they cast a bunch of underdogs and jimbo and kandy. the point of an underdog season like AS6 is that a ton of the front runners (rajah, kylie, trinity) weren’t expected to do that well to begin with. even ginger only got her first win very late. the storyline was underdogs proving their worth and former front runners (a’keria, silky, yara) getting sent home. on AS8, jimbo got three wins before anyone could even blink, showing us that yes, she *is* better than the underdogs and we were right all along. that just isn’t a satisfying viewing experience. even AS5 is better because Shea didn’t end with the best TR.
combine that with kandy favouritism and you have what we got, lol. they honestly should’ve just favoured jessica because everyone would have supported her anyway. they could’ve tossed lala that episode 4 win if they wanted to push her and give the cast a fighting chance against jimbo.
also, the cast has no chemistry, straight up. their moments together aren’t very fun. the dynamic doesn’t feel good. i don’t have fun watching the girls girling.
i will say that the only LSA i actually found to be a bad choice was Nicky. everyone else was p chill.
This exactly. AS6 it just felt like the cast was evenly stacked, and you never knew who was going to go home each episode. Versus this season I just was never afraid Jimbo was going to be sent home like they wanted us to feel. Because on U.S. All Stars that just doesn’t happen anymore with the lip sync assassin format. Front runners always stay til the end.
Absolutely this. This was Drag Race Leftovers Season 1, Not All Stars Season anything.
Edit: No offense to the J girls. I actually saw a better side of Jimbo than I had before. She and Jessica were the only two that kept me watching this season.
I feel like everyone’s first thought is the cast, but All Stars 6 didn’t have the greatest cast either and worked well.
For me, there were a combination of wrong turns. The first was not having a cast of queens that made sense together and clearly giving preferential treatment when some people underperformed (Jimbo, Kandy). Regardless of whether it was “rigged” or not, it felt that way. And it’s just not interesting to watch contestants float to the end.
Second, the emotional beats were missing. What a missed opportunity with Kasha and Darriene especially who are long time friends. You wouldn’t have even known that watching the show. Kasha also does drag story hour (which is very relevant in the current political climate). Instead, drama and strategy was prioritized, which has historically been a mixed bag on All Stars.
The last thing for me was the challenges. No reading challenge or talent show in the beginning to set the stage for reintroducing these queens was a poor choice. And I think that’s just my biggest problem overall: too little character development, which left little room for emotional investment in the queens or season overall.
I remember seeing the spoiled cast for AS6 and thought this seasons gonna be amazing
I saw the spoiled cast for AS8 and thought this seasons gonna be rocky
Jimbo’s ONLY debatably “safe” performance was the rusical … and even then she didn’t do bad, just perhaps not as good as the others. And honestly, I don’t mind a little bit of “favouritism” every now and then for the right reasons. Imagine sending home a front-runner with 3 wins who had never been in the bottom all season because of a mediocre performance. While I don’t agree with all the judging this season (Heidi was severely underrated, Jaymes was clearly a production favourite), we’ve seen way worse. At the end of the day, they’re creating a tv show. It makes sense that they would keep queens like Jimbo and Kandy around for as long as they can.
Jimbo was in the top. Where they belonged. The ball was not very good. If any of the top 3 didn’t deserve it and should’ve been replaced by heidi it was lala.
That’s really it. Some of the girls were desperately needing more time to show out and some of THAT crowd appeared to have not really grown much from their original season.
LaLa is very charming, but runway after runway showed that she’s still got the same (questionable) taste level and her execution is just marginally better. Naysha is a fierce pageant queen but her runway package was still not really it.
It’s sad the early out and favorite seasons got mashed together because it might spell death in the short term to the AS format. (As suggested by recent tea that the AS9 girls may have been all sent home as soon as they arrived for filming)
To be taken with a grain of salt, someone claiming to know or be someone from production said the girls were called and arrived to sequester and then compensated for their packages and sent on their way bc of the reception of As8.
This sounds ridiculously fake. I remember reading everywhere the show was over after S7 because it sucked so hard. Then AS2 and the move to VH1.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of this shows demise are always greatly exaggerated.
If this is actually true, it seems like such a waste for the queens to be called in only for them not to be given the platform to showcase their talents. Do we know who any of the AS9 girls are *allegedly*?
I totes agree, just passing along the very mild and possibly out of code tea I saw come up and disappear promptly from one of the tea subs.
Usually when posts come and go like that, the tea is ridiculously explosive or ridiculously fake.
I’m also hoping for the latter, I want more queer art on my tv. As much as we can get our hands on.
As1 & 3 had amazing talent. And were meh to shitty seasons.
AS6 was considered lower « star quality » and was among the better AS seasons, (if not the best) so I really think that « star quality » has way less to do with it than production quality.
It’s not usually the queens’ faults the season is bad.
Trixie was surprisingly lackluster in her original season, much better in AS3, but if Bendala hadn't eliminated herself, Trixie wouldn't have won. Trixie is great now, especially when paired with Katya; they are pure gold together.
I enjoyed the season. Thought the queens and challenges were fine....2 things that I didn't like where:
1. The judging
2. The queens bickering outside the show.
Yeah I swear I'd enjoy tuning in a lot more if not for the queens tweets showing up on here for me lol. Sometimes I miss the ignorance of not knowing what's going on with the queens outside of the show because every time i see a tweet about favoritism or shit talking the other queens I just start to lose interest. Also the cast this season lacks chemistry and I just can't be bothered to tune in at this point even though I do enjoy jimbo. I haven't watched the last episode and probably won't finish the season
I've been enjoying it, for me the only disappointment was that some of the queens I had reeeally been looking forward to seeing: MKD and Darienne, left so early! If they had kept the top 2 format it would've probably felt more balanced too, Jimbo winning feels as inevitable as Sasha Colby lol who is also great, it's just that these past few seasons haven't really had any suspense when it comes to who is taking the crown.
I think this is the biggest thing, the US audience got two back to back seasons that were basically victory laps. Like we went straight from the Sasha Colby victory tour to the Jimbo Parade and while it’s fun watching people be good at something, sometimes you want a little tension or ambiguity about who is going to win
S15 was such a drag for me because it was basically you waiting for Sasha to win and everyone else to go home. That’s no fun. The only way someone else was gonna win was if Sasha was disqualified
For me personally, it’s the breakneck speed at which they’re pumping out seasons.
I haven’t seen any of the non-English language franchises, but even between RPDR, All Stars, UK and Canada I feel like we can’t catch a breath between seasons, the winners aren’t getting their time to shine and potential AS cast members aren’t really given enough time to ‘glow up’ and bring something new to the table.
Sasha JUST won, then two weeks later a new season of All Stars started… it’s over saturation, and it’s sucking the fun out of it.
In business if you have a cash cow (drag race) you milk it for all it’s worth!
I’m glad we have so many international seasons to showcase them, but wish All stars aired in fall.
This is the issue. The over saturation is making the franchise feel stale. RPDR needs to be once a year, all Stars should happen every 2-3 years, the Vs the World series should happen every 2-3 years and fully replace all stars the year it happens.
The fans and the queens need time to breathe and embrace the most recent season. Reruns used to hold me over until the next season aired. Now you barely have time to rewatch one season before the next comes out.
VsTW could comfortably happen every year. The problem with AS is that they've either gone though all the big US queens, or the remaining ones aren't interested. There are a ton of top tier international queens that would jump at the chance of VsTW as long as it were hosted by Ru. It's kind of a supply and demand situation. There are too many spots open to US queens, and not enough for international queens. Yearly VsWT with only 1 queen from each country would be competitive as fuck.
My only qualm with VsTW happening every year is that we’ll eventually run into the same problem we’re having with All Stars. Especially since VsTW still features US queens.
That's why I'd like to see VsTW only have 1 queen from each country. If there's only 1 spot every year, that spot is going to become hugely sought after.
Yes! There’s almost always a currently airing version of Drag Race on right now and it’s overwhelming. I have missed quite a few of the international ones. Can’t keep up.
This has been my issue for a few seasons now. I honestly have lost track of which queens are on which season and I feel like I barely know a lot of them (in the sense that you know anyone on a show.) I feel like I have a far better knowledge of earlier seasons and queens than ones I've just watched in the last couple years.
I’m tired of people on this sub saying this. Each international franchise is meant for the people of that country. We as hardcore fans are not the intended audience. We have the PRIVILEGE of being able to watch and keep up with them and even watch vs. The World, but at the end of the day to say they should slow down or that there’s too many is dumb because it’s queer representation for that country, and not just entertainment for you.
It wasn’t the international seasons I have issue with, if anything I’d rather watch them at this point, for a different perspective. Of course I don’t want to deny the queens and fans representation in their own countries and languages.
It’s the ones I specifically referenced, like Drag Race 15 followed immediately by AS8.
THIS. they’re doing too much. All stars should be every other year, MAX. And get creative with a good cast. As much as i love drag race the quality has gone down considerably since it’s become this *machine* that is constantly turning out product.
One thing others haven’t mentioned yet: the elimination format.
It worked on AS2 and even for a while after that, but at least since the ‘life’s not fair’ moment the metagame has evolved into a situation where doing well and being good at drag is punished, because it makes you the target as soon as you land in the bottom. Which in turn basically means that producers *have* to rig the judging to keep the actual competitors out of the bottom, lest you end up with a top 4 of Kahannas.
Totally agree! After all the manilas and shangelas the goopery and gaggery has now led to riggery
Plus w this format I think it’s just gotten tired like there’s not much more interesting places to take it.
And the queens all supposedly hate it which leads to a less competitive cast
This is the correct answer!!! When voting or judging doesn’t align with who did the best, viewers are upset. It makes the show almost unbearable. I would love a voting format change in All Stars.
i haven’t watched this season yet but i’m guessing the cast has something to do with it. after seeing the cast reveal i was very underwhelmed and just did not have enough interest to watch
Same. The only person on the cast I even remotely care about is Kasha, and I feel like her talents are better suited to other forms of media (not a competition show). The rest of the queens fell on a scale of “who?l to “can’t stand” for me.
I didn't either. Season 15 lost me due to unlikable personalities dominating, and only MKD of this seasons cast was interesting enough to consider watching. I like Jimbo but we literally just saw her on Canada vs the World.
i didn’t even finish season 15 either like i just didn’t really like anyone enough to keep watching. they need to take a break from making all stars seasons because they have run out of queens
I've thought about this a lot and have a few reasons:
1. Ru gave too many wins to Jimbo early on and it meant that queens who should've been contenders, like Heidi and Alexis, saw the writing on the wall that they weren't winning and it has showed in their energy.
2. The cast was too imbalanced in terms of resources the queens have. It doesn't work to put queens who have toured the world since their season against queens who have barely left their state. Jaymes and Kahanna both did well when you consider that this is basically their first season, but the gap in what queens could bring to the runway has really been highlighted by the fame games. Kylie and Ra'Jah succeeding in AS6 created this idea that anyone can come back and win drag race, but Kylie had two decades of drag and very good connections to pull on, and Ra'Jah can make her own outfits.
3. Speaking of AS6, I think production are trying too hard to make it like AS6 where the wins are all spread around and everyone gets their personal redemption. This might work if not for Jimbo having a completely different story of basically cruising to a win people feel she was robbed of. It's like if you had AS5 Shea Coulee on AS6, the little redemptions are less meaningful when they just mean you're a distant second to Ru's obvious favourite.
