The final three are here hunty! Season 12 has been plagued with drama, shock eliminations and a global pandemic. And like the outside world, the girls have stayed sickening. With Gigi Goode, Jaida Essence Hall and Crystal Methyd competing for the crown via zoom on Friday the 29th.
Daisy Williams takes a look at the 156 queens who have competed to see who is in the best position to snatch the crown this year.
Daisy Williams takes a look at the 156 queens who have competed to see who is in the best position to snatch the crown this year.
Win = +2 High = +1 Safe = 0 Low = -1 Bottom 2 = -2
To see the full data set click here
SEASONS THAT
Already Done Had Herses
Each season we meet up to 13 snatched queens strut into the workroom with hopes of becoming America’s next drag superstar. Most seasons, the viewers can guess who will win. 63% of the seasons, the front runners have won. In season 1, with only 7 weeks it’s hard to say Bebe didn’t deserve the crowd as the show was finding its feet and she showed in AllStars 3 she was a worthy recipient. Kim Chi was the highest scorer in the 8th season but Bob took the crown. Kim got increasingly better throughout the season whilst Bob seemed like a front runner until the last couple of weeks where she dropped. By then, she had a following and had made an impression establishing herself as a winner that by the finale it was clear she was the crowd favorite. Interesting enough, Thorgy Thor was also tied as highest point scorer of that season but was eliminated week 7. She was a loud complainer that the season was ‘The Bob Show’ and editors, judges and audience favored the New York performer. Season 11, Brooklyn Hytes should of snatched the crown but it was given to Yvie. Similarly to season 8, I think the crew saw the social media reaction to Yvie and knew that was the story arc that made most sense. Season 9 however, it was down to best friends Sasha and Shea. Shea was positioned to win, many think she was robbed. However, this is a prime example of when the final lipsync for your life counts. Although story line and editing was set up for Shea to win, Sasha’s performance and reveal was game changing and to deprive her of a win would of made no sense whatsoever.
You can also come out on top without winning a crown. The top 16 queens 7 of the winners meaning 4 of the winners were outscored or possibly if these queens were on another season they could have been the winner of $100,000 doll-ars. 2 of the tops are Gigi and Jaida from this season, reinforcing how strong this season has been. As you can see there are no queens from season 8 or 10, two of the weaker seasons. 7 is also considered an odd season, despite making stars from the show but no one shining whilst on the program, and surprisingly that has the most high scoring queens in the top.
Being a bottom is nothing to scoff at. The lowest scoring queens are we have Kandy Ho who places 10th in season 7, Ra’Jah O’Hara who came 9th on season 11 and Darienne Lake who made it to the top 4 in season 6!
HOW TO BE A
Winner Baby
Winners aren’t born, they are made – usually in New York. Seemingly every second queen on the show brags about making it in the New York scene, whilst a lot also flock to the West Coast to make it in a more mainstream capacity. The 3rd place with the most queens is Florida, followed closely by queens from Chicago. Bitch. The most winners come from New York – Sasha & Aquaria listing Brooklyn as their home base and Bianca & Bob saying they are from the city.
From Minnesota to Seattle, we know queens come from everywhere. But who is the best queen of all time? Using the scoring from above let’s look at how each queen performed throughout their season and what challenges they excelled at.
CHALLENGES THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO
F**k It Up
Ru always says all you need is Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent – but some seasons specialized skills might come in handy. Season 4, 9 and 3 were all very heavy on acting challenges. In Season 9, Sasha Velour, the winner of that season won 2 challenges of them, both of them being acting. Considering nearly 30% of the challenges were acting challenges, and there were no singing challenges, an acting queen was well positioned. Season 4 was another one heavy on acting challenges and also design ones. Sharon Needles, Season 4 Queen Supreme, won 2/4 acting challenges, and 2/5 ball or design challenges. This season was pretty well spaced out with 2 balls, 2 design challenges and 2 makeover challenges, but someone going in as a dancing queen had very little chance to shine. Season 1, 2, 5 and 8 were pretty equally spread of challenges. 1,2 and 8 did have less weeks that the later ones but 5 is a great example of when there is a mix of skills demonstrated some of the strongest queens emerge. Season 5 gave us some of the biggest starts of Drag Race from RolAlskaTox to our tounge popping goddess, Alyssa Edwards, her orange enemy, Coco and winner Jinx-Water-Off-A-Ducks-Back-Monsoon.
challenges
So if you are going to win should you also pick up a win for iconic challenges too? Only 3 winners have won snatch game, 5 winners won a ball challenge and 4 won the first challenge off the bat coming into the competition strong. Over the 11 seasons, 30 challenges have been won by the overall winner of their respective season. Of those 30, 1/3 are for acting. Design seems to be another important category with 16% of these wins falling within the scopes of a design challenge. But, as we learnt before, seasons throw curve balls with the type of challenges they have been thrown.
