RuPaul’s Drag Race: How the Competition for the Best ‘Drag Queen’ Became More Than a TV ‘Reality Show’

Willow Pill, a transgender drag–performer and audience favorite, is the winner of the fourteenth season of reality-show ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’, which domestic viewers, to their great disappointment, could not watch on Netflix this year. Despite the fact that the drag king RuPaul’s franchise has lost a considerable number of viewers who streamed the content via Netflix, this season has been declared one of the best yet by a million-strong army of fans on social media.

Their reactions, as well as media comments, confirmed the fact that ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ is a gold-standard media format that has not only managed to maintain popularity from 2009 to today but has also transformed into a pop culture phenomenon, outgrowing its niche (drag performers, LGBTQ+ viewers) and becoming a full-fledged mainstream brand from which much can be learned.

‘Drag Race’ has won 24 Emmy awards in the last 13 years and expanded to as many as 12 international franchises. The production company behind the reality-show, World of Wonder (WOW), launched the streaming platform WOW Presents Plus in 2018, which recorded a subscriber growth of as much as 134 percent last year.

– Drag artists have influenced popular culture, fashion, and music for decades, and only now are they starting to receive recognition – said Brooke Lynn Hytes, a finalist of the 11th season and host of the Canadian version of ‘Drag Race’, at last week’s summit of the most innovative companies.

And indeed, as Fast Company reports, they have not only received recognition but also the opportunity to build their business beyond the world of performance. From cosmetics to music, podcasting, and even hospitality and the travel industry, drag queens (or, as they are affectionately called at home – trandže) have become a new class of moguls.

Resonating with the Audience

– Queens are great entrepreneurs. They have created their audience, their opportunities. And it’s not just about their appearance but about how their brand resonates with the audience. The art of being exactly who you are is business – added Fenton Bailey, one of the co-founders of WOW, at the summit, who has expanded the franchise to Australia, the United Kingdom, Chile, New Zealand, Italy, the Philippines, Spain, Germany, and France, and hopes to continue expanding, especially in countries where drag culture is not as visible.

Although it may not seem so to the average viewer, the drag scene exists in literally every country, and ‘Drag Race’ improves visibility for members of that target group, helping them come out of the closet, feel better in their skin, and turn their artistic talents into business. However, ‘Drag Race’ did not manage to do this from the start.

Namely, the first season, created by the world’s most popular drag queen RuPaul or Mamma Ru, did not break viewing records but managed to attract a niche audience – representatives of the LGBTQ+ population, drag performers, and lovers of that type of art. Soon, an audience unfamiliar with this niche art form, who identify as heterosexual (especially the female part), managed to recognize themselves in the life stories of men, talented designers, dancers, comedians, and/or singers who love to dress in exaggerated female costumes.

Although it seemed impossible (to recognize oneself in American ‘drag’), each subsequent season proved that ‘Drag Race’ is an addictive combination of a competition for the best drag queen, but also a story about overcoming real traumas, feelings of inadequacy, rejection, and inferiority, and building a new artistic identity that has helped some contestants build self-confidence and feel better in their own skin. These stories were told from a positive perspective and quenched the audience’s thirst for positive and authentic content.

From Niche to ‘Mainstream’

As the marketing portal The Drum once noted, ‘Drag Race’ is exemplary in how it has approached its fan community. Or, as The Drum states, brands usually talk about needing to ‘build’ a community, while RuPaul realized early on that a community needs to be ‘nurtured’, showing them how important they are.

That is why, in addition to the core content of the competition itself, they connected with the audience on social platforms, encouraging them to organize offline events, create fan art, vlogs, podcasts, and thus turned them into participants in the competition. Over time, they included popular celebrities who guest-starred in episodes, and drag-queens became present in all possible media from Vogue, New York Times to the mosaic morning show of the BBC.

Although they have significantly expanded their audience over these 13 years, they decided not to adapt to them in a content sense but to remain true to the original concept, that is, to introduce the audience to the world of drag, showing it exactly as it is. However, fans who have watched all 14 seasons of the reality show might disagree with that.

As the audience grew, so did the value of the brand created by RuPaul (his personal wealth alone is estimated at 60 million dollars), and so did the production demands. In other words, contestants from the first seasons (mostly lower or lower-middle American class) arrived at the competition with one suitcase, their dresses were often pure improvisation, they sewed them themselves, and today they compete in costumes made for them by designers, valued at thousands of dollars.

Authenticity Above All

Although it is said today in the corridors (social media) that contestants take out loans before the show, the fact is that once they hit the screen, their market value significantly increases, which can ultimately return initial investments. Putting that aside, ‘Drag Race’ is a brand from which companies, regardless of the sector, can learn a marketing lesson.

For example, the American marketing agency Nebo invited its clients to look up to ‘Drag Race’, claiming that the show is a marketing masterpiece. The greatest advantage (and lesson) lies in insisting on authenticity. Although the goal of every drag-performer is to entertain their audience, RuPaul insists that the audience meets the person behind three tons of powder and false eyelashes.

Some of the strongest contestants have been eliminated from the show precisely because they insisted on perfectionism, were afraid to show their weaknesses, and, in fact, their humanity. Brands that claim to be authentic often fail this test, but as long as that authenticity conceals their potential flaws or mistakes.

‘Drag Race’ is, in that sense, a wonderful example of how a brand can succeed only when it shows its vulnerability. Because vulnerability, not perfection, is what the audience connects with and identifies in, and that is precisely what drag queens have succeeded in achieving with an audience that seemingly has no connection to their subculture.