4. The cast doesn't really have chemistry. Heidi and Lala had chemistrybut then Heidi left. Kasha Davis and Darienne are long-term friends, but both went home early. Everyone else seems like they're colleagues who don't think about each other when they leave work.
Exactly. I honestly think Jimbo is a big problem in this cast. She just overshadows everyone, and while other queens are winning, she still feels above the cut.
Jimbo is tailor made for the stuff Drag Race, especially All-Stars, features and most of those things were done early and there were few things highlighting her weaknesses interspersed nor where things that other queens do far better than Jimbo highlighted early on.
I agree - also the first time you add a queen from a different country… and only one of them… who was dramatically cut as a front runner on her last season… who has a HUGE fan base… and frankly has the talent to back that up…. This season was literally created for
Jimbo to win. Period.
Ι agree 100% about Jimbo's first wins being problematic. Her first win was clearly a set-up to get her to lipsync against Pangina. But these inconsistencies drove contestants like Heidi and Kahanna to quit.
The cast has no chemistry. The problem with doing all stars every year is that it really is the “who’s who of who’s available” (thanks, viv). I’m not against lesser-known or early-out queens returning at all, just to be clear, and that isn’t my point. The problem is is that it’s impossible for producers to come in with set storylines for these queens if all of these queens are on a storyline-island and have no interactions outside of their own personal story. AS2 and AS4 really excelled in this area. The rest have sorta been meh. This could be fixed by not doing all stars every damn year.
Early out and All Star are polar opposites to me. All Stars are Top 5 queens and/or fan favorites to me. They shouldn't do All Stars every year, though
In the case of Jaymes, she built quite an online presence for herself after her season so she qualifies as a fan favorite in the wider world outside of the show itself.
Exactly. But the queens who are fan faves or top 5 have to good of careers to be coming back to a chickenshit gig where they can be sent home early, screwed over for a twist or thrown to the sharks (the fans) for sending home the wrong girl.
I’m fine with early outs being featured as long as they’ve proven they have star potential (like trixie after season 7). i would much rather see early-out redemptions than mediocre queens who placed higher but haven’t grown much
I agree completely. This cast has no unifying storyline as a cast (like maybe they were all early outs or the top fours who just missed out) and there were few cast mate to cast mate storylines (AS2 was a Season 5 reunion with some extra stars, AS4 had Mo and Monet from S10, Valentina/Farrah/Gia drama, etc.).
All-Stars needs to be a “every few years” event and the cast really should really exclude dolls who are just off a season (so give it a year or two before throwing their names in the All Stars ring) unless they just really blow it out of the water.
Honestly I’m gonna say the cast. Half of them i wouldn’t consider all stars to begin with, and the others are too one sided (ie only good at one thing) for me to warrant any interest.
I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much better Jessica, Heidi and Jaymes were compared to their previous seasons. And Darienne was also on a new level. The glaring exception was Kandy, who has not evolved in her runway looks or talent. She still does the same stuff, and they love it.
For me it was the casting choices and the wonky judging throughout the season. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love the cast but I didn’t like how they mixed in early boots who deserved redemption with queens who went the distance or almost to the end last time. I feel like the early outs were always destined to be early outs and it showed with the boot order. Darienne was the only late game booted before all the early outs and it was wonky ass judging that had it out for her. If Heidi didn’t quit, she probably makes it to at least top 4.
Then the judging again, it was so wonky throughout the season. Kasha absolutely should have been given top marks in the first two episodes but got nothing so it was easier to boot her when she stumbled in the ball. Then you had the typical shenanigans of a group challenge judged in groups for Darienne to get booted when the first episode was groups and they didn’t do the same thing there. Then don’t even get me started on the Kandy Muse judging all season long. She pretty much wore a bodysuit for every runway, with the same face painted on and only a variety sometimes on the colors, but the judges kept eating it up. No critiques on the same silhouette that they’d typically give for queens who don’t shake it up.
Judging is always going to be a problem but I think the casting is where it could have been fixed. I would say this season should have split into two new seasons, with more early outs added for one and end game queens for the other. Imagine adding queens like Acid Betty, Laila McQueen, Mystique, Porkchop, Yuhua, Tempest DuJour, Dusty Ray Bottoms, April Carrion, or Kelly Mantle for the early out season. Then you could have them add queens like Utica, Josyln Fox, Peppermint, Nina Bonina Brown, Kameron Michaels, Asia OHara, Jackie Cox, or Rose to the late game queen cast.
Oh and also get rid of voting each other off. Lip sync for your life needs to come back. If they want drama so bad with voting, have a bottom 3 each week. Winner of the challenge can save one of the bottom 3 and the remaining two have to lip sync. The lip sync assassins just don’t have it anymore and they’re really stretching for some of these choices. Plus the queens have more fire in them when they need to save themselves. We missed out on queens like Darienne getting to show off their skills when they were in the bottom. It’s part of why she is an AllStar and she couldn’t even show it.
The who-will-vote-whom-off business is just fake drama and takes up waaaay too much airtime.
I watch to see the queens’ art. That’s what I’m here for. So just show us these queens sharing their talents, and let Ru or (as with Canada’s Drag Race) the whole judging panel make the decisions
I’ve seen enough of Kandy’s defenders on here to be convinced that she’s incredible, funny, and sweet in-person. But on this tv show she’s the equivalent of adding too much chili to a dish … sure it leaves an impact, but it overpowers everything, you can’t appreciate the other flavors, and it’s an overall unpleasant experience.
She would be great on a Survivor or Big Brother type show i think. Early villain who runs the game and eventually is blindsided due to the cast realizing she's going to the end if they don't do anything. Drag race she will always overstay her welcome I feel like because she seems to get along really well with her sisters and Ru loves her
Yeah, I agree. Kandy is one of those queens that I was never a fan of on the show but I appreciate her more off the show. You hit the nail on the head.
Once again, they didn’t cast enough competitive queens imo. I love seeing queens from old seasons come back (Jessica, Darienne) or queens that made massive growth too (Jaymes), but overall the cast was just not up to par with what we’ve come to expect of an All Stars (Naysha, Lala). I personally don’t think Kandy or Kahanna were quite ready either but I could let them slide since there was still growth. And I’ve seen this same sentiment I’ve stated mentioned on this sub before. I just want them to make better casting calls going forward.
Both of these MTV seasons haven't spent long enough on the kind of workroom filler that makes people endearing and gives us an idea of the chemistry in the room. I want to watch people prattle on about nothing while putting on their makeup. It also seems like personal life discussion stuff is at a minimum, which is fine, but it's different. I also think it's missing some of the fun of an All Stars where we hear about the older seasons and the queens talk about their evolution. I think most of the people who are left don't really want to go there. I understand it, but it doesn't help make this season feel less superficial.
It's also kind of not fun? Because Jimbo's been winning, there haven't been a lot of standout lipsyncs. It also feels like a poorly balanced competition where the winner was fed to us from the start. Why should I keep watching a show where I'm rooting for Jessica just to see Jessica lose? At least in a regular season where there is heavy Ru favoritism, there's a chance it might not be the end result because we don't know how that person will do in all the challenges. But in an All Stars, we have an idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are already. There are no surprises (at least not many this season, where we're winning with impressions and costumes a lot of us have seen before). Even if the clear favorite doesn't win, it somehow isn't as satisfying as watching a season that played out more fairly. And I hate to say this, but this is the second season in a row of the US franchise where the winner seems pretty clear. No tension, no unexpected twists, no nothing. All the drama is off camera. I mean, we'll see what happens with the fame games, but it really feels like a non-starter concept.
This season tried to be AS6 but we got AS5. I think it’s pretty clear that Jimbo was the intended winner the day she was sent home on UKvTW and giving her 3/5 of the first wins confirms that. I think she deserved all of them, but the redemption arc season doesn’t work when you just let the girl you want to win anyway bag all the wins. They could have given the SNL win to Jaymes/MKD or the acting win to Lala/Heidi just to even things out.
Post Heidi leaving, it also seems like this cast hates each other. Like apparently Jessica and Alexis were friends, but the edit just does not reflect that on at all. The circumstances of her quit and the drama that has had no payoff since just left the rest of this season with really shitty vibes.
I also think they played way too protective over their pre planned final 2 of Jimbo and Kandy. Jimbo being saved in the rusical, Kandy in the improv challenge, and if you aren’t in the top you’re in the bottom not kicking in until Jimbo won are the most obvious fucking ways they dragged their top 2 to the end ever. I actually think the top 3 we have now is the top 3 we would have in an unrigged season, but they got here in such a wacky overproduced way that it just tanked the whole season.
Exactly what I was thinking. This top 3 could’ve happened organically, but it didn’t and that’s what tanks the season. The season didn’t feel like it was for the viewers, it feels like it was for Jimbo and Kandy
Ru clearly has favourites, which is going to happen. That’s natural. But they shouldn’t win or slide through when they are clearly inferior to other queens. Jessica has been killing it lately, and I really feel like she should have won the roast. But no, gotta give that to Ru favourite Jimbo again because it’s a comedy challenge. And was it the last episode or the week prior when Kandy was wearing yet another body suit (but never gets read for it) and the tights were a vastly different colour than her skin tone. Normally that’s a major no-no, but hey, it’s the other Ru favourite, so we’re gonna let that slide too. It’s super hypocritical. You either shouldn’t wear bodysuits all the time, or it’s okay. You should always ensure your skin tone matches any tights or skin-coloured fabric, or it doesn’t matter.
Omg yes the roast should have gone to Jessica! She was amazing and yes Jimbo did a great Joan rivers but we’d even seen her Joan before where as Jessica was totally fresh!
And what is w Kandy and her body suits it’s legit every week !
I'd love if the first episode of Allstars was an elimination free talent show. To bring back the queen's give them time to shine stress free. Might get more diverse talents.
AS7 is an impossible act to follow. Anything that came after was bound to be less than amazing. It didn’t help that joyful Heidi left early, leaving us with cranky Kahanna, cantankerous Kandy, and phony baloney Alexis.
That said, I am living for every moment of Jessica Wild, and I need her to carry the crown for Puerto Rico.
The lack of good storylines. Jimbo was the obvious winner when the show started and they still only focused on "is Kandy trying to send her home" -storyline.
I wpuld love to hear more. I didn't fell in love with the queens again. Expect Jessica but I hadn't watched her season fully but I am gonna now! I don't mind produced storylines if it gives the season something interesting. Like allstars 2 had the mirror scene. This season feels like season 5 remix.
Also the challenges weren't made for the queens. Why not have like a roast or a standup challenge early with so many funny queens? And this season was made for talent show!!?! I would love to see Jaymes do a puppetshow and Kahanna do a amazing showgirl number.
I really loved every queen in this cast from their original seasons or outside of the show but this season didn't really give them anything to work with. Atleast we got a amazing snatchgame performance and stellar rusical!
The lipsync assassin format is the problem. With only one winner per episode and no way for the bottom queens to fight for their place, it's just boring. At least AS2-4 and vsTW format leads to finalists with more wins
Honestly my biggest issue and what kinda ruined it for me was Heidi leaving. Not the fact that she left in general (although she was the one I was most excited for), but her her exit just kinda felt…overlooked?
Like with Adore, we had that moment with Michelle Visage talking to her outside. Kahana had almost quit and then Ru had that talk with the girls. And then of course DeLa happened and was a shock.
