RuPaul's Drag Race season 13 premieres this week and VH1 has released the first ten minutes in a preview video. Based on the opening moments, this season is already bringing major twists to the long-running reality TV competition show.
It can be difficult for a franchise to surprise its fans after twelve seasons and several spin-offs, but RuPaul's Drag Race has done it again. Just ahead of the season 13 premiere, VH1 released the preview of that first episode and revealed a completely new lip sync format. For twelve seasons, the fans have watched all (or at least half) of the contestants enter the Werk Room and introduce themselves with a gag-worthy tagline. After the entrances, the queens typically size each other up and wait for RuPaul to reveal their first mini-challenge. This season, however, only two drag queens - Kandy Muse and J0ey Jay - seem to enter the Werk Room during the first ten minutes of the episode, and RuPaul announces that they must report to the mainstage before meeting any of the other contestants. Once Kandy Muse and Joey Jay are standing in front of the judges, Mother RuPaul proclaims that this year the season is starting with a lip-sync battle.
When they first enter the Drag Race werk room, Kandy Muse and Joey Jay seem very prepared to perform the roles of firey drag queens on a show they think they know. Both queens sashay into the Werk Room with quippy catchphrases and reality TV personalities primed for stardom. Kandy Muse even throws some heavy shade at former Drag Race contestant Aja. It seems as though these queens know exactly how to behave on a show they have likely watched for years. But when RuPaul reveals the twist in the preview of the season premiere (seen below), Kandy Muse and Joey Jay look like deers caught in headlights. The judges ask them about their drag styles and they both look scared to death to be talking to the judges this early on in the competition. When RuPaul reveals that they must lip-sync to start this year's competition, Joey Jay says "this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'm not going home before I even start."
The preview ends before RuPaul announces who gets "the pork chop." Some fans believe that no one will go home and that RuPaul is simply putting fear in their eyes to make the queens hungry for the fight. But just for fun, we predict the more exciting option. Our guess is that RuPaul eliminates half the girls in the very first episode but gives them all an opportunity to re-enter the competition for the first half of the season. This is all speculation, but either way, it is thrilling to guess which direction this new season will go in.
No matter what happens, it feels nice to have RuPaul's Drag Race back on TV. One thing is certain: these season 13 queens have big shoes to fill after the success of season 12.
Source: VH1