VH1 Orders ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Season 3 and More ‘Untucked’ (EXCLUSIVE)
“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” will officially be back for a third season, Variety has learned exclusively. Additionally, VH1 has greenlit another season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked,” the behind-the-scenes after-show for the reality competition.
“The world is calling out to see more of these beautiful queens and I am going to give them every bit of it they can handle,” executive producer and host RuPaul says. “‘All Stars’ represent the best of the breasts, legs, and thighs. They are giving everything and you’re not going to want to miss it!”
The third installment of “All Stars” will mark the return of “Drag Race” to VH1 after moving there from sister Viacom network Logo. This will be the first time “All Stars” will run exclusively on VH1, which executive producer Tom Campbell tells Variety will give the competing queens a new and larger platform. “I think there’s going to be queens that the audience who’s just discovering ‘Drag Race’ may not know, as well, or may be discovering for the first time. It’s going to be exciting to see queens get a second bite of the apple and get some exposure that maybe they did not get the first time around,” Campbell says.
Airing the ninth season of “Drag Race” on VH1 gave it its most-watched season in series history. The finale also trended across top social platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and was the No. 1 most-social program during its day of broadcast. “The massive swell of new and longtime fans of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ is nothing short of incredible,” Pamela Post, senior VP original programming and development at VH1, says. “We are motivated now more than ever to ensure ‘Drag Race’ remains a shining example of inclusion and community, as well as fierce fashions and legendary lip-syncs.”
Social media is a key factor at this time in the show’s history. “We’re incredibly lucky that we have a cast who is already well-known, and right when we announce it people are going to be jumping up and down with joy,” executive producer Randy Barbato says.
However, Barbato says the priority when putting together the cast for “All Stars” is not the size of the queens’ followings, but who has “the chops.” “It’s either talent that we think wasn’t fully recognized during their previous season, talent that we think have demonstrated improvement – there’s a variety of things we look at when we’re putting together the cast,” Barbato says. “What makes ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ so unique from so many other competition shows is that there is this cornucopia of incredible talent, so we have this amazing canvas of drag queens to choose from.”
Of course, the producers want to surprise their core audience and welcome new fans to the show, as well. Bringing the Emmy-nominated “Untucked” onto VH1 is just another way to do that. Though the companion series started on Logo, it has most recently lived in the digital space. Putting it back on television will open the platform up further and give the audience deeper insight into the contestants. “This is the show, watching the queens. It combines our love of drag with our love of documentary, and we just let it happen,” executive producer Bailey Fenton says. “As it plays, it’s very real, and that’s the joy of it.”
“All Stars” will bow on VH1 in early 2018. “Untucked” will return just in time for the milestone 10th season of “Drag Race,” which is set to premiere in spring 2018.
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