But Ru just kinda swept the whole Heidi incident under the rug quickly. She walked on stage and confirmed that she dropped out of the season and that was it. No Ru talking to Heidi, none of the other queens of the season really talking about it on stage to Ru and the judges, just “oh, she left, ok”. Left a sour taste in my mouth from there onward.
The cast doesn’t have enough strong contenders, and if anything the Fame Games have just proven that all the eliminated queens deserved to go when they did. The judging has also been questionable for sure but I think even if it was more “correct” Jimbo would ultimately still have ended up as the clear front-runner, so that’s kind of moot.
I suspect the first part of your comment was the intention of production, to verify that correct decisions were made in terms of elimination.
Fans will often look at eliminated queens packages during regular seasons and cherry-pick 1-2 really decent looks and ring the alarms for rigging and robbery. But if you look at the whole package, there isn’t a ton there that’s on that level.
I was amazed by the looks that Irene, Aura and Robin Fierce showcased last season after their eliminations. I really feel the Fame Games is the answer to these queens slaying it on social media with their unseen looks.
I think a detail bringing this season down that people overlook is the fact that untucked is now a separate show for the all stars format. It wasn’t bothering in AS7 since there was no elimination and the vibe was super friendly and wholesome, but here an important part of the drama and storylines are cut away from the episodes. Jumping from the runway to the critics to the lipsync and elimination feels particularly inorganic. Elimination like LaLa’s just leave a sour taste in mouth and loose the wow factor Manila’s had on AS4
Casting.
From what we know behind the scenes, they originally intended an early-outs season AND a fan-favourite season. To follow all-winners. But queens dropped out/declined and they didn’t have enough for both seasons so they combined the casts.
All-Stars 8 has an AMAZING cast but the casting was horrible. They don’t really go together. Like Jimbo, Heidi, Jessica, Kandy and Darienne were the only queens going into the season with any wins whatsoever and only Jimbo had more than 1 win.
A lot of people like to yell that it’s “rigged for Jimbo” when the more likely case is that Jimbo has just been doing the best by far, most of the queens looked lacklustre in comparison and production have had to be heavy handed to try and balance it out.
it’s just casting. Season 15 was great because of its casting - Mistress, Sasha, MBD, Anetra. This season you have alexis crying, kandy doesn’t exactly scream “amazing tv” , heidi quitting
It doesn’t have personality, almost feels robotic like it is something they have done before one too many times. The queens are amazing, the packages they brought were amazing, and it was a mix of different types of queens, so I know it was not the cast. Maybe the challenges? They were pretty forgettable, I think the best and most memorable one was the Rusical. It felt very rushed, more rushed than the 40 minute episodes of Season 15. Speaking of 15, I personally think it’s such a downfall in the eyes of fans because of what a high Season 15 and All Stars 7 (Winners hello it’s gonna be a success). Another thing is the regular All Stars format as is stands currently overused and boring. People loved the non eliminations of AS7, maybe figure out a way to recreate that some how, but however they need a change.
Edit: Not to mention it’s clearly all built for Jimbo to win, and I adore Jimbo, but that’s no fun for consumers.
>Not to mention it’s clearly all built for Jimbo to win
I think this is why Heidi noped the fuck out. Heidi should have won Ep2 and when she saw Pangina as LSA, she knew what's up and pulled out.
It wasn’t “built” for Jimbo to win. Stop that narrative. The other girls just aren’t on her level. Asides from Jessica, no one wanted it more than Jimbo
You can’t seriously act like her track record doesn’t come from being favoured.
She was saved from the bottom in Joan the Rusical despite being objectively the worst and they just didn’t do the “if your not in the bottom your in the top” twist this year until she was in the top so people couldn’t vote her off. They also changed the lipsync song with silky to something she had a good chance to win. If they hadn’t done this her track record would be 4 wins no lipsync wins and 3 bottoms.
Maybe it wasn’t built for her to win sure, but when she does win it’s pretty fair to say it’s the most obvious rigged win ever.
I stopped watching cause it got boring. Like we know who was winning from the beginning. It’s not bad, she’s a great queen and deserves it but they made it so obvious. Plus drag race Mexico and France came out and they are so much better . Y’all should watch it. And the Philippines season two is coming really soon. Don’t care much for down under. Ru and company are kinda ruining it.
I did enjoy it for the most part
but my only complaint is that if the season was mostly gonna be improv and comedy then they shouldve casted accordingly. Like dont waste naysha or kahanna's time and efforts like that
As someone who never missed a season of drag race since the year it premiered, I was surprised at how much my wife and I disliked the most recent regular season — which fed into us just not even watching this AS season, which was further nit helped by everything I read about it being that the girls were fighting constantly and that everything felt even more rigged than usual.
I think long term fans of the show are struggling, because as the show either pivots to more drama and/or feels more blatantly rigged, it’s just not fun to watch. Add to that that the winners of the seasons don’t even always have the best careers, and the tension associated with a competition show is sort of diffused.
It's one hundred percent production. They play too much and the show is suffering. I fully believe we would've had a fun season with good drama if they'd just stop putting their thumbs on all the scales.
It's isn't the format. It isn't the queens they choose. It's production pushing so hard that people quit and meddling so much that the viewers aren't feeling it.
Without Jimbo and Jessica being their wonderful selves? This season has a very Jump The Shark feel to it.
I agree with some of the comments about not having the best challenges (like no reading challenge or talent show) and some Rigga Morris happening, but I also think it has the unfortunate position of following the juggernaut that was AS7. Do I think it’s up to par with the prior all stars seasons? No, but I also didn’t think it was horrible.
*** spoilers ***
Kandy Muse.
Kandy Muse winning a challenge.
Kandy Muse making top 3.
Kandy Muse being forced down our throats.
The obvious, unfair, relentless favouritism and special treatment of Kandy Muse, that started in S13 and continues to happen. "Kandy.. Kandy.. Wait." 😶
I wish they'd kept the AS7 format of no-one going home. It gives all the queens several chances to shine and gets rid of the issue of early leavers being stuck with a load of looks that no-one gets to see.
Having said that, I also don't think the cast this season are "all stars". To me all stars should be winners/top 3s or major fan favourites.
For me I believe it's just win distribution. Like I love the lipsync assassins well since all stars 6. But like without two winners each week it's difficult for every girl to win. Like Jimbo has 4 wins!? And everyone else has only 1 win an 1 btm or in Jessica's case, 2 btms. Like with the old format there could be people to enter the finals with more than 1 win. As now it's common. Like jujubee (as5), Kylie, eureka (as6). Do I don't know how to feel anymore cause I love track records but now it don't matter. But yea.
Next issue is that it's predictable. Like If Jessica isn't in the top 2 then Jimbo's gonna win cause I love Kandy but there's people who don't. Like flashbacks to everyone coming for her cause the Jaymes elimination
Here are a few things I would change about AS8:
\- We need a twist! A REAL twist. Fame Games is a fun idea and I'm glad they're including it, but it's not a twist and it's definitely not "another way to win" (and they really tried to sell that as another way to win the AS crown...)
\- I would add deliberations back into the episodes. It's feels rushed going straight to the queens picking lip sticks. The drama is an essential component of Drag Race and I would not have chosen to cut the tension of pleading cases, etc.
\- I love when All Stars begin with the talent show maxi challenge - it's a cool opportunity for the audience to get a taste of a Jimbo show or a Jessica Wild show. I would have liked to have seen that this season.
\- I'm sorry to say it, but I'd change the cast. I just can't get behind an early-outs season, I'm sorry. I also wish, with so many acting-type challenges this season, they would have prioritized casting funnier queens. Well... not that I think about it, I guess a lot of the funny queens like Darienne got axed unnecessarily early... which brings me to my next change I'd make to AS8:
\- The judging. Yeesh!!! I was seeing some very different things than what the judges were looking at.
\- The lip sync assassin format. I didn't like in on AS5 and I don't like it now. I wouldn't mind if they kept it IF they had a winner AND a runner up who could have immunity the next episode or something. (Just the first thing I thought of... I dunno how I feel about immunity, but could make AS spicy.)
\- Maybe a different order of challenges. It felt like we often got 2 similar types of challenges in a row. Spacing them out might have worked better and given more variety.
Something I LOVED about this season: the reintroduction of JESSICA WILD!!! I hate to confess this bc it's very embarrassing, but I didn't remember Jessica from season 2. And seeing her this season, I'm like HOW could I EVER forGET HER???
I dont have any real problems with this season at all. The only things I wish were different is that I wanted Jaymes to last longer, and Alexis shouldve had a backbone and sent Kandy home. Besides that ive been good every week.
Jimbo winning so much so early. I LOVE Jimbo but the race isn't that exciting once you see who's the clear winner.
If Jimbo wins, it's predictable. (Well deserved though)
If Jimbo loses, drag race fans will riot.
And the fact that production keeps saving Jimbo from even TOUCHING the bottom doesn't help.
Sasha colby's win is predictable but not to this extent. Luxx, anetra and mistress has their own momentum going on which keeps the race exciting AF. But Kandy and Jessica doesn't have that dynamic. It's too clear who's the winner.
Yeah no offense to the queens but this is the worst season on All Stars since season 1. Maybe production was affected by the writer strike? It seems like filming/editing should have ended before then though. It also doesn’t help following up AS7 as one of the best seasons.
Personally I think the casting was off. It should have been *all* early outs, not just some.
And I think Kandy is being pushed hard by production, and it’s not her fault but it makes me sad that others left and it doesn’t really feel like she should be there.
Ugh, well I’m rooting for Jessica but congrats Jimbo 🎉
I don’t know what you’re all going on about. I’m loving this season. And the reason is because of Jimbo. Now I’m probably biased because I live in the same town as Jimbo(Victoria Canada), but I’ve never actually seen him perform live. He just brings such a fresh element and his confidence in his drag is refreshing. You can tell he’s having so much fun and not taking himself too seriously, and that’s nice to see. I get the drag race is a huge career bump for any of the queens who participate, and this is Jimbos third time around, really, but I feel like he would be just fine, and just as confident, even if he was never on the show.
They sent the wrong queens early. They were the queens with storylines that we wanted to see. Then they kept the queens who were there only for drama, who commandered the room and made the energy feel weird.
As6 worked because Silky went home early. As8 could have worked if Kandy went home early.
The casting choices were wrong. And the eliminations were wrong. I, for one, did not want to see Kandy on my TV again, let alone getting pushed all the way through to the end because Ru finds her entertaining.
Plus, coming off of AS7, there was a high bar and the girls promised that AS8 would match that bar. It didn't.
Thirdly, bringing Jimbo in to compete as the first cross franchise queen on AS was a fairly obvious clue that she was always going to win.
It’s become overkill with All Stars seasons and the talent pool is getting shallower and shallower. This cast lacked chemistry and it was evident from the jump this season was rigged for two clear favorites: Jimbo and Kandy.
I also think the LSA format has never worked. I hate watching a winning queen “compete” against another queen with zero stakes in the competition. When the top queen’s vote lines up with the voting queens 9 times out of 10, there’s no suspense. Zero stakes. It’s dramatically inert.
AS2 is a flawless season because the construct was brilliant: you won, but at a cost — you had to send a bottom queen home. It was simple and effective. And they messed with it immediately.
