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** [[spoiler: Plasma]]'s elimination in season 16, roughly halfway into the competition, came as a major shock to viewers as she [[spoiler: had two maxi challenge wins under her belt]] and was one of the front-runners at that point. Not since Max all the way back in season 7 had such a clear front-runner with a great track record gotten eliminated so abruptly, sparking all kinds of debate across the fandom since the queen who sent her home had a much poorer record, but handily won the lipsync fair and square.
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* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Down Under 1 is widely regarded as one of the lowest points of the franchise and a clear example that the Drag Race empire was getting too big. It was plagued by pre-production issues that saw it move in the eleventh hour from Australia to film in a very small studio in New Zealand (changing it from Drag Race Australia to Drag Race Down Under in the process, as they couldn't film in New Zealand without casting Kiwi queens), the extremely controversial casting of two queens with racist backgrounds (one of whom had become famous for her culturally-appropriative routines) and the CreatorsPet favouritism shown to both of them (as well as Art Simone, who was eliminated very early and then brought back without explanation). The season was also very frustrating to watch, as the judging consistently cast aside the queens widely seen as the fans' favorites (the three Kiwi queens) in order to prop up said CreatorsPet contestants, to the point where with the intense fan backlash to most of the queens who made it to the finale, production really only had one option to crown without a ''serious'' backlash. The second season was an enormous turnaround quality-wise, with higher IMDB ratings across the board and, in a coincidental parallel, a queen who had performed a culturally-appropriative act in the past but actually fully owned up to it on the show. Unfortunately, for much of the fanbase, the damage had already been done, and the second and third seasons were largely ignored by the wider fanbase, despite still being hosted by RuPaul and Michelle.
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* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Down Under 1 is widely regarded as one of the lowest points of the franchise and a clear example that the Drag Race empire was getting too big. It was plagued by pre-production issues that saw it move in the eleventh hour from Australia to film in a very small studio in New Zealand (changing it from Drag Race Australia to Drag Race Down Under in the process, as they couldn't film in New Zealand without casting Kiwi queens), the extremely controversial casting of two queens with racist backgrounds (one of whom had become famous for her culturally-appropriative routines) and the CreatorsPet favouritism shown to both of them (as well as Art Simone, who was eliminated very early and then brought back without explanation). The season was also very frustrating to watch, as the judging consistently cast aside the queens widely seen as the fans' favorites (the three Kiwi queens) in order to prop up said CreatorsPet contestants, to the point where with the intense fan backlash to most of the queens who made it to the finale, production really only had one option to crown without a ''serious'' backlash. The second season was an enormous turnaround quality-wise, with higher IMDB ratings across the board and, in a coincidental parallel, a queen who had performed a culturally-appropriative act in the past but actually fully owned up to it on the show. Unfortunately, for much of the fanbase, the damage had already been done, and the second and third seasons were largely ignored by the wider fanbase, despite still being hosted by RuPaul [=RuPaul=] and Michelle.
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** [[spoiler:Keta Minaj]] from Holland season 2 had won three separate challenges and seemed poised to take the crown. Then she got controversially eliminated by [[spoiler:Vivaldi (who many thought should have been disqualified for having a contraband cellphone)]] just one episode before the finale.
*** This also applies to [[spoiler:Keta]] in UK vs the World series 2, where she came in as the "robbed queen" of the season and, with her incredible performance in the Ball, looked like she would redeem herself from her previous elimination. But then, in a similar fashion to [[spoiler:Pangina from last series (see below) Keta]] bombed the Snatch Game and was unceremoniously sent home over [[spoiler:UK's very first ouster Gothy Kendoll]].
*** This also applies to [[spoiler:Keta]] in UK vs the World series 2, where she came in as the "robbed queen" of the season and, with her incredible performance in the Ball, looked like she would redeem herself from her previous elimination. But then, in a similar fashion to [[spoiler:Pangina from last series (see below) Keta]] bombed the Snatch Game and was unceremoniously sent home over [[spoiler:UK's very first ouster Gothy Kendoll]].
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** '''The Porkchop Landing Dock'''. For a first in the series, the premiere episode of Season 13 consisted of all thirteen contestants being required to lipsync for their life, with the fate of the losers being left uncertain. Not only did this feel unneccessarily cruel to the queens, but it was obvious to viewers from the get go that production wouldn't be eliminating seven of them in just the first episode for obvious reasons. Instead, as if the whole thing didn't already feel mean spirited enough, the losers are forced to vote one of their own out. In the following episode, Elliott with 2 Ts is revealed to have been voted out, but this too was obviously a bluff as well and Elliott instead got to join the "Winner's Circle", so in the end, nobody was actually eliminated from the whole ordeal. Compounding the fact that the following two episodes would also not have any eliminations, and the whole thing just felt like pointless padding to stretch out what would already be one of the longest seasons yet in the franchise.
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** '''The Porkchop Landing Dock'''. For a first in the series, the premiere episode of Season 13 consisted of all thirteen contestants being required to lipsync for their life, with the fate of the losers being left uncertain. Not only did this feel unneccessarily cruel to the queens, but it was obvious to viewers from the get go that production wouldn't be eliminating seven of them in just the first episode for obvious reasons. Instead, as if the whole thing didn't already feel mean spirited enough, the losers are forced to vote one of their own out. In the following episode, Elliott with 2 Ts is revealed to have been voted out, but this too was obviously a bluff as well and Elliott instead got to join the "Winner's Circle", so in the end, nobody was actually eliminated from the whole ordeal. Compounding the fact that the following two episodes next episode would also not have any eliminations, an elimination, and the whole thing just felt like pointless padding to stretch out what would already be one of the longest seasons yet in the franchise.
