‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ EP on ‘All Stars’ Tournament Twist and Leaving the “Door Open” for Future Format Shifts: “Everything Is About Timing”

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After 10 seasons, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars has undergone a facelift. 

The RuPaul’s Drag Race spin-off first debuted in 2012, tapping a slate of competitors from the mainstay show to compete for a second shot at the crown. While the formula was a success waiting to happen, season 1one wasn’t well received, leading to a whopping four-year gap before season two arrived (which in Drag Race years, is practically a century). 

Alas, Drag Race struck gold with its second All Stars season, composed of fan-favorite queens and a shocking format change that birthed a plethora of historic moments in the show’s Herstory. Still, All Stars has gone through some shifts over the years, implementing varying structural alterations to keep its viewers — and nowadays, its queens — coming back for more. 

With the arrival of All Stars season 10, the show features its largest cast of drag artists ever, settling with 18 contestants from Drag Race past. Heading in, the queens are split into three groups of six, utilizing a bracket-point system to determine the top three from each batch. Once the top three from each bracket are solidified, the queens will merge with the rest of the top competitors from all three groups. 

Despite the format’s similarities to fellow reality TV staple Survivor, executive producer Tom Campbell told The Hollywood Reporter that the show’s new design was not inspired by the CBS series, but rather Drag Race‘s continuous need for innovation.

“The inspiration came from nine years of doing All Stars and 18 years of doing Drag Race… RuPaul’s Drag Race is a talent show and a platform to launch these local artists into international fame. All Stars is challenging because they’re already internationally famous,” Campbell said. “To me, All Stars becomes this master class in succeeding in show business. In different seasons, we’ve had all these different twists, and it makes you realize you have to further define your brand.”

Campbell also highlighted that the formula is akin to “the pageants of our drag roots” that Drag Race pulls inspiration from, including the coveted Miss Continental pageant.

“[With] Miss Continental, the queens compete year after year, so we’ve created a formula that allows so many queens to come back and compete again,” he said, adding that season 10’s format was ideated to optimize each competitor’s time on the small screen, offering a minimum of three episodes of air time with the new structure, “which is enough time for people to really luxuriate and love what they” bring to the competition. 

The cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 10.

MTV/Paramount+/WOW

Prior to All Stars 10, seasons seven and nine utilized a non-elimination formula where queens competed for points (dubbed “stars” or “badges”) by winning challenges, with the highest scoring competitors advancing to the finale. Campbell said that “we might do that [structure] again,” though “with the tournament, we’re able to marry the two [formats] and give them the proper showcase and the competition that people crave.” 

With such a modification to the structure of the competition, Campbell said the change ensures “that door is always open” to create “exciting, fresh” formats that fans are eager to see, like a first-out or runner-up season. Notably, All Stars season seven came after viewers begged to see a cast full of all-winners, with Campbell adding that they’ll likely assemble a second season full of crowned queens in the future when “that time reveal[s] itself to us.” 

“The first all-winners season was during COVID, and everybody’s career and ability to perform had been unplugged,” he explained. “That combined with the fact that we had enough winners to fill a season, that seemed like the perfect time to do it.”

Could All Stars season 10 have been the right time to bring back another cast of winners? “I think it has to be a special time,” Campbell noted, adding that “I think we will do another all-winners. I don’t keep it off the table, [but] I don’t know that we’re in a rush to do it.” 

Fans can expect to see a few contestants who have already competed on the All Stars franchise, though, with season 10. Of the 18 queens, Aja, Jorgeous and Ginger Minj have already returned to the spin-off, with Jorgeous notably competing on season nine and Ginger returning for her third All Stars go-around.

The trend of returning All Stars has grown prevalent since season four, with Campbell explaining that it isn’t uncommon for drag artists to reappear in the drag pageant circuit “year after year.” 

Paramount/WOW

“We decided early on to tap into the roots of drag queen pageants and the Miss Continentals, where the same queens will compete year after year,” Campbell said. “It’s a shame not to showcase them again and again, because they have so much to offer. I also think the fans really get off on seeing how the queens have progressed.” 

After wrapping season 17, Lydia B (“B” stands Butthole) Kollins had five days to prepare for season 10, marking the first time in Drag Race Herstory that a queen dove headfirst into All Stars before their OG season hit the air. What made Lydia so special that RuPaul Charles invited her back immediately? Most likely optics, but Campbell thinks the host “had a real soft spot” for the Pittsburgh queen — not to mention he also enjoys saying “butthole.” 

“[Lydia’s] elimination happened because she took scissors out and tried to cut herself out of a dress, and while indications were that she had more to offer and her story arc wasn’t over, it was kind of impossible, under those circumstances, to not let her go,” he explained. “So, I think Ru wanted to see more. I also think that Ru, secretly or not so secretly, likes to say ‘butthole.’”

Another glaring excitement stems from the celebrity guest judge lineup, which includes the likes of Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Chappell Roan and Ice Spice, whom Campbell accredits his colleagues Thairin Smothers and Alicia Gargaro-Magaña for their bookings.

“It just blew us all away,” he said of their appearances, explaining that the “synergy” between the show and its guest stars aligned to afford them to “have the biggest movie stars, music stars and the biggest musical of the 21st century coming to RuPaul’s Drag Race,” teasing a forthcoming Wicked: For Good-inspired challenge.

With threats to the rights of the LBGTQ community and drag entertainers at a new high, Campbell explained that “having some of the biggest, most iconic celebrities on the face of the Earth coming [to Drag Race] because they love the show and they love the queens, it says everything.” 

“I always say that the Drag Gods have been with Drag Race — Drag Race should have never been put on the air [in 2009] in the first place, it was too controversial,” Campbell said. “The fact that we’re now talking about these A-list stars, just speaks that everything is about timing.” 

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 10 exclusively streams on Paramount+ every Friday.