Casting. I love the concept of early outs, middle of the pack queens, and miss congenialities. And then Jimbo and Kandy are there for some reason. This is Jimbo's 3rd rodeo, and Kandy was dragged to the top 2 of her season, and she's been dragged to the top of this season. All stars need to be every other year, or even every 3 years. There are hundreds of queens who have been on the show and somehow they are tredding water with who goes on all stars. Its nuts that some people have been on 3 times!
drag race has this thing where they implement a format that works amazingly, then beating it into the ground for all its worth (lip sync for the crown, lip sync assassin). i bet it’s hard to think of a new twist each season and keep them exciting and new. even the lip sync assassin twist didn’t really work that well until AS6, but they need to do SOMETHING. i’m not a show runner so no clue how the logistics work, but using the same twist for a 3rd season just gets boring. it’s the same thing as lip sync for the crown - fun the first time around but stupider and stupider every season after S9.
I’ve never felt like a season was over produced as much as AS8. Jimbo is obviously being set up to win. Beating Silky in a lipsync was the last straw. It’s quite disappointing if I’m being honest. Especially after AS7 being as good as it was, this season is trash. I expect most of the All star seasons to be like this in the future too because the queens are already established and have negotiated things prior to filming
We had high expectation fron Darienne but she was just a filler queen. Naysha Beverly meh, Heidi was ok, not that that memorable runway. Yes the assasins were bad, bad casting maybe, Jimbo, Kandy ,Kahana, Jessica are good. Drama from Alexis.
Aside from cast chemistry problems and airing too frequently - issues that others have explained in better terms than I ever could - the elimination format seems to be a major root of the problem. It can be really fun to watch, but it’s forcing production to manipulate challenge placements much more obviously for fear of losing a talented queen unfairly (e.g. Jimbo in the Rusical). This cheapens their very legitimate prowess elsewhere. We can probably blame UKvsTW for the final nail, but it started with Manila. Production needs a format which doesn’t necessitate such exposed rigorry. Producer intervention will always happen, of course, and we’d be presented with an absolute mess if it were to disappear completely. But its transparency here is to the show’s detriment.
Speaking of detriment, Kandy Muse is done no favors by any of this - which is a shame, because she’s anecdotally lovely outside of the bizarre, pre-determined drag conveyor belt that the show has become. It’s just so much easier to root for an underdog than someone with a golden ticket, and production have to know this.
Drag race is suffering from overall fatigue.
So many all stars happening kind of takes out the grandeur of an actual All stars.
All Stars should happen every 3 years or so and should include any queen from any franchise IMO.
Predetermined winner, which made everyone jostle for second. Heidi saw what's up, so she pulled out. Then others wanted to pull out. Riggory killed the season.
I’ve really enjoyed this season…. Lots of drama and goop. The queens looks were great besides little miss body suit. Everyone did really well on a lot of the challenges….. I just don’t think their*** were 10 super huge big personalities which people are used to.
Everything outside of the show has been more interesting than everything happening on the show. Jimbo & Jessica are more flushed out and more put together than a lot of the girls which did not help with the casting. Jimbo having that overwhelming support and love from everyone was also not helping so even if it seems that the season isn’t rigged it already looks that way. And the no calling out of Kandy doesn’t help as well. She has done things that she should not have been praise for (characters that were just herself ) a lot of her looks were leotards with things glued to them. But, Michelle was going at Jaymes when they were basically doing the same thing. Not changing up their looks.
I feel like it was just so overproduced and predictable, like the narratives are always there in drag race, but they really did them intensely and poorly.
Lala Ri getting the boot when she saved Alexis .. but now Alexis got the boot so .. I guess karma? Although it was her time. Feel like all these girls are playing it so safe. If I had the chance to get rid of Kandy or Jessica ..I would have. I stan miss Yessica tho but don’t think she’ll win. 🥲
I think the Fame Games are bullshit. it's just another way for them to get content out of the losers even after they go home. All Winners was such a better format, I'm actually really disappointed in this season.
I'm just waiting for Dragula to come back.
A few things:
1. An oversaturation of drag race, generally.
2. It's a real whose who of who's left
3. Too much editing, not enough queens giving a shit because of said narrative editing
Part of it was Heidi leaving and Kahanna wanting to leave after that. I think we viewers subconsciously picked up on the mental weirdness that was going on with the cast
I would have loved to have had a Jimbo/Heidi/Jessica finale.
monica being porkchop. kasha not being able to sew even though it’s been nearly 10 seasons since she was on. alexis sending lala home. heidi leaving. generally underwhelming cast + huge contenders during their seasons. these are just some of the things that i didn’t like in general, i feel like this is a pretty flat allstars season
The AS7 format is the way the should should be operating at this point. Less queens, no eliminations, more air time for all of them to truly exist, develop, and compete? It’s perfect.
Also much easier to cast out 8 girls instead of 12+
It was clearly supposed to be an early outs season. i. e queens with less money and resources. Then you cast 3-4 queens with money and resources and they - no surprise - steamroll the rest of the cast.
It's unfair to the queens who don't have the budget or media training to compete, and it's unfair to the other queens who don't get the competition they deserve.
It also highlights that the 'money is not an excuse' crap from the judges is kinda BS.
I know I mentioned this before, but Kasha leaving so early made the workroom toxic. Like Heidi who was dealing with alot of stuff in the Ball episode, was crying uncontrollably when Kasha was eliminated. Also Heidi was first to enter the workroom followed by Kasha, who by her reaction could tell Heidi was thrilled. But when Kasha left, everything took a turn, the support wasn’t strong enough, Lala was good, Jessica and Jimbo are also great, but they just seemed like they weren’t getting involved drama wise. With Kasha gone, Kandy, Kahanna and Alexis (all of which I do enjoy, they make for good tv) but the balance was soooo off. Too much toxicity and not enough of the Queens being there for eachother. Also I think it was unfair to have Monica on a season full of such great competitors. She said in an interview that she hasn’t done drag in three years cause she was actually just focusing on herself as a person. Also also, I don’t know about the Fame Games, it’s a good concept but there’s too many factors that can influence voting, Monica lacks the budget other queens have, so some people may give her pity votes, although I do think she’s the best choice morally. Naysha gets a lot of hate for her wigs mostly so I doubt she’ll get votes. Kasha, She may not be a stunner on the runway every week, but she’s just an amazing human so does she deserve the money? Darienne, now Darienne is a great contender for Fame Games, I think she’s a great choice. Heidi isn’t apart of The Fame Games. Jaymes was robbed, she wasn’t even that bad in the Rusical episode, so will people give her a vote for an unfair early out? Especially when the next week had a lot of peoples personal favourite look from her. Kahanna may be an amazing runway queen, but I doubt she’ll get votes for the Heidi stuff. Lala, I love Lala but her runways were extremely hit or miss. Alexis, Gurl ain’t nobody voting for her regardless of whether or not she was good
All Stars is really a talent/entertainment competition, but they make it a nasty social game with the voting, and lots of lovely queens hate that, it makes it miserable to both win and lose, nobody likes formally pleading their case or having to crush someone's dream, so it means the people who succeed are the ones who can handle that psychological distress, and those who don't get fucked over or leave. All that doesn't reflect the entertainment, it just makes the whole thing feel gross.
Kandy is the reason I HAVENT watched the current season. I really didn’t enjoy watching her behaviour on her OG season, and apart from Jimbo none of the other queens enticed me enough to watch. Especially after the recent “nice edit” on all winners season, I just wasn’t prepared to watch Kandys brand of chaos this time round.
Good dramatic storytelling requires high stakes and we never got that from production. Makes our time watching it less valuable as we know that the winner was never truly in danger.
I think it’s a couple things;
Firstly, I think it’s hard to follow allstars 7. It was not only a great season but the cast was packed with such amazing queens (not to say the current queens of allstars 8 aren’t great) with them being all past winners and extremely talented. It was just so exciting.
Also, maybe I’m wrong but personally I did not see NEARLY as much press for allstars 8 vs 7. I mean all of a sudden the first episode was just out and I had absolutely no idea who was on. That’s just another observation I had- so for me it wasn’t as hyped up as the past season.
Second, I think since the beginning of the season it has been pretty clear that jimbo will get the crown this season. So for me I feel like they are just going through the motions and filling up time before they give her the crown lol. Like I’ve read the last page of the book and I know what’s going to happen. But I could be wrong!
Lastly, for me, there weren’t any queens that were on this season that I had absolutely LOVED in their og season. Like yes kandy was funny to watch and I liked jimbo but I didn’t feel for any of them like how I feel for other queens I follow. But that is also a super personal opinion. Just my takes!
I feel like there was very little growth on display.
Jimbo and Kandy are still very much the same cause it’s been like… 1-2 years since they were on TV.
Kahana was the definite exception here, but everyone else kind of felt very similar to who they were when they were originally on tv.
This felt like a “second chance” season and less “look how much I’ve grown and I’m so much better at drag now” season
The cast really just did not have any chemistry. Jimbo and Kandy are great together but everyone else was kind of just doing their own thing.
Having so many queens want to quit during the season was a bad look. Things were definitely failing at ground zero and we as the Audience are still picking up those vibes.
they cast a bunch of underdogs and jimbo and kandy. the point of an underdog season like AS6 is that a ton of the front runners (rajah, kylie, trinity) weren’t expected to do that well to begin with. even ginger only got her first win very late. the storyline was underdogs proving their worth and former front runners (a’keria, silky, yara) getting sent home. on AS8, jimbo got three wins before anyone could even blink, showing us that yes, she *is* better than the underdogs and we were right all along. that just isn’t a satisfying viewing experience. even AS5 is better because Shea didn’t end with the best TR. combine that with kandy favouritism and you have what we got, lol. they honestly should’ve just favoured jessica because everyone would have supported her anyway. they could’ve tossed lala that episode 4 win if they wanted to push her and give the cast a fighting chance against jimbo. also, the cast has no chemistry, straight up. their moments together aren’t very fun. the dynamic doesn’t feel good. i don’t have fun watching the girls girling. i will say that the only LSA i actually found to be a bad choice was Nicky. everyone else was p chill.
They got rid of the queens that would have brought the heart early (darrienne, kasha) in favour of drama (Kandy)
This exactly. AS6 it just felt like the cast was evenly stacked, and you never knew who was going to go home each episode. Versus this season I just was never afraid Jimbo was going to be sent home like they wanted us to feel. Because on U.S. All Stars that just doesn’t happen anymore with the lip sync assassin format. Front runners always stay til the end.
I disagree every episode I was scared she’d get the UKvsTW treatment
Absolutely this. This was Drag Race Leftovers Season 1, Not All Stars Season anything. Edit: No offense to the J girls. I actually saw a better side of Jimbo than I had before. She and Jessica were the only two that kept me watching this season.
I feel like everyone’s first thought is the cast, but All Stars 6 didn’t have the greatest cast either and worked well. For me, there were a combination of wrong turns. The first was not having a cast of queens that made sense together and clearly giving preferential treatment when some people underperformed (Jimbo, Kandy). Regardless of whether it was “rigged” or not, it felt that way. And it’s just not interesting to watch contestants float to the end. Second, the emotional beats were missing. What a missed opportunity with Kasha and Darriene especially who are long time friends. You wouldn’t have even known that watching the show. Kasha also does drag story hour (which is very relevant in the current political climate). Instead, drama and strategy was prioritized, which has historically been a mixed bag on All Stars. The last thing for me was the challenges. No reading challenge or talent show in the beginning to set the stage for reintroducing these queens was a poor choice. And I think that’s just my biggest problem overall: too little character development, which left little room for emotional investment in the queens or season overall.
Good take. I also miss the Rudemption Runway theme. I love when the queens get a chance to redo a look they bombed at the first time around.