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** The "Porkchop Landing Dock". For a first in the series, the premiere episode of Season 13 consisted of all thirteen contestants being required to lipsync for their life, with the fate of the losers being left uncertain. Not only did this feel unneccessarily cruel to the queens, but it was obvious to viewers from the get go that production wouldn't be eliminating seven of them in just the first episode for obvious reasons. Instead, as if the whole thing didn't already feel mean spirited enough, the losers are forced to vote one of their own out. In the following episode, Elliott with 2 Ts is revealed to have been voted out, but this too was obviously a bluff as well and Elliott instead got to join the "Winner's Circle", so in the end, nobody was actually eliminated from the whole ordeal. Compounding the fact that the following two episodes would also not have any eliminations, and the whole thing just felt like pointless padding to stretch out what would already be one of the longest seasons yet in the franchise.
** The Chocolate Bars. Season 14 tried to shake things up by doing away with Ru's ability to save a queen at her own discretion by passing out chocolate bars to the queens at the start of the season, with the twist being one of the bars would secretly be the "gold bar", which if you were eliminated after a lip-synch would be an automatic save back into the competition. Many fans were dubious just how legit the bars were[[note]]Logistically speaking, a truly random non-elimination would be a production nightmare; what if the bar really was found in the first episode and thus the twist would have no stakes? What if the gold bar was in possession to one of the final four queens who were never up for elimination? Would the production just up and scrap an entire episode intended for the save having been used?[[/note]]. Additionally, this season had a large number of non-elimination episodes that underscored the entire point of the chocolate bar twist. Case in point, the episode where the gold bar was finally used was the ''fifth'' non-elimination episode this season (and there would be a sixth afterwards).
** The Chocolate Bars. Season 14 tried to shake things up by doing away with Ru's ability to save a queen at her own discretion by passing out chocolate bars to the queens at the start of the season, with the twist being one of the bars would secretly be the "gold bar", which if you were eliminated after a lip-synch would be an automatic save back into the competition. Many fans were dubious just how legit the bars were[[note]]Logistically speaking, a truly random non-elimination would be a production nightmare; what if the bar really was found in the first episode and thus the twist would have no stakes? What if the gold bar was in possession to one of the final four queens who were never up for elimination? Would the production just up and scrap an entire episode intended for the save having been used?[[/note]]. Additionally, this season had a large number of non-elimination episodes that underscored the entire point of the chocolate bar twist. Case in point, the episode where the gold bar was finally used was the ''fifth'' non-elimination episode this season (and there would be a sixth afterwards).
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** The "Porkchop '''The Porkchop Landing Dock".Dock'''. For a first in the series, the premiere episode of Season 13 consisted of all thirteen contestants being required to lipsync for their life, with the fate of the losers being left uncertain. Not only did this feel unneccessarily cruel to the queens, but it was obvious to viewers from the get go that production wouldn't be eliminating seven of them in just the first episode for obvious reasons. Instead, as if the whole thing didn't already feel mean spirited enough, the losers are forced to vote one of their own out. In the following episode, Elliott with 2 Ts is revealed to have been voted out, but this too was obviously a bluff as well and Elliott instead got to join the "Winner's Circle", so in the end, nobody was actually eliminated from the whole ordeal. Compounding the fact that the following two episodes would also not have any eliminations, and the whole thing just felt like pointless padding to stretch out what would already be one of the longest seasons yet in the franchise.
**The '''The Chocolate Bars.Bars'''. Season 14 tried to shake things up by doing away with Ru's ability to save a queen at her own discretion by passing out chocolate bars to the queens at the start of the season, with the twist being one of the bars would secretly be the "gold bar", which if you were eliminated after a lip-synch would be an automatic save back into the competition. Many fans were dubious just how legit the bars were[[note]]Logistically speaking, a truly random non-elimination would be a production nightmare; what if the bar really was found in the first episode and thus the twist would have no stakes? What if the gold bar was in possession to one of the final four queens who were never up for elimination? Would the production just up and scrap an entire episode intended for the save having been used?[[/note]]. Additionally, this season had a large number of non-elimination episodes that underscored the entire point of the chocolate bar twist. Case in point, the episode where the gold bar was finally used was the ''fifth'' non-elimination episode this season (and there would be a sixth afterwards).
**
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** '''The Jury'''. The decision to have a jury of the eliminated queens choose the season's top two came out of nowhere, and resulted in the elimination of frontrunner Shangela with little fanfare. Logistically it made little sense, as the jury had not been there to see the final fours' performances, and were only voting based on conversations with each queen. For a while, this episode held the distinction of being the lowest rated episode of the series on IMDB. It's little surprise that we never saw the jury twist again, and the only time it's mentioned now is when queens are mocking it.
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** '''The Jury'''.Jury''' in All Stars 3. The decision to have a jury of the eliminated queens choose the season's top two came out of nowhere, and resulted in the elimination of frontrunner Shangela with little fanfare. Logistically it made little sense, as the jury had not been there to see the final fours' performances, and were only voting based on conversations with each queen. For a while, this episode held the distinction of being the lowest rated episode of the series on IMDB. It's little surprise that we never saw the jury twist again, and the only time it's mentioned now is when queens are mocking it.
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** The "Porkchop Landing Dock". For a first in the series, the premiere episode of Season 13 consisted of all thirteen contestants being required to lipsync for their life, with the fate of the losers being left uncertain. Not only did this feel unneccessarily cruel to the queens, but it was obvious to viewers from the get go that production wouldn't be eliminating seven of them in just the first episode for obvious reasons. Instead, as if the whole thing didn't already feel mean spirited enough, the losers are forced to vote one of their own out. In the following episode, Elliott with 2 Ts is revealed to have been voted out, but this too was obviously a bluff as well and Elliott instead got to join the "Winner's Circle", so in the end, nobody was actually eliminated from the whole ordeal. Compounding the fact that the following two episodes would also not have any eliminations, and the whole thing just felt like pointless padding to stretch out what would already be one of the longest seasons yet in the franchise.
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Creators Pet requires The Scrappy as a prerequisite, and, as per this Crowner decision
, neither trope should be used unless the audience reaction is dlscussed within the show. Note that these are AUDIENCE reaction tropes, not intended to address comments from other competitors.
