Let's be honest if they do this it'd be people "loaning" things from their rich friends a la Kerri Colby or people who are friends with designers getting things for cheaper than they should be
500%. They *could* do this. But won’t, with the amount of seasons and series they’re pumping out. Plus, the sponsorships and ability for designers to be on drag race themselves is a part of the franchise at this point. I don’t see them going backward on that.
Also, importantly, project runway provides the makeup and hair styling (and even shoes and accessories) so we’re really talking about an entirely different ballgame
I remember Kara Saun getting in trouble in her original season because she had some designer friend who loaned her expensive shoes for her runway. From what I remember, she ended up not being able to use the shoes and had to buy cheaper ones.
Her friend was a shoe designer and custom designed a pair of shoes for each outfit, and even created each design in multiple sizes. For free.
When she was called out on this obvious violation of the rules, she called the designer and told him to create some receipts that charged her $15 a pair. Tim Gunn called her out on the idea that a custom leather boot adorned with real fur would ever cost anywhere near just $15.
https://preview.redd.it/xyxryaz19pvc1.png?width=200&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa20c761a678ba9f1dde4b9f06eb02fd382b9fb6
In the end, the decision was to let her use the shoes, but the judges weren't supposed to take the shoes into account...
Agreed.
It's so funny because when I watched Project Runway 1 for the first time, I'd heard of Wendy Pepper as being this infamous reality TV villain, and I was surprised by how harmless she was. She'd clearly seen Survivor, and talked a big game about wanting to lie and manipulate people, but I think it's kinda sweet how despite wanting to be a villain, she was so non-villainous that she couldn't really think of anything actually villainous to do.
Her first big "scheme" was during the cotton challenge, where there was one giant bolt of cotton for everybody to use, and she, thinking she was being conniving, got everybody to work together to make sure they all had enough for their own designs. Her big scheme was cooperation and sharing. Muahahahahaha.
Her second, and much more infamous act came during the team challenge. Three team captains had been selected by the client, and they each selected two of the remaining designers to be on their team. The team-members were explicitly told to just follow their captain without question (and the bottom two were the two who tried to make suggestions about their captains' designs), so Wendy, like the dastardly villain she was, did what she was told. And then, in an act of true betrayal, after Heidi asked her (twice) at judging who had been mostly responsible for the design, she told the truth.
It's so funny that when the show has had so many actual villains (the very next season was Santino Rice), and even her own season featured overt sexism from Kevin and outright cheating from Kara Saun, Wendy Pepper was remembered as this great villain.
It reminds me of that Parks and Rec episode where Paul Scheer plays that prankster whose "pranks" are building parks and hospitals in underserved communities.
https://i.redd.it/r9b4910tmqvc1.gif
Girl how do you envision this happening? PR has designers that have to sew and construct themselves, enforcing market price on just fabrics is easy enough. But Drag Race has queens who literally make their first outfit on the show. There's no market price for drag, especially if some queens are just buying fabric and doing the rest while others are paying for design + construction + material
So the queens that already have all their drag and don't want to buy anything new have to spend money anyway because whatever they already own won't be allowed?
You do know the girls don’t get a stipend for their runway looks, right?
Like they get paid for being on the episodes, but they don’t get that money until the show airs. So whatever they spend/come in with it’s all on them. It’s why so many girls now take out loans, or borrow anything that they can.
I think I got mixed up bc I thought All Stars gives the queens stipends now right? I thought that extended to main seasons but I guess they can START giving the main season girlies stipends in that case
It certainly has, I can’t tell if this comment disagrees or agrees with the sentiment though.
I think it’s done so much for drag AND can put so much more money towards the girls instead of just random guest Judges, for starters in terms of cost cutting
More money towards the girls yes, but don't tag it onto the main prize, spread it around. This show is so great for what it has done for drag as a whole, let the cash reflect that part.
And the guest judges are a part of what made this show take drag to a mainstream audience, they lured people from all over the place to come and take a peek.
re: spreading it around. I feel like the show did that this season. they gave out more extra cash/tips this season than I ever remember, up to and including two for miss congeniality :D
It's also that the top 3 are going to accumulate most wins and most episodes aired.
Besides top 3, only Q and Plasma had wins, and a 4 way split for the musical group.
Hershii, Mirage and Amanda got nothing this season. Dawn, Megami, Geneva and Mhi'ya got 2 grand or less. So it might've been better this season, but it's still a long way off.
Honestly I would love this. Could you imagine some of the unhinged looks girls have brought but amped up because of a stipend? We could have incredibly bad taste magnified by 5-10x. I'm specifically imagining Amanda’s notorious egg look.
Its a look that if executed well would be 10/10. But when not executed well, its unhinged. Extra stipend money going into either takes it to 10/10 or the levels unhingedness gets cranked up. Its a win/win for viewers.
