There have now been 12 grand finales in the history of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Despite the fact that each finale brought something different to the series, it is also true that certain finales were more liked or disliked by fans and critics.
The overall appeal of a Drag Race finale has little to do with who wins the season, and more to do with the fun, inventiveness, and hype that accompanies that very last episode. What’s more, these grand finales must be compared side by side in order to determine each of their places in the history of this beloved franchise.
Season 7
When Drag Race season 7 premiered, the feeling among fans was of unmet expectations, casting a shadow over a season that gave us so many future superstars.
It’s no secret that fans weren’t enthused by the top 3 of season 7, which certainly reflected how the finale played out. For one, the songs performed by the finalists weren’t all that great. Moreover, RuPaul kept joking about bringing back Katya to the stage throughout the episode – even right before she announced the season’s winner. It was a funny gag, but it only exposed the lukewarm energy that fans felt for the finalists at the time.
Season 1
Season 1 of RuPaul’s Drag Race gets credit for doing everything first, including the grand finale. With that said, this episode doesn’t hold up that well in comparison to most of the finales that came after it.
For one, the season 1 finale exposed the truth (which had been pointed out by the other contestants) that Rebecca Glasscock had been getting saved week after week without necessarily deserving it. Moreover, it became pretty evident that the crown was going to BeBe Zahara Benet no matter what anyone else did – a realization that killed any element of surprise.
Season 2
Back when Drag Race season 2 aired, its grand finale felt like a significant improvement from the series’ first year. In hindsight, however, this grand finale doesn’t feel as exciting as others in future seasons.
Moreover, the decade-long conflict between James Ross (who has retired the Tyra Sanchez drag persona) and other contestants has slightly tainted the experience of re-watching the season 2 finale. In any case, there’s no denying that the Drag Race crown went to the contestant who performed the best on season 2, which will always be exciting to watch.
Season 8
The mission statement behind season 8 of RuPaul’s Drag Race was to bring back the fans that had been turned off by season 7. The season was indeed successful in doing so, and its grand finale was proof of that.
Similar to seasons 4 through 6, it was hard to argue that there wasn’t one clear frontrunner to win the crown on season 8. Still, it was exciting to watch Kim Chi do so well during the finale and cast some doubt over Bob the Drag Queen’s crowning. With such a strong top 3 and a very likable winner, the season 8 finale felt a breath of fresh air for fans of the series.
Season 10
There was certainly a lot of tension on the stage of the Drag Race season 10 finale. The queens were not only trying to outperform each other, but they were also attempting to live up to the shocking reveals that Sasha Velour pulled off the year before.
The season 10 grand finale gets A for effort, but it fails to deliver anything even remotely close to what transpired the year before. In addition, one must note that the butterfly reveal that Asia O’Hara tried to pull off isn’t well-remembered. Still, it was fun to see all the season 1 contestants back on the stage, as the whole episode celebrated the ten-year anniversary of Drag Race.
Season 11
The grand finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11 benefited from being the third time that the series had the current Lip Sync For The Crown format. Unlike season 10, the queens didn’t try to outdo the season 9 shenanigans, instead focusing on performing well and doing their own thing.
Most of the season 11 finalists had good-but-not-great performances, and the crowning of Yvie Oddly was exciting to watch. As such, the season 11 finale did not enter any history books, but it was also not that bad.
Season 3
For the first time in Drag Race history, all three finalists had the exact same number of maxi challenge wins: Raja, Manila Luzon, and Alexis Mateo had each won 3 maxi challenges throughout season 3.
One major problem with the Drag Race season 3 finale was the feeling in the air that Raja had been brought in to win. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton had leaked to mainstream audiences who the winner was before the season premiere, and certain season 3 contestants claimed that Raja had been favored.
Watching the season, there’s no denying that Raja was the rightful winner. With that said, Manila Luzon gave Raja a hard time on the final Lip Sync for the Crown, which made the finale even more exciting.
Season 12
Drag Race season 12 had to deal with the disqualification of a competitor who had made to the finale, last-minute reedits, and COVID-19. With so many problems at hand, the show did a fantastic job of presenting what will go down in history as one of the strongest casts and most fun seasons in history.
Due to social distancing regulations, the season 12 grand finale had to be filmed remotely, with each queen recording their lip syncs from home. It was far from what the fans have grown accustomed to, but the perseverance and creativity from the queens made this finale a historic and special episode to watch.
Season 5
Jinkx Monsoon, Alaska, and Roxxxy Andrews represented one of the strongest top 3s in RuPaul’s Drag Race history, even if the writing was on the wall that this was Jinkx’s year. Overall, the season 5 finale reflected the iconic cast of queens that competed that year, and it felt incredibly satisfying for LGBTQIA+ fans to watch the show crowning the beaten-down contestant who stood up to the popular girls and persevered against all odds.
No matter how many seasons Drag Race ends up having, the season 5 finale will always have a special place in the heart of the fandom.
Season 4
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 4 was the first year when the series had a live finale and bundled up the reunion episode with the crowning. Fans loved listening to what these queens were up to nearly a year after they filmed the season, discovering what Willam had allegedly done to be disqualified, and watching Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O’Hara hashing out their differences on the stage.
The crowning of Sharon Needles also felt like a revolutionary achievement for the series, given that it was so far-fetched that a “spooky” persona like Sharon would outperform the more glamorous types of drag seen on the show.
Season 6
Many fans argue that the combination of Adore Delano, Bianca Del Rio, and Courtney Act makes up the strongest top 3 in Drag Race history. The season 6 grand finale certainly felt like it, as the show and its queens celebrated what was clearly and unmistakably one of the franchise’s strongest years ever.
While it didn’t come as a huge surprise that Bianca Del Rio took the crown, it was still satisfying to watch the season’s clear frontrunner winning the grand prize.
Season 9
The season 9 finale introduced the current Lip Sync For The Crown format, where finalists must survive a few rounds of lip-syncs in order to win the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar. Besides the element of surprise that this format introduced, no one could’ve predicted how well Sasha Velour would do. When Sasha did the wig reveal of falling rose petals, fans knew that they were watching Drag Race history happening right in front of them.
Besides Sasha, the season 9 grand finale had great lip syncs from Trinity The Tuck and Shea Coulee, and Peppermint earned her runner-up placement despite arriving to the finale with the worst track record.