, neither trope should be used unless the audience reaction is dlscussed within the show. Note that these are AUDIENCE reaction tropes, not intended to address comments from other competitors.Changed line(s) 72 (click to see context) from:
* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Around the time of season 3, Raja was a BaseBreakingCharacter. She had a bit of an AlphaBitch vibe thanks to being more or less the leader of the "Heathers" (who referred to everyone else competing that season as a "booger"), plus it came out that Ru himself had known Raja prior to the season, so it was easy for some fans to cry CreatorsPet when Raja practically dominated, and won, the season. With time, this image of Raja faded, as she is now considered an important figure in the show's early years and a big part of the show GrowingTheBeard. Her artsy supermodel style, accompanied by her impeccable runway walk, was ''way'' ahead of its time, and many of her looks way back in season 3 are still pretty impressive today (her famous Marie Antoinette outfit in particular is still an all-time classic). It's easy to make the case that later [[TheFashionista fashion queens]] in the franchise (including many winners) are following the trail blazed by Raja - and no less than Shea Coulée has personally acknowledged Raja as the one who inspired her to start drag. Raja's redemption came full-circle at the All Stars 7 panel at Dragcon 2022 - [[https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/usmhzl/raja_got_a_standing_ovation_friday_when_the/ when Raja was introduced to the crowd,]] despite being the earliest winner in the cast, [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments she got a standing ovation.]]
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* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Around the time of season 3, Raja was a BaseBreakingCharacter. She had a bit of an AlphaBitch vibe thanks to being more or less the leader of the "Heathers" (who referred to everyone else competing that season as a "booger"), plus it came out that Ru himself had known Raja prior to the season, so it was easy for some fans to cry CreatorsPet suggest bias when Raja practically dominated, and won, the season. With time, this image of Raja faded, as she is now considered an important figure in the show's early years and a big part of the show GrowingTheBeard. Her artsy supermodel style, accompanied by her impeccable runway walk, was ''way'' ahead of its time, and many of her looks way back in season 3 are still pretty impressive today (her famous Marie Antoinette outfit in particular is still an all-time classic). It's easy to make the case that later [[TheFashionista fashion queens]] in the franchise (including many winners) are following the trail blazed by Raja - and no less than Shea Coulée has personally acknowledged Raja as the one who inspired her to start drag. Raja's redemption came full-circle at the All Stars 7 panel at Dragcon 2022 - [[https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/usmhzl/raja_got_a_standing_ovation_friday_when_the/ when Raja was introduced to the crowd,]] despite being the earliest winner in the cast, [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments she got a standing ovation.]]
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* CreatorsPet: Fans will argue in ''every'' season that production is carrying a certain queen further than they should be going. There's a reason Alyssa Edwards' famous "rigga morris" quote is still constantly in use years after All Stars 2 ended. We'll keep it to the most infamous cases.
** Some argue that Rebecca Glasscock was this in the first season, as Ru admitted outright she was 'blinded by her beauty' and the judges state on-camera that they think they probably gave her a pass when she just wasn't anywhere near the same level as Nina and Bebe.
** Even past queens have conjectured that the only reason Season 2's Tyra Sanchez got away with as much as she did (being antagonistic to the other girls, sleeping in the Werk Room when Ru came in to check on everyone, and other general unprofessionalism) was due to Ru seeing herself in Tyra, a young African-American queen with a lot of talent but who was also dealing with a lot of hardships and hurdles. Ru even admitted during the Reunion that by episode 5 (the wedding episode) that, in her own mind, Tyra was already the clear cut winner for the season.
** After season 3, some controversy regarding favouritism occurred after Raja was crowned, when it was revealed that not only had [=RuPaul=] and Raja worked together in the past, but were reportedly friends in real life. After the fact, its pretty much a poorly kept secret that even during production early on it was always expected that Raja would win (after her elimination Mariah actually wrote on her lipstick message something to the effect of "Raja, congratulations on winning Season 3", which the producers wiped off the mirror before the queens return to the werk room).
** Invoked, [[DiscussedTrope discussed]], and ultimately averted when Michelle Visage was asked if she chose Carmen Carrera to return to the show because she was from New Jersey, like she is. Michelle balks at the notion that the only reason she would like Carmen was because of where she lives, and says the very idea is just silly. That being said, Carmen ''was'' still brought back in spite of not winning any challenges or even really excelling at any of the episodes; Michelle even admits during the reunion they probably made a mistake bringing her back (although in as nice a way as possible).
** Invoked in all but name in-universe when the queens were certain Willam was this to the judges, as she constantly received high marks for what they considered to be nothing more than a talent for buying shoes and label dropping. Regardless of if this accusation had any merit, it did not save Willam from being disqualified for [[NoFairCheating breaking the rules]].
** In a subversion that is more like "Sponsor's Pet", Roxxxy Andrews was apparently adored by then sponsor Absolut Vodka. It's even rumored that they had demanded that Roxxxy be the winner of Season 5, and when the crown was instead given to Jinkx, they dropped the show come Season 6. This seems to have just been an Urban Myth however, since it's pretty much accepted Absolut distanced themselves from the show after Season 6's faux pas against the Transgender community.
** Adore Delano. There been multiple times where she was safe when she arguably should have lip-synched, but saved due to her raw charisma, or as Ru would sometimes call it, her "It Factor".
** Many fans were shocked Pearl got as far as she did when her demeanor seemed to be so low energy, beating season favorites like Trixie Mattel and Miss Fame, and making it to the finale of the season. Ru has admitted on her podcast she thought Pearl was just too handsome as a boy and that audiences would be automatically smitten with her, even letting Pearl get away with the infamous "Is there something on my face" disrespectful moment in the workroom. Ru has even said if she didn't think Pearl would be so popular at the time, she would have tried to disqualify Pearl at that moment for being so rude.