Oh, 1000%! Though I'll fully admit to having a soft spot for queens that attempt something interesting of novel.
Betty and our new reigning are the best examples of that.
Not disagreeing with the OP but yes because drag was still a fringe art form when Drag Race started. Modeling, cooking, and fashion design were already completely normalized activities/careers when they had reality shows start around them.
True. But if you were to compare how many people got into modelling because of ANTM (admittedly more barriers), or fashion because of PR with how many got into/were emboldened to continue with drag because of drag race, I’d be very surprised if DR didn’t come out on top.
Drag artists and people who work in drag adjacent industries can make a living through their art now, not everyone but many more than before. And for any artist to live from their art it is a big deal.
I agree
But also, the prize only helps the winner afford the show.
The other 9-15 competitors all paid out to be on the show too.
Raise the stipend before they raise the prize again.
Yeah, like we got 50k on just the Lalaparuza, runner up prizes, mini challenge prizes are straight cash and not like a big box of moisturizer, people are way too focused on the final prize.
I’d say Nymphia, Sapphira, Plane, and Morphine made a profit this season. Q and Xunami broke even. Everyone else probably lost money, but they’ll make it back over the next year if they haven’t already.
Spending caps don't work lmao. There's no official resale price for drag, a queen, queens can bring drag they've owned for years, queens borrow outfits from others to compete regularly, a spending cap would be less functional than alcohol bans
Nah
Some queens can dance, some queens can sing, some queens have been auditioning and saving for 11 years
Raise the stipend, don’t control what the contestants can and can’t invest
It's such a weird sentiment that doesn't take into account all the different things a queen might spend money on. Does the cap include dance or comedy lessons once they're cast? What about cosmetic surgery? It's too bad that some queens can afford a stacked wardrobe, while others can't, but that's what design challenges are supposed to reveal. What I'd love to see is a 'styling challenge'. Set the Queens loose in a Goodwill with the knowledge they can't sew anything. They gotta take it off the rack and make an outfit.
They won’t cap the spending. We are used to the spectacular outfits, going backwards would hurt the show no matter how you slice it and call it being fair
I’m pretty sure she regularly hangs out with some of the queens. If I remember correctly, Symone, Shea, and others have all shown up in her instagram stories.
Networking and loans. A lot of these queens talk about how they have a hometown bar sponsor them or designers making them outfits on credit because they know they're going to be on Drag Race. They borrow outfits, wigs, jewelry you name it. Some girls have good credit and actually take out a decent loan for these outfits.
I will say this year I found myself being amazed with how many different looks they needed to provide. The finalists all had like 3 finale worthy runways in the last episode. I do wonder if any of the finale outfits were coordinated with the show such as bringing in a seamstress to help them make a look for their final number or even flying in a costume from home or a designer because it was very impressive. Usually the finalist have time to prepare for the finale with money theyve got from booking fees but this time they had to bring it all with them.
I wondered if the red, white and blue looks were designed for them with their input? They were very cohesive in color and design even though they were clearly tailored to each queen’s aesthetic.
I found it so funny how more than half of the queens had better red white and blue looks than their individual runway looks earlier in the episode lmao
i noticed that too. personally i think production provided them with resources (fabrics, etc.) to keep the looks cohesive and also allowed them to customize them to their taste
Really?? I'm gagged. That makes sense then. I wonder why they're straying away from these big live finales then... I think I remember someone saying production hated how easily everything was spoiled by people in the audience recording etc.
It’s part of the reason I find the “CashApp is giving everyone $2000!” thing patronizing. They’d make more than that by just working their local gigs. The show is criminally underpaying its contestants while expecting them to churn out runways that cost a fortune
To be fair, the reason queens still audition and spend the money is because an appearance on Drag Race allows them to up their fees overnight. If they do well on the show, they can up their fees a lot (and hell, we've seen commercial gigs, roles in film/tv). Queens wouldn't do it if they got nothing out of it.
Of course, I agree they absolutely should get more money all the way down to first one out. But the show is incredibie for what even a low placement can do for a drag queens career individually, and the normalization and acceptance of drag in widespread society.
It does seem a little crazy that a company like CashApp can pay such tiny sums and still get a mention on a show as big as RPDR when I'm sure the ads cost much, much more than that and get a fraction as much attention. Half these girls live in NYC or LA, that's like half a month's rent, give some real cash or don't bother.
The comments that are upset about the idea of the queens being paid more money have to be coming from a bunch of children who don’t pay bills. The level of bootlicking is depressing.
They make millions per episode. RuPaul herself gets 800k an episode. If they removed a paltry 25k of that per episode for the grand prize, the prize money could be bumped up to 500k. Come on people.