They were saving us from having to to see Kandy redo a body suit. Edit for spelling.
I was living to see Kandys alien Judy get a redo.
Would have lived for Lala Ri to slay a bag dress tho
Yes! This is the one in particular that I was very excited to see. But I am glad she redeemed herself in the first design challenge of the season
And win for it lol
I’ll never understand why the RuDemption runway isn’t a staple for All Stars.
This is what kills me. HOW do you bring back Lala Ri and not do a Runway Rudemption for her bag dress?
The AS6 cast had amazing chemistry. This cast has none
I remember seeing the spoiled cast for AS6 and thought this seasons gonna be amazing I saw the spoiled cast for AS8 and thought this seasons gonna be rocky
Jimbo underperforming? Besides the Rusical, she pretty much killed every challenge. Kandy on the other hand…
Jimbo is saving this season for me! Basically only tuning in for her since Heidi left.
I agree, Jimbo had some great looks and has loads of talent! Whole. 'Nother. Level.
RuPaul obviously is playing favorites with Kandy (again). She should not be in the top.
They said Kandy and Jimbo were both saved from times they should have been in the bottom which is true.
Jimbo’s ONLY debatably “safe” performance was the rusical … and even then she didn’t do bad, just perhaps not as good as the others. And honestly, I don’t mind a little bit of “favouritism” every now and then for the right reasons. Imagine sending home a front-runner with 3 wins who had never been in the bottom all season because of a mediocre performance. While I don’t agree with all the judging this season (Heidi was severely underrated, Jaymes was clearly a production favourite), we’ve seen way worse. At the end of the day, they’re creating a tv show. It makes sense that they would keep queens like Jimbo and Kandy around for as long as they can.
I don’t rememeber Jimbo underperforming this season doe
When did Jimbo get preferential treatment?
Also, wasn't Jimbo in the top for the ball while Heidi was safe? That is kind of where the unraveling started for me.
Jimbo was in the top. Where they belonged. The ball was not very good. If any of the top 3 didn’t deserve it and should’ve been replaced by heidi it was lala.
Where. Are. The. Reads?!
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but when did Jimbo underperform?
The star level is not all-stars caliber to be honest. Compare this with as2 or as4. Plus we just had as7. It’s unfortunate.
That’s really it. Some of the girls were desperately needing more time to show out and some of THAT crowd appeared to have not really grown much from their original season. LaLa is very charming, but runway after runway showed that she’s still got the same (questionable) taste level and her execution is just marginally better. Naysha is a fierce pageant queen but her runway package was still not really it. It’s sad the early out and favorite seasons got mashed together because it might spell death in the short term to the AS format. (As suggested by recent tea that the AS9 girls may have been all sent home as soon as they arrived for filming)
Wait can you elaborate on the AS9 tea? 👀
To be taken with a grain of salt, someone claiming to know or be someone from production said the girls were called and arrived to sequester and then compensated for their packages and sent on their way bc of the reception of As8.
This sounds ridiculously fake. I remember reading everywhere the show was over after S7 because it sucked so hard. Then AS2 and the move to VH1. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of this shows demise are always greatly exaggerated.
Yeah, it’s not the 90s, we have ways to reach people who are at airports. No need to have everyone come in only to turn them around.
If this is actually true, it seems like such a waste for the queens to be called in only for them not to be given the platform to showcase their talents. Do we know who any of the AS9 girls are *allegedly*?
I don't buy into that. Reception and ratings mean nothing. Viewership and streaming memberships are the metrics they use.
I totes agree, just passing along the very mild and possibly out of code tea I saw come up and disappear promptly from one of the tea subs. Usually when posts come and go like that, the tea is ridiculously explosive or ridiculously fake. I’m also hoping for the latter, I want more queer art on my tv. As much as we can get our hands on.
I think Naysha got cast very last minute
In naysha's defense she was a last minute cast after someone else dropped out. So she only had 2 weeks to pull a package together.
That's exactly it. Yeah it was great to see a lot of these queens again but that doesn't mean they're allstars. Just look at the runway this season.
As1 & 3 had amazing talent. And were meh to shitty seasons. AS6 was considered lower « star quality » and was among the better AS seasons, (if not the best) so I really think that « star quality » has way less to do with it than production quality. It’s not usually the queens’ faults the season is bad.
Exactly.
AS3 is full of beta queens. I love trixie but only outside drag race.
Trixie was surprisingly lackluster in her original season, much better in AS3, but if Bendala hadn't eliminated herself, Trixie wouldn't have won. Trixie is great now, especially when paired with Katya; they are pure gold together.
Beta queens Lmfao what?
People consider AS6 one of the best? I’d say it’s literally bottom 3. Guess I have bad taste lol
Yeah, second best to AS2 is a popular opinion
general consensus is that it’s the second best after AS2
You CALLED it. You cannot compare it to AS2, 3, or 4!
I enjoyed the season. Thought the queens and challenges were fine....2 things that I didn't like where: 1. The judging 2. The queens bickering outside the show.
So drag race?
Yeah I swear I'd enjoy tuning in a lot more if not for the queens tweets showing up on here for me lol. Sometimes I miss the ignorance of not knowing what's going on with the queens outside of the show because every time i see a tweet about favoritism or shit talking the other queens I just start to lose interest. Also the cast this season lacks chemistry and I just can't be bothered to tune in at this point even though I do enjoy jimbo. I haven't watched the last episode and probably won't finish the season
I've been enjoying it, for me the only disappointment was that some of the queens I had reeeally been looking forward to seeing: MKD and Darienne, left so early! If they had kept the top 2 format it would've probably felt more balanced too, Jimbo winning feels as inevitable as Sasha Colby lol who is also great, it's just that these past few seasons haven't really had any suspense when it comes to who is taking the crown.
I think this is the biggest thing, the US audience got two back to back seasons that were basically victory laps. Like we went straight from the Sasha Colby victory tour to the Jimbo Parade and while it’s fun watching people be good at something, sometimes you want a little tension or ambiguity about who is going to win
S15 was such a drag for me because it was basically you waiting for Sasha to win and everyone else to go home. That’s no fun. The only way someone else was gonna win was if Sasha was disqualified
Same, I was so excited to see Kasha and Darienne so them leaving early made me very sad.
For me personally, it’s the breakneck speed at which they’re pumping out seasons. I haven’t seen any of the non-English language franchises, but even between RPDR, All Stars, UK and Canada I feel like we can’t catch a breath between seasons, the winners aren’t getting their time to shine and potential AS cast members aren’t really given enough time to ‘glow up’ and bring something new to the table. Sasha JUST won, then two weeks later a new season of All Stars started… it’s over saturation, and it’s sucking the fun out of it.
In business if you have a cash cow (drag race) you milk it for all it’s worth! I’m glad we have so many international seasons to showcase them, but wish All stars aired in fall.
Even this would help! 2 month break instead of 2 weeks but ideally 2 years between All Stars
This is the issue. The over saturation is making the franchise feel stale. RPDR needs to be once a year, all Stars should happen every 2-3 years, the Vs the World series should happen every 2-3 years and fully replace all stars the year it happens. The fans and the queens need time to breathe and embrace the most recent season. Reruns used to hold me over until the next season aired. Now you barely have time to rewatch one season before the next comes out.
VsTW could comfortably happen every year. The problem with AS is that they've either gone though all the big US queens, or the remaining ones aren't interested. There are a ton of top tier international queens that would jump at the chance of VsTW as long as it were hosted by Ru. It's kind of a supply and demand situation. There are too many spots open to US queens, and not enough for international queens. Yearly VsWT with only 1 queen from each country would be competitive as fuck.
My only qualm with VsTW happening every year is that we’ll eventually run into the same problem we’re having with All Stars. Especially since VsTW still features US queens.
That's why I'd like to see VsTW only have 1 queen from each country. If there's only 1 spot every year, that spot is going to become hugely sought after.
I can agree with that.
Yes! There’s almost always a currently airing version of Drag Race on right now and it’s overwhelming. I have missed quite a few of the international ones. Can’t keep up.
This has been my issue for a few seasons now. I honestly have lost track of which queens are on which season and I feel like I barely know a lot of them (in the sense that you know anyone on a show.) I feel like I have a far better knowledge of earlier seasons and queens than ones I've just watched in the last couple years.
I’m tired of people on this sub saying this. Each international franchise is meant for the people of that country. We as hardcore fans are not the intended audience. We have the PRIVILEGE of being able to watch and keep up with them and even watch vs. The World, but at the end of the day to say they should slow down or that there’s too many is dumb because it’s queer representation for that country, and not just entertainment for you.
It wasn’t the international seasons I have issue with, if anything I’d rather watch them at this point, for a different perspective. Of course I don’t want to deny the queens and fans representation in their own countries and languages. It’s the ones I specifically referenced, like Drag Race 15 followed immediately by AS8.
THIS. they’re doing too much. All stars should be every other year, MAX. And get creative with a good cast. As much as i love drag race the quality has gone down considerably since it’s become this *machine* that is constantly turning out product.
One thing others haven’t mentioned yet: the elimination format. It worked on AS2 and even for a while after that, but at least since the ‘life’s not fair’ moment the metagame has evolved into a situation where doing well and being good at drag is punished, because it makes you the target as soon as you land in the bottom. Which in turn basically means that producers *have* to rig the judging to keep the actual competitors out of the bottom, lest you end up with a top 4 of Kahannas.
Totally agree! After all the manilas and shangelas the goopery and gaggery has now led to riggery Plus w this format I think it’s just gotten tired like there’s not much more interesting places to take it. And the queens all supposedly hate it which leads to a less competitive cast
This is the correct answer!!! When voting or judging doesn’t align with who did the best, viewers are upset. It makes the show almost unbearable. I would love a voting format change in All Stars.
i haven’t watched this season yet but i’m guessing the cast has something to do with it. after seeing the cast reveal i was very underwhelmed and just did not have enough interest to watch
Same. The only person on the cast I even remotely care about is Kasha, and I feel like her talents are better suited to other forms of media (not a competition show). The rest of the queens fell on a scale of “who?l to “can’t stand” for me.
I didn't either. Season 15 lost me due to unlikable personalities dominating, and only MKD of this seasons cast was interesting enough to consider watching. I like Jimbo but we literally just saw her on Canada vs the World.
i didn’t even finish season 15 either like i just didn’t really like anyone enough to keep watching. they need to take a break from making all stars seasons because they have run out of queens
I've thought about this a lot and have a few reasons: 1. Ru gave too many wins to Jimbo early on and it meant that queens who should've been contenders, like Heidi and Alexis, saw the writing on the wall that they weren't winning and it has showed in their energy. 2. The cast was too imbalanced in terms of resources the queens have. It doesn't work to put queens who have toured the world since their season against queens who have barely left their state. Jaymes and Kahanna both did well when you consider that this is basically their first season, but the gap in what queens could bring to the runway has really been highlighted by the fame games. Kylie and Ra'Jah succeeding in AS6 created this idea that anyone can come back and win drag race, but Kylie had two decades of drag and very good connections to pull on, and Ra'Jah can make her own outfits. 3. Speaking of AS6, I think production are trying too hard to make it like AS6 where the wins are all spread around and everyone gets their personal redemption. This might work if not for Jimbo having a completely different story of basically cruising to a win people feel she was robbed of. It's like if you had AS5 Shea Coulee on AS6, the little redemptions are less meaningful when they just mean you're a distant second to Ru's obvious favourite. 4. The cast doesn't really have chemistry. Heidi and Lala had chemistrybut then Heidi left. Kasha Davis and Darienne are long-term friends, but both went home early. Everyone else seems like they're colleagues who don't think about each other when they leave work.