** In Season 7 Violet Chachki started out as the [[{{Jerkass}} unlikable bitch]], and seemed to develop over the season and show her HiddenDepths. However, a few fans have noticed that Ru really seemed to spoon-feed the audience this so-called 'depth', explaining what she assumed were Violet's quirks and reasons for acting the way she does, with Violet just nodding and agreeing with her.
** Surprisingly averted in two of Drag Race's Spinoff shows, ''Drag Center'' with Pandora Boxx and ''Alyssa's Secret'' with Alyssa Edwards. Darienne Lake is Pandora's drag mother and ex, and Alyssa is drag mother to Laganja Estranja, and although given clear opportunities to shill them, Pandora and Alyssa show no bias towards Darienne and Laganja, and don't even mention their relationships outside of the show.
** The fans believed Alaska Thunderfuck was this for ''All Stars 2'', as it became clear that the producers and the show were rigging the season in her favor, handing her win after win while ignoring her competition. In particular, fans point out two of Alaska's lip-synchs, against Phi Phi and her second time against Katya, in which Alaska "attacked" her competition during her performance (against Phi Phi at one point Alaska runs up and starts humping Phi Phi's leg, and against Katya, at one point Alaska actually ''licks'' Katya's face, causing Katya to break character while trying to perform).
** In season 11, it seemed obvious that Ru had a soft spot for Silky Nutmeg Ganache, in spite of her lack of polish or humility in the competition. It was so blatant that during the Finale episode of The Pit Stop (an official review from [=WOWPresents=] and [=VH1=]) both hosts, Manila Luzon and Raja, made constant jokes of how much Ru seemed to give Silky preferential treatment. Whether this status has worn off during Silky's All Stars 6 run and her famous series of lipsyncs in the Rudemption Smackdown is up for debate.
** Many fans felt Baga Chipz, from Drag Race's first UK season, was being fast-tracked to the top three, despite stumbling in a few challenges. These fans point out Baga should probably have been in the bottom for the sewing challenge in which her copper brillo pad outfit was falling apart on stage, and the bottled water challenge in which she arguably had the worst critique on stage (the judges seemed to dislike her commercial and her runway, while for the other bottom two, Blu and Cheryl, they seemed to at least be fair on one or the other). Baga did indeed make top 3, but by that point Baga herself realized she simply wasn't up to par with the other two finalists, and was eliminated after speaking openly about it to the judges.
*** History repeated itself when Baga showed up on ''UK Vs The World,'' and nearly went all the way again, despite fan outcry over her SmallNameBigEgo attitude and some particularly unpopular runway looks - arguably, she was even ''more'' this trope during this season, since this time she was never even in the bottom once. The sewing challenge, where Baga seemed to waste a lot of time ''and'' got Pangina Heals to finish the dress for her, sealed her fate with the fandom. (For the record, Pangina came to Baga's defense, blamed the edit in this case, and claimed Baga contributed more than the episode showed.)
** Jasmine Masters has said that the show treated Shangela with obvious favoritism while they were brought on to film a non-competitive ChristmasEpisode. Shangela was allowed to arrive whenever she wanted to even if it held production up, which was in particular an issue for the queens since unlike the filming crew, they were ''not'' being paid overtime. Jasmine apparently walked off the show near the end of production sickened by how the producers let Shangela get away with this, thus explaining why she was not featured in the dream sequence scene that was filmed later, nor in any confessionals.
** Even though she's almost universally respected, Shea Coulée's entire All Stars 5 arc of getting her Rudemption, after her ShockingElimination at the end of season 9, was pushed very hard by production, and Shea herself, right from the jump. It got to the point that some fans felt the entire season was "made for her," and it was easily predictable that she eventually won, turning Shea from a can't-miss prospect with "robbed queen" status, to a [[BaseBreakingCharacter/RuPaulsDragRace Base Breaking Character]].
*** This status tapered off a bit for Shea's relatively subdued run in All Stars 7, ''until'' [[WhamEpisode episode 11,]] when [[spoiler:the talent show gave her a whopping three stars at once, putting her in the final four lipsyncs in one fell swoop. Even before the challenge happened, social media blew up the moment Ru announced the three-star twist, with fans en masse accusing production of rendering most of the season pointless just to make sure Shea is in the final, over the much-beloved Raja and Jaida Essence Hall. The season set up Shea as AlwaysSecondBest and narrowly missing challenge wins, only to finally get that cathartic win at the last minute. The fandom quite loudly disagreed with this narrative, as Shea's performances and runway looks in this season were probably her worst-received to date.]] The second twist of the episode, that [[ConsolationPrize the four who didn't make the finals had their own set of lipsyncs, with a smaller cash prize at the end to compete for,]] met an apathetic response after everything that happened.
** Rita Baga seemed to be pushed very hard in the inaugural season of ''Canada's Drag Race.'' She showed up as a highly-touted Quebec legend, and immediately won the first episode's design challenge, to the shock of many fans who overwhelmingly preferred Jimbo's or Anastarzia Anaquway's runway looks. This dissonance between the judges and the fandom immediately set a trend for Rita, who went on to have three challenge wins and the UndyingLoyalty of the judges, but yet somehow never truly connected with a big chunk of the fandom, who were left wondering what all the hype was over Rita and kept flocking to AlwaysSecondBest CloudCuckoolander Jimbo, instead. This was partly because of Rita's low-key personality and unerring professionalism that bordered on TheStoic, and she seemed less personable compared to the other contestants. By the time Rita sent Jimbo home in the penultimate episode, the bewilderment for Rita had turned to severe backlash, to the point that she had to defend herself on Instagram. Of course, this isn't universal - Rita may have struggled with a lot of the English-speaking audience but still has a hugely-devoted Québécois following. It's up for debate (a heated debate) on whether Rita still qualified for this on ''Canada Vs The World.''