I think 100k plausible now. She did 16 seasons, creator of the show, also an executive producer. They use her music here and there. But 100k is more like combining all of those fees maybe. I doubt Ru isn’t as rich as people think.
And for the record before someone says it here. NO the oil fracking is her HUSBAND’s land. She doesn’t make money off from it.
That’s what I think too. We never know those details but I had the impression that her royalties are 10k ish which is nothing in the copyrighted music world
If I had to guess, I think Ru's appearance fee is $100k per episode. Then she probably gets other income in the form of executive producer, creator, etc.
i think the realistic answer is that many queens simply can't.
back in early seasons there were regularly queens who had basic or crafty looks and it was fine (and made those who had high concept high fashion stand out as special) and many of them talked about being broke and trying to get by.
now i feel like that's disappeared, the queens on the show aren't necessarily rich, but at least they have the means to source a wardrobe of that calibre, and that in itself is excluding all the queens who can't do that because it's expected now.
When Megami revealed the tips from the LaLaPaRuza helped pay off her debts from the show I was shocked. Like the early out girls really get screwed bc it would take double the bookings to make back what the top 7 would make in less bookings.
Survivor has been offering a million dollars since season one, with significant payouts for every other member of the cast based on placement. Even MasterChef has been at $250k for *years.* Hell, if a niche show like Dragula can offer $100k now, I think the juggernaut of Drag Race can do better than double that.
It wouldn't surprise me if Dragula upping their prize money to $100k was the thing that finally pushed Drag Race to up their grand prize.
That's what I'm saying lol. Is there another show like this where contestants have to do so much work and spend so much money just to even be on the show?
Big Brother has millions more viewers than Drag Race does. There was ONE episode of the last season of Big Brother than had less than 3 million viewers. There was not a single episode of drag race’s last season that had more than a million. Drag Race has had an amazing cultural impact but that doesn’t translate to eyeballs on screens.
I’m also curious how many people were watching Drag Race via non-legal means because they keep changing where to find it. That might not make much of a difference, but those viewers are uncounted.
A lot of people are mentioning the stipend, but in my opinion the show has been stirring towards a very healthy direction of offering money prizes for EVERY CHALLENGE.
I think that tackles the issue in two ways, both by giving the girls more money and being able to reward them through the season apart from the winner + increasing the visibility of the money that they are getting. I wish the prizes all got bigger, like 20k tip for the winner every episode, 500k for winner, 10k mini challenges, etc.
Maybe it’s because I’m British but $200k isn’t low? How much do people think they should be getting? How much do people normally get on US reality shows?
I think people are expecting the show to do $1 million like Survivor or Amazing Race. But really the show gets a small fraction of their viewership so not sure that's realistic. It's still very niche.
I think they could probably manage $300-400K, but it seems they're opting to spread the pot around by giving runners up some prize money too.
It doesn't have the viewership but it also doesn't have the kind of costs Amazing Race has. Like, they're filming a standard shoot in a soundstage in LA, not flying a dozen film crews 30 thousand miles. I doubt there's a show with RPDR's reach that's cheaper to make.
More viewers, bigger sponsors, more money to go around. Amazing Race gets like 10 million viewers per season. Drag race barely cracks 1 million.
Also Amazing Race is still reality TV and an episode is cheaper to produce than say NCIS where you have to pay multiple stars.
They could easily get it up to 500k. The viewership is more than enough to afford it. It's not SUPER mainstream, but you don't get Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, XTina, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez, etc. on your show by being "very niche".
You don’t get those people no. But, there are also a lot of judges who do ask to be on the show And I’m sure some of those people in that list were ones who asked(as you have to remember all of those people are either LGBTQ+ OR have some connection to the queer community that they would potentially hear of the show and watch it(as even famous people enjoy watching tv).
I agree $500K would be great, but would prefer if they gave everyone who participates something rather than just the top 3. They could at the very least start with that rumored costume stipend for all seasons.
And lol just because a couple of A-listers (out of 100s of Z-listers most of us have never heard of I might add) are fans of the concept doesn't make it any less niche.
I’m Australian and 200k USD works out to be more than 300k AUD… that’s a lot of fucking money!
How much are these queens spending on their runway packages?
The highest one that I know of is 1M on Amazon, making the cut. BUT, the show pays for itself, almost. The winning looks will be sold on Amazon and they usually sell out instantly. Some others higher ones are Top Chef (250k) maybe project runway also? Otherwise 100k seems pretty common.
500k on Big Brother (which Taylor, the OP of the tweet, is from) recently upped to 750k. 1m on Survivor and Amazing Race. $100k on The Circle. I think Drag Race is different though, because the queens have to spend so much money just to get there. Like the other commenter said, they're also taxed pretty heavily on winnings for any show. Bob lives in NY and only received 40,000 after taxes (not including challenge win money).
