in a makeover, the proof was in the pudding: she recreated her beat nearly perfectly on her partner, a gay daddy, and their outfits were crazy stylish. The final episode was particularly satisfying because not only did Salina win, but fellow underdog Vivacious did as well. Overall, five of the six queens in this bracket won challenges, which makes things much more competitive—especially considering how tight the math is this season.

However, despite her newfound competitive prowess, Salina’s wheeling-and-dealing strategy when it came to the Most Valuable Queen (MVQ) points bit her in the ass. Her alliance with Aura failed to materialize in any points for her in the first two brackets, and her “Tres Leches” alliance with Crystal and April Carrión never quite solidified. Even though she got a pinky promise from Aura for her final MVQ point, Silky’s last-minute deal with Aura swayed Salina’s Season 15 sister. Silky and Crystal both scrounged up enough support to get six total MVQ points—with even April giving hers to Crystal instead of Salina—leaving Salina with five and just barely missing the merge. It’s a bummer to see Salina not make it; I think her work this season made her worthy. Maybe she can be the wildcard pick—though she’s already got stiff competition there with Morgan McMichaels likely in the mix.

Interestingly, I think this final points shakeup is what the show needed to take some heat off of Crystal. Her not winning all three challenges—and in fact, getting mostly negative critiques this time—keeps her from feeling like a Ginger-esque inevitability for the crown. Meanwhile, Silky’s strategic play will likely attract more critiques from the fans; it’s unfortunate for Silky, but I don’t think she’s getting much of a winner’s edit anyway. If the show really is trying to push Crystal to a win as some fans suspect, this all makes it a lot less contentious.

I don’t think it solves the problem at its core, though. Even if this calms down the speculation about Crystal favouritism, the trust between the show and its fans is still broken. Conversation around the show, especially All Stars, is becoming more and more sparse. While it’s hard to imagine a titanic franchise like Drag Race ever fully going away, I do think it needs to get the fanbase back on board to build a sustainable future.

My advice to Drag Race: stop moving with such a heavy hand sometimes, because it only will convince your audience you’re doing it always. Every instance of clear production manipulation only makes fans more skeptical of production’s overall approach. Crystal’s should be a cautionary tale: it doesn’t matter if the queen receiving perceived favourable treatment is beloved by fans. The skepticism overrules the positive feelings for the queen. 

The truth is that Drag Race is reality TV, and producing is a necessary tool to make the best possible show. Much as some fans might think otherwise, you can’t just put up cameras and let the queens do their thing to make a successful program. There’s so much more involved in that. But right now, the scale seems tipped too far in the other direction for the fandom to tolerate. And it will take time for that contract of trust between production and fans to be mended again. It doesn’t seem like All Stars 11 will be the season to start that healing; here’s to Season 19 to, hopefully, get things moving in the right direction again.