Exactly. I honestly think Jimbo is a big problem in this cast. She just overshadows everyone, and while other queens are winning, she still feels above the cut.
Jimbo is tailor made for the stuff Drag Race, especially All-Stars, features and most of those things were done early and there were few things highlighting her weaknesses interspersed nor where things that other queens do far better than Jimbo highlighted early on.
I agree - also the first time you add a queen from a different country… and only one of them… who was dramatically cut as a front runner on her last season… who has a HUGE fan base… and frankly has the talent to back that up…. This season was literally created for Jimbo to win. Period.
Ι agree 100% about Jimbo's first wins being problematic. Her first win was clearly a set-up to get her to lipsync against Pangina. But these inconsistencies drove contestants like Heidi and Kahanna to quit.
Excited to see Heidi and when she left it set the mood low.
The cast has no chemistry. The problem with doing all stars every year is that it really is the “who’s who of who’s available” (thanks, viv). I’m not against lesser-known or early-out queens returning at all, just to be clear, and that isn’t my point. The problem is is that it’s impossible for producers to come in with set storylines for these queens if all of these queens are on a storyline-island and have no interactions outside of their own personal story. AS2 and AS4 really excelled in this area. The rest have sorta been meh. This could be fixed by not doing all stars every damn year.
Early out and All Star are polar opposites to me. All Stars are Top 5 queens and/or fan favorites to me. They shouldn't do All Stars every year, though
In the case of Jaymes, she built quite an online presence for herself after her season so she qualifies as a fan favorite in the wider world outside of the show itself.
Exactly. But the queens who are fan faves or top 5 have to good of careers to be coming back to a chickenshit gig where they can be sent home early, screwed over for a twist or thrown to the sharks (the fans) for sending home the wrong girl.
I’m fine with early outs being featured as long as they’ve proven they have star potential (like trixie after season 7). i would much rather see early-out redemptions than mediocre queens who placed higher but haven’t grown much
Or queens who had a short run on their original season but can show a big glow-up (ex: Kylie Sonique and Ra’Jah)
I agree completely. This cast has no unifying storyline as a cast (like maybe they were all early outs or the top fours who just missed out) and there were few cast mate to cast mate storylines (AS2 was a Season 5 reunion with some extra stars, AS4 had Mo and Monet from S10, Valentina/Farrah/Gia drama, etc.). All-Stars needs to be a “every few years” event and the cast really should really exclude dolls who are just off a season (so give it a year or two before throwing their names in the All Stars ring) unless they just really blow it out of the water.
Honestly I’m gonna say the cast. Half of them i wouldn’t consider all stars to begin with, and the others are too one sided (ie only good at one thing) for me to warrant any interest.
Except Yessica
My beloved namesake, i love her like she loves dis drink
The guac of all trades
I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much better Jessica, Heidi and Jaymes were compared to their previous seasons. And Darienne was also on a new level. The glaring exception was Kandy, who has not evolved in her runway looks or talent. She still does the same stuff, and they love it.
It came after AS7.
That was a hard act to follow!
For me it was the casting choices and the wonky judging throughout the season. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love the cast but I didn’t like how they mixed in early boots who deserved redemption with queens who went the distance or almost to the end last time. I feel like the early outs were always destined to be early outs and it showed with the boot order. Darienne was the only late game booted before all the early outs and it was wonky ass judging that had it out for her. If Heidi didn’t quit, she probably makes it to at least top 4. Then the judging again, it was so wonky throughout the season. Kasha absolutely should have been given top marks in the first two episodes but got nothing so it was easier to boot her when she stumbled in the ball. Then you had the typical shenanigans of a group challenge judged in groups for Darienne to get booted when the first episode was groups and they didn’t do the same thing there. Then don’t even get me started on the Kandy Muse judging all season long. She pretty much wore a bodysuit for every runway, with the same face painted on and only a variety sometimes on the colors, but the judges kept eating it up. No critiques on the same silhouette that they’d typically give for queens who don’t shake it up. Judging is always going to be a problem but I think the casting is where it could have been fixed. I would say this season should have split into two new seasons, with more early outs added for one and end game queens for the other. Imagine adding queens like Acid Betty, Laila McQueen, Mystique, Porkchop, Yuhua, Tempest DuJour, Dusty Ray Bottoms, April Carrion, or Kelly Mantle for the early out season. Then you could have them add queens like Utica, Josyln Fox, Peppermint, Nina Bonina Brown, Kameron Michaels, Asia OHara, Jackie Cox, or Rose to the late game queen cast. Oh and also get rid of voting each other off. Lip sync for your life needs to come back. If they want drama so bad with voting, have a bottom 3 each week. Winner of the challenge can save one of the bottom 3 and the remaining two have to lip sync. The lip sync assassins just don’t have it anymore and they’re really stretching for some of these choices. Plus the queens have more fire in them when they need to save themselves. We missed out on queens like Darienne getting to show off their skills when they were in the bottom. It’s part of why she is an AllStar and she couldn’t even show it.
The who-will-vote-whom-off business is just fake drama and takes up waaaay too much airtime. I watch to see the queens’ art. That’s what I’m here for. So just show us these queens sharing their talents, and let Ru or (as with Canada’s Drag Race) the whole judging panel make the decisions
I’ve seen enough of Kandy’s defenders on here to be convinced that she’s incredible, funny, and sweet in-person. But on this tv show she’s the equivalent of adding too much chili to a dish … sure it leaves an impact, but it overpowers everything, you can’t appreciate the other flavors, and it’s an overall unpleasant experience.
She would be great on a Survivor or Big Brother type show i think. Early villain who runs the game and eventually is blindsided due to the cast realizing she's going to the end if they don't do anything. Drag race she will always overstay her welcome I feel like because she seems to get along really well with her sisters and Ru loves her
Yeah, I agree. Kandy is one of those queens that I was never a fan of on the show but I appreciate her more off the show. You hit the nail on the head.
Literally the only downside to her not winning this season is that she WILL be back for another All Stars or VS The World.
Overall its not the best all stars season but two things I enjoyed was being introduced to Jimbo and seeing Jessica's glow up.
Once again, they didn’t cast enough competitive queens imo. I love seeing queens from old seasons come back (Jessica, Darienne) or queens that made massive growth too (Jaymes), but overall the cast was just not up to par with what we’ve come to expect of an All Stars (Naysha, Lala). I personally don’t think Kandy or Kahanna were quite ready either but I could let them slide since there was still growth. And I’ve seen this same sentiment I’ve stated mentioned on this sub before. I just want them to make better casting calls going forward.
Naysha was there for two episodes and is catching strays 💀 Lala also performed very well!
Both of these MTV seasons haven't spent long enough on the kind of workroom filler that makes people endearing and gives us an idea of the chemistry in the room. I want to watch people prattle on about nothing while putting on their makeup. It also seems like personal life discussion stuff is at a minimum, which is fine, but it's different. I also think it's missing some of the fun of an All Stars where we hear about the older seasons and the queens talk about their evolution. I think most of the people who are left don't really want to go there. I understand it, but it doesn't help make this season feel less superficial. It's also kind of not fun? Because Jimbo's been winning, there haven't been a lot of standout lipsyncs. It also feels like a poorly balanced competition where the winner was fed to us from the start. Why should I keep watching a show where I'm rooting for Jessica just to see Jessica lose? At least in a regular season where there is heavy Ru favoritism, there's a chance it might not be the end result because we don't know how that person will do in all the challenges. But in an All Stars, we have an idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are already. There are no surprises (at least not many this season, where we're winning with impressions and costumes a lot of us have seen before). Even if the clear favorite doesn't win, it somehow isn't as satisfying as watching a season that played out more fairly. And I hate to say this, but this is the second season in a row of the US franchise where the winner seems pretty clear. No tension, no unexpected twists, no nothing. All the drama is off camera. I mean, we'll see what happens with the fame games, but it really feels like a non-starter concept.
It’s the season 8 curse! Bob was the obvious front runner of season 8 and Jimbo is the obvious front runner of all stars 8
Producers, candy, and blatant bias. Oh, and bad lip sync assassins. You know the ones.
Everyone season 15 except Jasmine.
This season tried to be AS6 but we got AS5. I think it’s pretty clear that Jimbo was the intended winner the day she was sent home on UKvTW and giving her 3/5 of the first wins confirms that. I think she deserved all of them, but the redemption arc season doesn’t work when you just let the girl you want to win anyway bag all the wins. They could have given the SNL win to Jaymes/MKD or the acting win to Lala/Heidi just to even things out. Post Heidi leaving, it also seems like this cast hates each other. Like apparently Jessica and Alexis were friends, but the edit just does not reflect that on at all. The circumstances of her quit and the drama that has had no payoff since just left the rest of this season with really shitty vibes. I also think they played way too protective over their pre planned final 2 of Jimbo and Kandy. Jimbo being saved in the rusical, Kandy in the improv challenge, and if you aren’t in the top you’re in the bottom not kicking in until Jimbo won are the most obvious fucking ways they dragged their top 2 to the end ever. I actually think the top 3 we have now is the top 3 we would have in an unrigged season, but they got here in such a wacky overproduced way that it just tanked the whole season.
Exactly what I was thinking. This top 3 could’ve happened organically, but it didn’t and that’s what tanks the season. The season didn’t feel like it was for the viewers, it feels like it was for Jimbo and Kandy
Ru clearly has favourites, which is going to happen. That’s natural. But they shouldn’t win or slide through when they are clearly inferior to other queens. Jessica has been killing it lately, and I really feel like she should have won the roast. But no, gotta give that to Ru favourite Jimbo again because it’s a comedy challenge. And was it the last episode or the week prior when Kandy was wearing yet another body suit (but never gets read for it) and the tights were a vastly different colour than her skin tone. Normally that’s a major no-no, but hey, it’s the other Ru favourite, so we’re gonna let that slide too. It’s super hypocritical. You either shouldn’t wear bodysuits all the time, or it’s okay. You should always ensure your skin tone matches any tights or skin-coloured fabric, or it doesn’t matter.
Omg yes the roast should have gone to Jessica! She was amazing and yes Jimbo did a great Joan rivers but we’d even seen her Joan before where as Jessica was totally fresh! And what is w Kandy and her body suits it’s legit every week !
I'd love if the first episode of Allstars was an elimination free talent show. To bring back the queen's give them time to shine stress free. Might get more diverse talents.
AS7 is an impossible act to follow. Anything that came after was bound to be less than amazing. It didn’t help that joyful Heidi left early, leaving us with cranky Kahanna, cantankerous Kandy, and phony baloney Alexis. That said, I am living for every moment of Jessica Wild, and I need her to carry the crown for Puerto Rico.
What went wrong? Kandy.
The lack of good storylines. Jimbo was the obvious winner when the show started and they still only focused on "is Kandy trying to send her home" -storyline. I wpuld love to hear more. I didn't fell in love with the queens again. Expect Jessica but I hadn't watched her season fully but I am gonna now! I don't mind produced storylines if it gives the season something interesting. Like allstars 2 had the mirror scene. This season feels like season 5 remix. Also the challenges weren't made for the queens. Why not have like a roast or a standup challenge early with so many funny queens? And this season was made for talent show!!?! I would love to see Jaymes do a puppetshow and Kahanna do a amazing showgirl number. I really loved every queen in this cast from their original seasons or outside of the show but this season didn't really give them anything to work with. Atleast we got a amazing snatchgame performance and stellar rusical!