** Season 13 and the "Mean Girls" clique of Tina Burner, Kandy Muse, and Gottmik. Not only were they [[SpotlightStealingSquad prominently featured in each episode]], many felt that the judges favored them during critiques, with a mixture of arguably undeserved high placements, as well as being saved from the bottom on a few occasions. The fact that fan favorites like Denali and Utica were snubbed challenge wins, and Tamisha and Lala went home in weeks where they arguably shouldn't have because of this only increased fan complaints of favoritism.
*** This ramped up even further after episode 8, when Gottmik's gushing feedback and top three placement was called into question by fans as to whether she actually deserved it, and on top of that Kandy was actually ''asked back to the competition whilst she was literally exiting the runway'' -- a first for the show on the whole and thoroughly exacerbating accusations of preferential treatment. While double saves are nothing new, the fact it was done while there were still nine queens left, coupled with the fact Kandy had not won any challenges by that point really brought up the question if the save was called for.
*** Tina Burner was touted as a comedy queen, yet she never actually seemed to do much comedy, and when she did, it never quite seemed to land. Most infamously, Tina insisted on a repeated motif on the runway of red, orange and yellow, which was by and large rejected by the fandom, who found it unflattering. Despite all that, it took until episode 11 for her to finally be in the bottom two for the first time. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQQIOENRhdE By then, Tina's luck finally ran out.]]
** During All Stars 6, some fans are annoyed that Eureka! seems to be garnering more praise in challenges than they maybe deserved; being placed on the top three for the Blue Ball for a clean but simple short dress over Jan and Scarlett who both had more designed final looks, or for being in the top three again for the Half-Time Show challenge for her Madonna, which really had no Madonna-esque dance moves and instead performed Eureka!'s own signature double high kicks. Eureka! isn't being given challenge wins they don't deserve, at least, but some fans believe they were getting undue airtime due to their body of work on HBO as opposed to their work on the actual show. This status went nuclear after Eureka! returned to the competition after being eliminated and got to the final four, ahead of fan favorite Trinity K Bonet.
** When queens win who may not have statistically done best through the entire season (most wins vs least amount of bottom placements) and they "tick a box", there's at least some vocal minority that thinks they were handed the win for the sake of good publicity. This includes UK Series 2's winner Lawrence Chaney as the first "big girl" winner, or All Stars 6's Kylie Sonique Love being the first "trans" winner[[note]]Both at least in Ru-hosted and/or English-language seasons, as ''Drag Race Thailand'' already crowned a big girl and a trans winner, respectively, in its first two seasons[[/note]].
** It wasn't long at all before Krystal Versace, from UK Series 3, earned this, thanks to her two back-to-back challenge wins in episodes 1 & 2. It was cemented with Ru's instantly-infamous "you were born to be a drag queen" speech at Krystal, despite just having a piddling performance in the Snatch Game and the other judges finding her runway look too similar to her previous one from weeks prior. Whether or not Krystal's performances in the finale made her a deserving winner is up for debate.
** Season 14's Jorgeous clearly has a special place in Ru's heart, and whilst she's not exactly been ''spared'' criticism, the tone of it involves Ru lifting her up in a very jovial, supportive, motherly way -- a tone which cools off and becomes more arch and critical when the next queen is summoned for a pre-challenge audience with her. (Observe Ru chatting with Jorgeous pre-''Snatch Game'', then Daya Betty -- her tone-shift is palpable). This may be justified by the fact that Jorgeous is only 21 and is the season's youngest contestant. (Jasmine Kennedie, who is a year older, is outright called "a child" once during the same season.) Amusingly noted InUniverse by Bosco:
-->''I don’t necessarily want to lip-sync against Jorgeous. I’m pretty sure [=RuPaul=] has signed up to be an organ donor for Jorgeous.''
** All-Stars 8 suffered from a lot of this, according to fans:
*** Jimbo was argued to have been the obvious darling edit from the first episode, taking a staggering four wins that some fans argue against.
*** Kandy Muse was also accused of being a darling for no other reason than that she makes for good television, when many of her performances or runways were middling at best.
*** Lala Ri, winner of the Fame Games, isn't immune from this either as she was the queen that won a times three multiplier to her fan vote thanks to Ru. Basically, the Fame Games winner was accused of being chosen by Ru thanks to the multiplier than by the actual fans voting.
*** The rumor mill has been turning in regard to the queen's opinion on the matter on All-Stars 8. Word through the grapevine was Jaymes Mansfield was being treated as the producer's favorite and avoiding harsh critiques, like in the first challenge where she was saved from the bottom for not being able to dance, but Darienne Lake was in the bottom for the exact same critiques. In fact, it was said for the Joan Crawford musical the queens all conspired together to vote Jaymes off, even though it was obvious the producers wanted them to vote off Kahanna instead.
** Some argue that Rebecca Glasscock was this in the first season, as Ru admitted outright she was 'blinded by her beauty' and the judges state on-camera that they think they probably gave her a pass when she just wasn't anywhere near the same level as Nina and Bebe.
** Even past queens have conjectured that the only reason Season 2's Tyra Sanchez got away with as much as she did (being antagonistic to the other girls, sleeping in the Werk Room when Ru came in to check on everyone, and other general unprofessionalism) was due to Ru seeing herself in Tyra, a young African-American queen with a lot of talent but who was also dealing with a lot of hardships and hurdles. Ru even admitted during the Reunion that by episode 5 (the wedding episode) that, in her own mind, Tyra was already the clear cut winner for the season.
** After season 3, some controversy regarding favouritism occurred after Raja was crowned, when it was revealed that not only had [=RuPaul=] and Raja worked together in the past, but were reportedly friends in real life. After the fact, its pretty much a poorly kept secret that even during production early on it was always expected that Raja would win (after her elimination Mariah actually wrote on her lipstick message something to the effect of "Raja, congratulations on winning Season 3", which the producers wiped off the mirror before the queens return to the werk room).