You can also come out on top without winning a crown. The top 16 queens 7 of the winners meaning 4 of the winners were outscored or possibly if these queens were on another season they could have been the winner of $100,000 doll-ars. 2 of the tops are Gigi and Jaida from this season, reinforcing how strong this season has been. As you can see there are no queens from season 8 or 10, two of the weaker seasons. 7 is also considered an odd season, despite making stars from the show but no one shining whilst on the program, and surprisingly that has the most high scoring queens in the top.
Being a bottom is nothing to scoff at. The lowest scoring queens are we have Kandy Ho who places 10th in season 7, Ra’Jah O’Hara who came 9th on season 11 and Darienne Lake who made it to the top 4 in season 6!
Winners aren’t born, they are made – usually in New York. Seemingly every second queen on the show brags about making it in the New York scene, whilst a lot also flock to the West Coast to make it in a more mainstream capacity. The 3rd place with the most queens is Florida, followed closely by queens from Chicago. Bitch. The most winners come from New York – Sasha & Aquaria listing Brooklyn as their home base and Bianca & Bob saying they are from the city.
From Minnesota to Seattle, we know queens come from everywhere. But who is the best queen of all time? Using the scoring from above let’s look at how each queen performed throughout their season and what challenges they excelled at.
CHALLENGES THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO
F**k It Up
Ru always says all you need is Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent – but some seasons specialized skills might come in handy. Season 4, 9 and 3 were all very heavy on acting challenges. In Season 9, Sasha Velour, the winner of that season won 2 challenges of them, both of them being acting. Considering nearly 30% of the challenges were acting challenges, and there were no singing challenges, an acting queen was well positioned. Season 4 was another one heavy on acting challenges and also design ones. Sharon Needles, Season 4 Queen Supreme, won 2/4 acting challenges, and 2/5 ball or design challenges. This season was pretty well spaced out with 2 balls, 2 design challenges and 2 makeover challenges, but someone going in as a dancing queen had very little chance to shine. Season 1, 2, 5 and 8 were pretty equally spread of challenges. 1,2 and 8 did have less weeks that the later ones but 5 is a great example of when there is a mix of skills demonstrated some of the strongest queens emerge. Season 5 gave us some of the biggest starts of Drag Race from RolAlskaTox to our tounge popping goddess, Alyssa Edwards, her orange enemy, Coco and winner Jinx-Water-Off-A-Ducks-Back-Monsoon.
challenges
So if you are going to win should you also pick up a win for iconic challenges too? Only 3 winners have won snatch game, 5 winners won a ball challenge and 4 won the first challenge off the bat coming into the competition strong. Over the 11 seasons, 30 challenges have been won by the overall winner of their respective season. Of those 30, 1/3 are for acting. Design seems to be another important category with 16% of these wins falling within the scopes of a design challenge. But, as we learnt before, seasons throw curve balls with the type of challenges they have been thrown.
Ru always says all you need is Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent – but some seasons specialized skills might come in handy. Season 4, 9 and 3 were all very heavy on acting challenges. In Season 9, Sasha Velour, the winner of that season won 2 challenges of them, both of them being acting. Considering nearly 30% of the challenges were acting challenges, and there were no singing challenges, an acting queen was well positioned. Season 4 was another one heavy on acting challenges and also design ones. Sharon Needles, Season 4 Queen Supreme, won 2/4 acting challenges, and 2/5 ball or design challenges. This season was pretty well spaced out with 2 balls, 2 design challenges and 2 makeover challenges, but someone going in as a dancing queen had very little chance to shine. Season 1, 2, 5 and 8 were pretty equally spread of challenges. 1,2 and 8 did have less weeks that the later ones but 5 is a great example of when there is a mix of skills demonstrated some of the strongest queens emerge. Season 5 gave us some of the biggest starts of Drag Race from RolAlskaTox to our tounge popping goddess, Alyssa Edwards, her orange enemy, Coco and winner Jinx-Water-Off-A-Ducks-Back-Monsoon.
challenges
So if you are going to win should you also pick up a win for iconic challenges too? Only 3 winners have won snatch game, 5 winners won a ball challenge and 4 won the first challenge off the bat coming into the competition strong. Over the 11 seasons, 30 challenges have been won by the overall winner of their respective season. Of those 30, 1/3 are for acting. Design seems to be another important category with 16% of these wins falling within the scopes of a design challenge. But, as we learnt before, seasons throw curve balls with the type of challenges they have been thrown.