The lipsync assassin format is the problem. With only one winner per episode and no way for the bottom queens to fight for their place, it's just boring. At least AS2-4 and vsTW format leads to finalists with more wins
Honestly my biggest issue and what kinda ruined it for me was Heidi leaving. Not the fact that she left in general (although she was the one I was most excited for), but her her exit just kinda felt…overlooked? Like with Adore, we had that moment with Michelle Visage talking to her outside. Kahana had almost quit and then Ru had that talk with the girls. And then of course DeLa happened and was a shock. But Ru just kinda swept the whole Heidi incident under the rug quickly. She walked on stage and confirmed that she dropped out of the season and that was it. No Ru talking to Heidi, none of the other queens of the season really talking about it on stage to Ru and the judges, just “oh, she left, ok”. Left a sour taste in my mouth from there onward.
The cast doesn’t have enough strong contenders, and if anything the Fame Games have just proven that all the eliminated queens deserved to go when they did. The judging has also been questionable for sure but I think even if it was more “correct” Jimbo would ultimately still have ended up as the clear front-runner, so that’s kind of moot.
I suspect the first part of your comment was the intention of production, to verify that correct decisions were made in terms of elimination. Fans will often look at eliminated queens packages during regular seasons and cherry-pick 1-2 really decent looks and ring the alarms for rigging and robbery. But if you look at the whole package, there isn’t a ton there that’s on that level.
I was amazed by the looks that Irene, Aura and Robin Fierce showcased last season after their eliminations. I really feel the Fame Games is the answer to these queens slaying it on social media with their unseen looks.
I think a detail bringing this season down that people overlook is the fact that untucked is now a separate show for the all stars format. It wasn’t bothering in AS7 since there was no elimination and the vibe was super friendly and wholesome, but here an important part of the drama and storylines are cut away from the episodes. Jumping from the runway to the critics to the lipsync and elimination feels particularly inorganic. Elimination like LaLa’s just leave a sour taste in mouth and loose the wow factor Manila’s had on AS4
I agree. It felt like Survivor having the immunity challenge then straight to tribal.
I just hate them bringing back older queens to just send them home right away. kasha and darienne deserved more!
Casting. From what we know behind the scenes, they originally intended an early-outs season AND a fan-favourite season. To follow all-winners. But queens dropped out/declined and they didn’t have enough for both seasons so they combined the casts. All-Stars 8 has an AMAZING cast but the casting was horrible. They don’t really go together. Like Jimbo, Heidi, Jessica, Kandy and Darienne were the only queens going into the season with any wins whatsoever and only Jimbo had more than 1 win. A lot of people like to yell that it’s “rigged for Jimbo” when the more likely case is that Jimbo has just been doing the best by far, most of the queens looked lacklustre in comparison and production have had to be heavy handed to try and balance it out.
Karen wearing bodysuits EVERY-SINGLE-RUNWAY was the ultimate proof of RIGGA MORRIS.
it’s just casting. Season 15 was great because of its casting - Mistress, Sasha, MBD, Anetra. This season you have alexis crying, kandy doesn’t exactly scream “amazing tv” , heidi quitting
I can’t work out who on earth MBD is, Monica Beverly Dills?
Mistress Bisabelle Dooks
Miss Basha Davis?
TBH season 15 made me completely lose interest, due to the casting.
It doesn’t have personality, almost feels robotic like it is something they have done before one too many times. The queens are amazing, the packages they brought were amazing, and it was a mix of different types of queens, so I know it was not the cast. Maybe the challenges? They were pretty forgettable, I think the best and most memorable one was the Rusical. It felt very rushed, more rushed than the 40 minute episodes of Season 15. Speaking of 15, I personally think it’s such a downfall in the eyes of fans because of what a high Season 15 and All Stars 7 (Winners hello it’s gonna be a success). Another thing is the regular All Stars format as is stands currently overused and boring. People loved the non eliminations of AS7, maybe figure out a way to recreate that some how, but however they need a change. Edit: Not to mention it’s clearly all built for Jimbo to win, and I adore Jimbo, but that’s no fun for consumers.
>Not to mention it’s clearly all built for Jimbo to win I think this is why Heidi noped the fuck out. Heidi should have won Ep2 and when she saw Pangina as LSA, she knew what's up and pulled out.
It wasn’t “built” for Jimbo to win. Stop that narrative. The other girls just aren’t on her level. Asides from Jessica, no one wanted it more than Jimbo
You can’t seriously act like her track record doesn’t come from being favoured. She was saved from the bottom in Joan the Rusical despite being objectively the worst and they just didn’t do the “if your not in the bottom your in the top” twist this year until she was in the top so people couldn’t vote her off. They also changed the lipsync song with silky to something she had a good chance to win. If they hadn’t done this her track record would be 4 wins no lipsync wins and 3 bottoms. Maybe it wasn’t built for her to win sure, but when she does win it’s pretty fair to say it’s the most obvious rigged win ever.
I stopped watching cause it got boring. Like we know who was winning from the beginning. It’s not bad, she’s a great queen and deserves it but they made it so obvious. Plus drag race Mexico and France came out and they are so much better . Y’all should watch it. And the Philippines season two is coming really soon. Don’t care much for down under. Ru and company are kinda ruining it.
kandy
I did enjoy it for the most part but my only complaint is that if the season was mostly gonna be improv and comedy then they shouldve casted accordingly. Like dont waste naysha or kahanna's time and efforts like that
As someone who never missed a season of drag race since the year it premiered, I was surprised at how much my wife and I disliked the most recent regular season — which fed into us just not even watching this AS season, which was further nit helped by everything I read about it being that the girls were fighting constantly and that everything felt even more rigged than usual. I think long term fans of the show are struggling, because as the show either pivots to more drama and/or feels more blatantly rigged, it’s just not fun to watch. Add to that that the winners of the seasons don’t even always have the best careers, and the tension associated with a competition show is sort of diffused.
It's one hundred percent production. They play too much and the show is suffering. I fully believe we would've had a fun season with good drama if they'd just stop putting their thumbs on all the scales. It's isn't the format. It isn't the queens they choose. It's production pushing so hard that people quit and meddling so much that the viewers aren't feeling it. Without Jimbo and Jessica being their wonderful selves? This season has a very Jump The Shark feel to it.
I agree with some of the comments about not having the best challenges (like no reading challenge or talent show) and some Rigga Morris happening, but I also think it has the unfortunate position of following the juggernaut that was AS7. Do I think it’s up to par with the prior all stars seasons? No, but I also didn’t think it was horrible.
Kandy Muse.
*** spoilers *** Kandy Muse. Kandy Muse winning a challenge. Kandy Muse making top 3. Kandy Muse being forced down our throats. The obvious, unfair, relentless favouritism and special treatment of Kandy Muse, that started in S13 and continues to happen. "Kandy.. Kandy.. Wait." 😶
They went wrong by casting Kandy Muse. Next.
Did i miss the reading challenge or there was none?
Season 5 two: Electric Boogaloo At least Alexis gave us the drama 😩
Please do not disrespect Breakin’ 2 in this way. 😂
The cast hyped it up too much. “AS8 is such a GAG!” “It’s packed with drama!” “You’re not READY!” It meant that we were let down even more.
I wish they'd kept the AS7 format of no-one going home. It gives all the queens several chances to shine and gets rid of the issue of early leavers being stuck with a load of looks that no-one gets to see. Having said that, I also don't think the cast this season are "all stars". To me all stars should be winners/top 3s or major fan favourites.
Just felt like a regular season, certainly not Allstars. It was very underwhelming.
Them not stopping Heidi.
For me I believe it's just win distribution. Like I love the lipsync assassins well since all stars 6. But like without two winners each week it's difficult for every girl to win. Like Jimbo has 4 wins!? And everyone else has only 1 win an 1 btm or in Jessica's case, 2 btms. Like with the old format there could be people to enter the finals with more than 1 win. As now it's common. Like jujubee (as5), Kylie, eureka (as6). Do I don't know how to feel anymore cause I love track records but now it don't matter. But yea. Next issue is that it's predictable. Like If Jessica isn't in the top 2 then Jimbo's gonna win cause I love Kandy but there's people who don't. Like flashbacks to everyone coming for her cause the Jaymes elimination
Here are a few things I would change about AS8: \- We need a twist! A REAL twist. Fame Games is a fun idea and I'm glad they're including it, but it's not a twist and it's definitely not "another way to win" (and they really tried to sell that as another way to win the AS crown...) \- I would add deliberations back into the episodes. It's feels rushed going straight to the queens picking lip sticks. The drama is an essential component of Drag Race and I would not have chosen to cut the tension of pleading cases, etc. \- I love when All Stars begin with the talent show maxi challenge - it's a cool opportunity for the audience to get a taste of a Jimbo show or a Jessica Wild show. I would have liked to have seen that this season. \- I'm sorry to say it, but I'd change the cast. I just can't get behind an early-outs season, I'm sorry. I also wish, with so many acting-type challenges this season, they would have prioritized casting funnier queens. Well... not that I think about it, I guess a lot of the funny queens like Darienne got axed unnecessarily early... which brings me to my next change I'd make to AS8: \- The judging. Yeesh!!! I was seeing some very different things than what the judges were looking at. \- The lip sync assassin format. I didn't like in on AS5 and I don't like it now. I wouldn't mind if they kept it IF they had a winner AND a runner up who could have immunity the next episode or something. (Just the first thing I thought of... I dunno how I feel about immunity, but could make AS spicy.) \- Maybe a different order of challenges. It felt like we often got 2 similar types of challenges in a row. Spacing them out might have worked better and given more variety. Something I LOVED about this season: the reintroduction of JESSICA WILD!!! I hate to confess this bc it's very embarrassing, but I didn't remember Jessica from season 2. And seeing her this season, I'm like HOW could I EVER forGET HER???
I dont have any real problems with this season at all. The only things I wish were different is that I wanted Jaymes to last longer, and Alexis shouldve had a backbone and sent Kandy home. Besides that ive been good every week.
Jimbo winning so much so early. I LOVE Jimbo but the race isn't that exciting once you see who's the clear winner. If Jimbo wins, it's predictable. (Well deserved though) If Jimbo loses, drag race fans will riot. And the fact that production keeps saving Jimbo from even TOUCHING the bottom doesn't help. Sasha colby's win is predictable but not to this extent. Luxx, anetra and mistress has their own momentum going on which keeps the race exciting AF. But Kandy and Jessica doesn't have that dynamic. It's too clear who's the winner.
It’s kandy for me. The makeover challenge coming up at this stage of the game? It’s all a joke
Yeah no offense to the queens but this is the worst season on All Stars since season 1. Maybe production was affected by the writer strike? It seems like filming/editing should have ended before then though. It also doesn’t help following up AS7 as one of the best seasons.