** Invoked, [[DiscussedTrope discussed]], and ultimately averted when Michelle Visage was asked if she chose Carmen Carrera to return to the show because she was from New Jersey, like she is. Michelle balks at the notion that the only reason she would like Carmen was because of where she lives, and says the very idea is just silly. That being said, Carmen ''was'' still brought back in spite of not winning any challenges or even really excelling at any of the episodes; Michelle even admits during the reunion they probably made a mistake bringing her back (although in as nice a way as possible).
** Invoked in all but name in-universe when the queens were certain Willam was this to the judges, as she constantly received high marks for what they considered to be nothing more than a talent for buying shoes and label dropping. Regardless of if this accusation had any merit, it did not save Willam from being disqualified for [[NoFairCheating breaking the rules]].
** In a subversion that is more like "Sponsor's Pet", Roxxxy Andrews was apparently adored by then sponsor Absolut Vodka. It's even rumored that they had demanded that Roxxxy be the winner of Season 5, and when the crown was instead given to Jinkx, they dropped the show come Season 6. This seems to have just been an Urban Myth however, since it's pretty much accepted Absolut distanced themselves from the show after Season 6's faux pas against the Transgender community.
** Adore Delano. There been multiple times where she was safe when she arguably should have lip-synched, but saved due to her raw charisma, or as Ru would sometimes call it, her "It Factor".
** Many fans were shocked Pearl got as far as she did when her demeanor seemed to be so low energy, beating season favorites like Trixie Mattel and Miss Fame, and making it to the finale of the season. Ru has admitted on her podcast she thought Pearl was just too handsome as a boy and that audiences would be automatically smitten with her, even letting Pearl get away with the infamous "Is there something on my face" disrespectful moment in the workroom. Ru has even said if she didn't think Pearl would be so popular at the time, she would have tried to disqualify Pearl at that moment for being so rude.
** In Season 7 Violet Chachki started out as the [[{{Jerkass}} unlikable bitch]], and seemed to develop over the season and show her HiddenDepths. However, a few fans have noticed that Ru really seemed to spoon-feed the audience this so-called 'depth', explaining what she assumed were Violet's quirks and reasons for acting the way she does, with Violet just nodding and agreeing with her.
** Surprisingly averted in two of Drag Race's Spinoff shows, ''Drag Center'' with Pandora Boxx and ''Alyssa's Secret'' with Alyssa Edwards. Darienne Lake is Pandora's drag mother and ex, and Alyssa is drag mother to Laganja Estranja, and although given clear opportunities to shill them, Pandora and Alyssa show no bias towards Darienne and Laganja, and don't even mention their relationships outside of the show.
** The fans believed Alaska Thunderfuck was this for ''All Stars 2'', as it became clear that the producers and the show were rigging the season in her favor, handing her win after win while ignoring her competition. In particular, fans point out two of Alaska's lip-synchs, against Phi Phi and her second time against Katya, in which Alaska "attacked" her competition during her performance (against Phi Phi at one point Alaska runs up and starts humping Phi Phi's leg, and against Katya, at one point Alaska actually ''licks'' Katya's face, causing Katya to break character while trying to perform).
** In season 11, it seemed obvious that Ru had a soft spot for Silky Nutmeg Ganache, in spite of her lack of polish or humility in the competition. It was so blatant that during the Finale episode of The Pit Stop (an official review from [=WOWPresents=] and [=VH1=]) both hosts, Manila Luzon and Raja, made constant jokes of how much Ru seemed to give Silky preferential treatment. Whether this status has worn off during Silky's All Stars 6 run and her famous series of lipsyncs in the Rudemption Smackdown is up for debate.
** Many fans felt Baga Chipz, from Drag Race's first UK season, was being fast-tracked to the top three, despite stumbling in a few challenges. These fans point out Baga should probably have been in the bottom for the sewing challenge in which her copper brillo pad outfit was falling apart on stage, and the bottled water challenge in which she arguably had the worst critique on stage (the judges seemed to dislike her commercial and her runway, while for the other bottom two, Blu and Cheryl, they seemed to at least be fair on one or the other). Baga did indeed make top 3, but by that point Baga herself realized she simply wasn't up to par with the other two finalists, and was eliminated after speaking openly about it to the judges.
*** History repeated itself when Baga showed up on ''UK Vs The World,'' and nearly went all the way again, despite fan outcry over her SmallNameBigEgo attitude and some particularly unpopular runway looks - arguably, she was even ''more'' this trope during this season, since this time she was never even in the bottom once. The sewing challenge, where Baga seemed to waste a lot of time ''and'' got Pangina Heals to finish the dress for her, sealed her fate with the fandom. (For the record, Pangina came to Baga's defense, blamed the edit in this case, and claimed Baga contributed more than the episode showed.)
** Jasmine Masters has said that the show treated Shangela with obvious favoritism while they were brought on to film a non-competitive ChristmasEpisode. Shangela was allowed to arrive whenever she wanted to even if it held production up, which was in particular an issue for the queens since unlike the filming crew, they were ''not'' being paid overtime. Jasmine apparently walked off the show near the end of production sickened by how the producers let Shangela get away with this, thus explaining why she was not featured in the dream sequence scene that was filmed later, nor in any confessionals.
** Even though she's almost universally respected, Shea Coulée's entire All Stars 5 arc of getting her Rudemption, after her ShockingElimination at the end of season 9, was pushed very hard by production, and Shea herself, right from the jump. It got to the point that some fans felt the entire season was "made for her," and it was easily predictable that she eventually won, turning Shea from a can't-miss prospect with "robbed queen" status, to a [[BaseBreakingCharacter/RuPaulsDragRace Base Breaking Character]].
*** This status tapered off a bit for Shea's relatively subdued run in All Stars 7, ''until'' [[WhamEpisode episode 11,]] when [[spoiler:the talent show gave her a whopping three stars at once, putting her in the final four lipsyncs in one fell swoop. Even before the challenge happened, social media blew up the moment Ru announced the three-star twist, with fans en masse accusing production of rendering most of the season pointless just to make sure Shea is in the final, over the much-beloved Raja and Jaida Essence Hall. The season set up Shea as AlwaysSecondBest and narrowly missing challenge wins, only to finally get that cathartic win at the last minute. The fandom quite loudly disagreed with this narrative, as Shea's performances and runway looks in this season were probably her worst-received to date.]] The second twist of the episode, that [[ConsolationPrize the four who didn't make the finals had their own set of lipsyncs, with a smaller cash prize at the end to compete for,]] met an apathetic response after everything that happened.
** Rita Baga seemed to be pushed very hard in the inaugural season of ''Canada's Drag Race.'' She showed up as a highly-touted Quebec legend, and immediately won the first episode's design challenge, to the shock of many fans who overwhelmingly preferred Jimbo's or Anastarzia Anaquway's runway looks. This dissonance between the judges and the fandom immediately set a trend for Rita, who went on to have three challenge wins and the UndyingLoyalty of the judges, but yet somehow never truly connected with a big chunk of the fandom, who were left wondering what all the hype was over Rita and kept flocking to AlwaysSecondBest CloudCuckoolander Jimbo, instead. This was partly because of Rita's low-key personality and unerring professionalism that bordered on TheStoic, and she seemed less personable compared to the other contestants. By the time Rita sent Jimbo home in the penultimate episode, the bewilderment for Rita had turned to severe backlash, to the point that she had to defend herself on Instagram. Of course, this isn't universal - Rita may have struggled with a lot of the English-speaking audience but still has a hugely-devoted Québécois following. It's up for debate (a heated debate) on whether Rita still qualified for this on ''Canada Vs The World.''
** Season 13 and the "Mean Girls" clique of Tina Burner, Kandy Muse, and Gottmik. Not only were they [[SpotlightStealingSquad prominently featured in each episode]], many felt that the judges favored them during critiques, with a mixture of arguably undeserved high placements, as well as being saved from the bottom on a few occasions. The fact that fan favorites like Denali and Utica were snubbed challenge wins, and Tamisha and Lala went home in weeks where they arguably shouldn't have because of this only increased fan complaints of favoritism.
*** This ramped up even further after episode 8, when Gottmik's gushing feedback and top three placement was called into question by fans as to whether she actually deserved it, and on top of that Kandy was actually ''asked back to the competition whilst she was literally exiting the runway'' -- a first for the show on the whole and thoroughly exacerbating accusations of preferential treatment. While double saves are nothing new, the fact it was done while there were still nine queens left, coupled with the fact Kandy had not won any challenges by that point really brought up the question if the save was called for.
*** Tina Burner was touted as a comedy queen, yet she never actually seemed to do much comedy, and when she did, it never quite seemed to land. Most infamously, Tina insisted on a repeated motif on the runway of red, orange and yellow, which was by and large rejected by the fandom, who found it unflattering. Despite all that, it took until episode 11 for her to finally be in the bottom two for the first time. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQQIOENRhdE By then, Tina's luck finally ran out.]]
** During All Stars 6, some fans are annoyed that Eureka! seems to be garnering more praise in challenges than they maybe deserved; being placed on the top three for the Blue Ball for a clean but simple short dress over Jan and Scarlett who both had more designed final looks, or for being in the top three again for the Half-Time Show challenge for her Madonna, which really had no Madonna-esque dance moves and instead performed Eureka!'s own signature double high kicks. Eureka! isn't being given challenge wins they don't deserve, at least, but some fans believe they were getting undue airtime due to their body of work on HBO as opposed to their work on the actual show. This status went nuclear after Eureka! returned to the competition after being eliminated and got to the final four, ahead of fan favorite Trinity K Bonet.
** When queens win who may not have statistically done best through the entire season (most wins vs least amount of bottom placements) and they "tick a box", there's at least some vocal minority that thinks they were handed the win for the sake of good publicity. This includes UK Series 2's winner Lawrence Chaney as the first "big girl" winner, or All Stars 6's Kylie Sonique Love being the first "trans" winner[[note]]Both at least in Ru-hosted and/or English-language seasons, as ''Drag Race Thailand'' already crowned a big girl and a trans winner, respectively, in its first two seasons[[/note]].
** It wasn't long at all before Krystal Versace, from UK Series 3, earned this, thanks to her two back-to-back challenge wins in episodes 1 & 2. It was cemented with Ru's instantly-infamous "you were born to be a drag queen" speech at Krystal, despite just having a piddling performance in the Snatch Game and the other judges finding her runway look too similar to her previous one from weeks prior. Whether or not Krystal's performances in the finale made her a deserving winner is up for debate.
** Season 14's Jorgeous clearly has a special place in Ru's heart, and whilst she's not exactly been ''spared'' criticism, the tone of it involves Ru lifting her up in a very jovial, supportive, motherly way -- a tone which cools off and becomes more arch and critical when the next queen is summoned for a pre-challenge audience with her. (Observe Ru chatting with Jorgeous pre-''Snatch Game'', then Daya Betty -- her tone-shift is palpable). This may be justified by the fact that Jorgeous is only 21 and is the season's youngest contestant. (Jasmine Kennedie, who is a year older, is outright called "a child" once during the same season.) Amusingly noted InUniverse by Bosco:
-->''I don’t necessarily want to lip-sync against Jorgeous. I’m pretty sure [=RuPaul=] has signed up to be an organ donor for Jorgeous.''
** All-Stars 8 suffered from a lot of this, according to fans:
*** Jimbo was argued to have been the obvious darling edit from the first episode, taking a staggering four wins that some fans argue against.
*** Kandy Muse was also accused of being a darling for no other reason than that she makes for good television, when many of her performances or runways were middling at best.
*** Lala Ri, winner of the Fame Games, isn't immune from this either as she was the queen that won a times three multiplier to her fan vote thanks to Ru. Basically, the Fame Games winner was accused of being chosen by Ru thanks to the multiplier than by the actual fans voting.