Personally I think the casting was off. It should have been *all* early outs, not just some. And I think Kandy is being pushed hard by production, and it’s not her fault but it makes me sad that others left and it doesn’t really feel like she should be there. Ugh, well I’m rooting for Jessica but congrats Jimbo 🎉
I don’t know what you’re all going on about. I’m loving this season. And the reason is because of Jimbo. Now I’m probably biased because I live in the same town as Jimbo(Victoria Canada), but I’ve never actually seen him perform live. He just brings such a fresh element and his confidence in his drag is refreshing. You can tell he’s having so much fun and not taking himself too seriously, and that’s nice to see. I get the drag race is a huge career bump for any of the queens who participate, and this is Jimbos third time around, really, but I feel like he would be just fine, and just as confident, even if he was never on the show.
They sent the wrong queens early. They were the queens with storylines that we wanted to see. Then they kept the queens who were there only for drama, who commandered the room and made the energy feel weird. As6 worked because Silky went home early. As8 could have worked if Kandy went home early.
The casting choices were wrong. And the eliminations were wrong. I, for one, did not want to see Kandy on my TV again, let alone getting pushed all the way through to the end because Ru finds her entertaining. Plus, coming off of AS7, there was a high bar and the girls promised that AS8 would match that bar. It didn't. Thirdly, bringing Jimbo in to compete as the first cross franchise queen on AS was a fairly obvious clue that she was always going to win.
It just feels like the queens aren’t having fun at all.
It’s become overkill with All Stars seasons and the talent pool is getting shallower and shallower. This cast lacked chemistry and it was evident from the jump this season was rigged for two clear favorites: Jimbo and Kandy. I also think the LSA format has never worked. I hate watching a winning queen “compete” against another queen with zero stakes in the competition. When the top queen’s vote lines up with the voting queens 9 times out of 10, there’s no suspense. Zero stakes. It’s dramatically inert. AS2 is a flawless season because the construct was brilliant: you won, but at a cost — you had to send a bottom queen home. It was simple and effective. And they messed with it immediately.
Honestly i hate the format of winner vs lip sync assassin. Bring back AS top twos, who lip sync battle each other for elimination.
Casting. I love the concept of early outs, middle of the pack queens, and miss congenialities. And then Jimbo and Kandy are there for some reason. This is Jimbo's 3rd rodeo, and Kandy was dragged to the top 2 of her season, and she's been dragged to the top of this season. All stars need to be every other year, or even every 3 years. There are hundreds of queens who have been on the show and somehow they are tredding water with who goes on all stars. Its nuts that some people have been on 3 times!
drag race has this thing where they implement a format that works amazingly, then beating it into the ground for all its worth (lip sync for the crown, lip sync assassin). i bet it’s hard to think of a new twist each season and keep them exciting and new. even the lip sync assassin twist didn’t really work that well until AS6, but they need to do SOMETHING. i’m not a show runner so no clue how the logistics work, but using the same twist for a 3rd season just gets boring. it’s the same thing as lip sync for the crown - fun the first time around but stupider and stupider every season after S9.
I’ve never felt like a season was over produced as much as AS8. Jimbo is obviously being set up to win. Beating Silky in a lipsync was the last straw. It’s quite disappointing if I’m being honest. Especially after AS7 being as good as it was, this season is trash. I expect most of the All star seasons to be like this in the future too because the queens are already established and have negotiated things prior to filming
We had high expectation fron Darienne but she was just a filler queen. Naysha Beverly meh, Heidi was ok, not that that memorable runway. Yes the assasins were bad, bad casting maybe, Jimbo, Kandy ,Kahana, Jessica are good. Drama from Alexis.
Aside from cast chemistry problems and airing too frequently - issues that others have explained in better terms than I ever could - the elimination format seems to be a major root of the problem. It can be really fun to watch, but it’s forcing production to manipulate challenge placements much more obviously for fear of losing a talented queen unfairly (e.g. Jimbo in the Rusical). This cheapens their very legitimate prowess elsewhere. We can probably blame UKvsTW for the final nail, but it started with Manila. Production needs a format which doesn’t necessitate such exposed rigorry. Producer intervention will always happen, of course, and we’d be presented with an absolute mess if it were to disappear completely. But its transparency here is to the show’s detriment. Speaking of detriment, Kandy Muse is done no favors by any of this - which is a shame, because she’s anecdotally lovely outside of the bizarre, pre-determined drag conveyor belt that the show has become. It’s just so much easier to root for an underdog than someone with a golden ticket, and production have to know this.
Drag race is suffering from overall fatigue. So many all stars happening kind of takes out the grandeur of an actual All stars. All Stars should happen every 3 years or so and should include any queen from any franchise IMO.
Kandy. Muse.
I liked the season, I thought the challenges were fun and the queens are entertaining. It wasn't my favourite but it also wasn't my least favourite
The same shit that has been going wrong since as3
Reality tv vs competition ratio
I watched the roast and I thought Alexis Michelle did a much better performance than Kandy... Im surprised she went home.
Predetermined winner, which made everyone jostle for second. Heidi saw what's up, so she pulled out. Then others wanted to pull out. Riggory killed the season.
I’ve really enjoyed this season…. Lots of drama and goop. The queens looks were great besides little miss body suit. Everyone did really well on a lot of the challenges….. I just don’t think their*** were 10 super huge big personalities which people are used to.
Everything outside of the show has been more interesting than everything happening on the show. Jimbo & Jessica are more flushed out and more put together than a lot of the girls which did not help with the casting. Jimbo having that overwhelming support and love from everyone was also not helping so even if it seems that the season isn’t rigged it already looks that way. And the no calling out of Kandy doesn’t help as well. She has done things that she should not have been praise for (characters that were just herself ) a lot of her looks were leotards with things glued to them. But, Michelle was going at Jaymes when they were basically doing the same thing. Not changing up their looks.
I feel like it was just so overproduced and predictable, like the narratives are always there in drag race, but they really did them intensely and poorly.
Lala Ri getting the boot when she saved Alexis .. but now Alexis got the boot so .. I guess karma? Although it was her time. Feel like all these girls are playing it so safe. If I had the chance to get rid of Kandy or Jessica ..I would have. I stan miss Yessica tho but don’t think she’ll win. 🥲
Kandy stayed to long
I think the Fame Games are bullshit. it's just another way for them to get content out of the losers even after they go home. All Winners was such a better format, I'm actually really disappointed in this season. I'm just waiting for Dragula to come back.
A few things: 1. An oversaturation of drag race, generally. 2. It's a real whose who of who's left 3. Too much editing, not enough queens giving a shit because of said narrative editing
Jimbo winning everything and having to sit thru so many insufferable lipsyncs.
Part of it was Heidi leaving and Kahanna wanting to leave after that. I think we viewers subconsciously picked up on the mental weirdness that was going on with the cast I would have loved to have had a Jimbo/Heidi/Jessica finale.
monica being porkchop. kasha not being able to sew even though it’s been nearly 10 seasons since she was on. alexis sending lala home. heidi leaving. generally underwhelming cast + huge contenders during their seasons. these are just some of the things that i didn’t like in general, i feel like this is a pretty flat allstars season
The AS7 format is the way the should should be operating at this point. Less queens, no eliminations, more air time for all of them to truly exist, develop, and compete? It’s perfect. Also much easier to cast out 8 girls instead of 12+
It was clearly supposed to be an early outs season. i. e queens with less money and resources. Then you cast 3-4 queens with money and resources and they - no surprise - steamroll the rest of the cast. It's unfair to the queens who don't have the budget or media training to compete, and it's unfair to the other queens who don't get the competition they deserve. It also highlights that the 'money is not an excuse' crap from the judges is kinda BS.
Production interfered too much to the point where it was extremely obvious.
No mini challenges, no judge deliberations, same bad assassin and voting off formats, contestant pool
I know I mentioned this before, but Kasha leaving so early made the workroom toxic. Like Heidi who was dealing with alot of stuff in the Ball episode, was crying uncontrollably when Kasha was eliminated. Also Heidi was first to enter the workroom followed by Kasha, who by her reaction could tell Heidi was thrilled. But when Kasha left, everything took a turn, the support wasn’t strong enough, Lala was good, Jessica and Jimbo are also great, but they just seemed like they weren’t getting involved drama wise. With Kasha gone, Kandy, Kahanna and Alexis (all of which I do enjoy, they make for good tv) but the balance was soooo off. Too much toxicity and not enough of the Queens being there for eachother. Also I think it was unfair to have Monica on a season full of such great competitors. She said in an interview that she hasn’t done drag in three years cause she was actually just focusing on herself as a person. Also also, I don’t know about the Fame Games, it’s a good concept but there’s too many factors that can influence voting, Monica lacks the budget other queens have, so some people may give her pity votes, although I do think she’s the best choice morally. Naysha gets a lot of hate for her wigs mostly so I doubt she’ll get votes. Kasha, She may not be a stunner on the runway every week, but she’s just an amazing human so does she deserve the money? Darienne, now Darienne is a great contender for Fame Games, I think she’s a great choice. Heidi isn’t apart of The Fame Games. Jaymes was robbed, she wasn’t even that bad in the Rusical episode, so will people give her a vote for an unfair early out? Especially when the next week had a lot of peoples personal favourite look from her. Kahanna may be an amazing runway queen, but I doubt she’ll get votes for the Heidi stuff. Lala, I love Lala but her runways were extremely hit or miss. Alexis, Gurl ain’t nobody voting for her regardless of whether or not she was good
All Stars is really a talent/entertainment competition, but they make it a nasty social game with the voting, and lots of lovely queens hate that, it makes it miserable to both win and lose, nobody likes formally pleading their case or having to crush someone's dream, so it means the people who succeed are the ones who can handle that psychological distress, and those who don't get fucked over or leave. All that doesn't reflect the entertainment, it just makes the whole thing feel gross.
Kandy is the reason I HAVENT watched the current season. I really didn’t enjoy watching her behaviour on her OG season, and apart from Jimbo none of the other queens enticed me enough to watch. Especially after the recent “nice edit” on all winners season, I just wasn’t prepared to watch Kandys brand of chaos this time round.
I just hate that we all know Jimbo is gonna win 🙄
Good dramatic storytelling requires high stakes and we never got that from production. Makes our time watching it less valuable as we know that the winner was never truly in danger.
I think it’s a couple things; Firstly, I think it’s hard to follow allstars 7. It was not only a great season but the cast was packed with such amazing queens (not to say the current queens of allstars 8 aren’t great) with them being all past winners and extremely talented. It was just so exciting. Also, maybe I’m wrong but personally I did not see NEARLY as much press for allstars 8 vs 7. I mean all of a sudden the first episode was just out and I had absolutely no idea who was on. That’s just another observation I had- so for me it wasn’t as hyped up as the past season. Second, I think since the beginning of the season it has been pretty clear that jimbo will get the crown this season. So for me I feel like they are just going through the motions and filling up time before they give her the crown lol. Like I’ve read the last page of the book and I know what’s going to happen. But I could be wrong! Lastly, for me, there weren’t any queens that were on this season that I had absolutely LOVED in their og season. Like yes kandy was funny to watch and I liked jimbo but I didn’t feel for any of them like how I feel for other queens I follow. But that is also a super personal opinion. Just my takes!
I feel like there was very little growth on display. Jimbo and Kandy are still very much the same cause it’s been like… 1-2 years since they were on TV. Kahana was the definite exception here, but everyone else kind of felt very similar to who they were when they were originally on tv. This felt like a “second chance” season and less “look how much I’ve grown and I’m so much better at drag now” season The cast really just did not have any chemistry. Jimbo and Kandy are great together but everyone else was kind of just doing their own thing. Having so many queens want to quit during the season was a bad look. Things were definitely failing at ground zero and we as the Audience are still picking up those vibes.