*** The rumor mill has been turning in regard to the queen's opinion on the matter on All-Stars 8. Word through the grapevine was Jaymes Mansfield was being treated as the producer's favorite and avoiding harsh critiques, like in the first challenge where she was saved from the bottom for not being able to dance, but Darienne Lake was in the bottom for the exact same critiques. In fact, it was said for the Joan Crawford musical the queens all conspired together to vote Jaymes off, even though it was obvious the producers wanted them to vote off Kahanna instead.
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* BaseBreakingCharacter: [[invoked]] When discussing her drag during the ''Series/RuPaulsDragRaceAllStars'' season 8 entrance confessional, Kandy Muse refers back to her season 13 debut and claims to be one of the most polarizing characters the show's ever had.
-->'''Kandy Muse:''' I came on ''13'' with this big personality that was not everyone's favorite, so I am one of the most polarizing characters in ''Drag Race'' history.
-->'''Kandy Muse:''' I came on ''13'' with this big personality that was not everyone's favorite, so I am one of the most polarizing characters in ''Drag Race'' history.
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* [[BrokenBase/RuPaulsDragRace Broken Base]]
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* [[BaseBreakingCharacter/RuPaulsDragRace Base Breaking Character]]
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* [[TheScrappy/RuPaulsDragRace The Scrappy]]
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* OnceOriginalNowCommon: Roxxxy's wig reveal on Season 5 was one of the most iconic moments on the show when it happened. Nowadays, wig reveals are a staple trick for performers, and it can be hard to remember the magic of Roxxxy's original reveal.
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* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The show ends up doing this to itself quite a bit. The popularity the show has gained combined with the publicity its given to the drag community means drag is evolving a ''lot'' faster than it used to. Every season, the new batch of queens come in more polished and prepared than the last, and as a result the fashion and runways exhibited by queens even a few seasons ago looks dated by comparison. For example, Tyra's "crowning look" for Season 2 was essentially a bathing suit with a cape tied around her waist, something a queen would get read to filth for if she tried to pull off today.
** Roxxxy's wig reveal on Season 5 was one of the most iconic moments on the show when it happened. Nowadays, wig reveals are a staple trick for performers, and it can be hard to remember the magic of Roxxxy's original reveal.
** Roxxxy's wig reveal on Season 5 was one of the most iconic moments on the show when it happened. Nowadays, wig reveals are a staple trick for performers, and it can be hard to remember the magic of Roxxxy's original reveal.
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* AwardSnub: Often occurs within fandom, with the judges' critiques often not being shared by fans who may feel that a queen shouldn't have won a challenge over another's head, or [[EliminationHoudini shouldn't have been in the bottom over other worse competitors]]. Of particular note is when this happens and the queens themselves engage in it, such as Jorgeous' contested win in the ''Glamazon Prime'' sewing challenge in Season 14. Daya Betty calls attention to it, and Lady Camden (widely agreed to have been the clear winner on quality of outfit) sneaked in this gem a few episodes later during a roast challenge:
-->'''Lady Camden''': I'm excited for tonight's runway; Jorgeous will be wearing a headband as a dress, [[CreatorsPet and RuPaul will be telling her that she is a superstar]].
-->'''Lady Camden''': I'm excited for tonight's runway; Jorgeous will be wearing a headband as a dress, [[CreatorsPet and RuPaul will be telling her that she is a superstar]].
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*** After MTV decided to cut Season 15's runtime from 90 to 60 minutes in order to make room for ''The Real Friends of [=WeHo=]'' (which ended up being pointless thanks to the fans they were trying to attract boycotting the show and tanking it in the ratings), the show threw the fans (and the queens whose screentime was cut) a bone once the series was over by re-editing the shortened episodes to the usual length of a standard one, giving the early booted queens more presence outside of their elimination episodes, and the challenges feel less rushed.
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** The Chocolate Bars. Season 14 tried to shake things up by doing away with Ru's ability to save a queen at her own discretion by passing out chocolate bars to the queens at the start of the season, with the twist being one of the bars would secretly be the "gold bar", which if you were eliminated after a lip-synch would be an automatic save back into the competition. Due to heavy rumors of production playing dirty behind the scenes for years, many fans were dubious just how legit the bars were and assume it's just a way for Ru to avoid backlash for saving a queen who may not be a fan favorite[[note]]Logistically speaking, a truly random non-elimination would be a production nightmare; what if the bar really was found in the first episode and thus the twist would have no stakes? What if the gold bar was in possession to one of the final four queens who were never up for elimination? Would the production just up and scrap an entire episode intended for the save having been used?[[/note]]. This coupled with the fact a queen would be saved not based on merit, but dumb luck made it a rather unpopular twist that many hope isn't continued in following seasons.
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** The Chocolate Bars. Season 14 tried to shake things up by doing away with Ru's ability to save a queen at her own discretion by passing out chocolate bars to the queens at the start of the season, with the twist being one of the bars would secretly be the "gold bar", which if you were eliminated after a lip-synch would be an automatic save back into the competition. Due to heavy rumors of production playing dirty behind the scenes for years, many Many fans were dubious just how legit the bars were and assume it's just a way for Ru to avoid backlash for saving a queen who may not be a fan favorite[[note]]Logistically were[[note]]Logistically speaking, a truly random non-elimination would be a production nightmare; what if the bar really was found in the first episode and thus the twist would have no stakes? What if the gold bar was in possession to one of the final four queens who were never up for elimination? Would the production just up and scrap an entire episode intended for the save having been used?[[/note]]. This coupled with Additionally, this season had a large number of non-elimination episodes that underscored the fact a queen entire point of the chocolate bar twist. Case in point, the episode where the gold bar was finally used was the ''fifth'' non-elimination episode this season (and there would be saved not based on merit, but dumb luck made it a rather unpopular twist that many hope isn't continued in following seasons. sixth afterwards).