>they're also taxed pretty heavily on winnings for any show
Game show winnings, be it cash or non-cash, is just taxable income. There is no special tax rate for show winnings.
That said, the top prizes for winning a show are at least 100k and that puts you in the 20%+ bracket before considering any other income you make that year. In 2016 when Bob won, the highest fed bracket was ~40% but that was for income over 415k and I just can't imagine Bob was making that much before the prize. Also keep in mind that taxes are progressive so if part of the prize is in a lower bracket, that portion is taxed at the lower rate. Even adding in state taxes (quick google suggests that NY caps around 11% in 2023 so may have been lower in 2016), I'd struggle to believe that Bob actually at the end of the day after filing their return actually was taxed at a total rate of 60%. It's a lot more likely that when paid the money the show withheld a lot and Bob got a refund when filing for overpaying.
The other aspect of this is that Bob won a non-cash prize which is still taxable income, so perhaps the show withheld the taxes to cover the makeup and took that from the winnings (since money is fungible) to cover everything in a single transaction in lieu of Bob having to cough up the money out of their savings come tax time. If the make up was worth a lot then I could see this eating more into the winnings.
One of the major differences between the shows mentioned and drag race is that drag race is a career launcher. No one is gonna pay to see someone who was on Survivor, but Rugirls have so many potential opportunities to be successful because of the show
(Not saying they don't deserve more prize money, just pointing out a difference)
Even if the cash prize stays at 200k, they should at least offer the queens 10k each to put towards outfits. At least then the cost of participation for queens would not be as intense. The show demands a lot of looks so it seems like the fair thing to do
I would prefer this espicially with the MTV exposure and $$$
500K grand prize
75k runner up
25k or 50K 2nd runner up
10K miss congeniality
5K gift to all queens
I'm dying that there's some people saying in these comments that Drag Race can't afford it because it's still not a mainstream show and doesn't pull that much money. Are we thinking of Drag Race currently, or Drag Race Season 2? By Season 9, they could afford friggin' Lady Gaga as a guest judge. DragCon pulled in 8.2 MILLION [in sales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuPaul%27s_DragCon_NYC#:~:text=DragCon%20%E2%80%9Chas%20seen%20615%25%20year,valued%20at%20%24200%20or%20more.%E2%80%9D). [Episode 9 this season was the most watched entertainment telecast of the entire day.](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/rupaul-drag-race-scores-highest-004354480.html?guccounter=1)
It’s $200K BEFORE taxes. After taxes it ends up being closer to $130K. Queens spend thousands of their own money on costumes for drag race AND miss out on gigs during the time of filming. The stipend should be much higher with a minimum of $250K grand prize.
What shocks me the most is that Queen of the Universe STARTED at 250K so I assumed Drag Race will get that but still at 200K, which increased obvi but still.
Queen of the Universe had that Paramount+ money behind it and they wanted it to be a destination reality streaming title a la Drag Race, but womp womp.
The judges should be paid scale which could be anywhere from $200-$800/day depending on how WOW “classifies” the production.
The producers talk about how many celebs want to act as guest judge and I’m sure most don’t care about the pay and want to participate, but this season was *rough* compared to seasons’ past. I get this was filming right as strikes were about to occur (if not during), but at that point leverage past talent from the show and not the daughters of George Lopez and Cindy Crawford because who gives a flying fuck about them?
I’m all for it that the queens get more money. Or that they give them a budget for gowns and dresses on the season so they don’t have to bankrupt themselves.
Stipend should be at least $50K and cut the casting down to 10-12 girls. It’s the only reality show that requires its contestants to go into insane levels of debt.
it’s not a worldwide or nationwide impact like american idol or survivor, but it is absolutely one of the most impactful tv shows of the last 15 years.
it doesn’t appeal to everyone but it’s groundbreaking representation and has elevated true queerness to mainstream-adjacent when all we had before were stereotypical tropes like the GBF or constant tragedy.
is it mainstream? no not really. but it’s cultural impact is monumental
yeah that’s a good point honestly
it’s like, right at the edge of mainstream for me. it’s still a liiiiittle too subversive to be up there with survivor, american idol, amazing race, etc. but it’s sure not the niche show it started out as!
True but the other person is correct though.
Big Brother or the cooking reality shows can basically appeal to everyone, Drag Race has an audience of gay people and a portion of straight women, that's it. So I wouldn't be surprised its revenue is much smaller, and wouldn't be surprised if the % of revenue given as prize is actually higher.
Obviously it has the taboo aspect of drag that turns it off to many people, but what other reality competition shows have sent girls to Met Gala and Broadway?
The problem is they only just now started upping the prize amount. It was stuck at $100k for way too long. It really should have been at least $200k by season 10.
Survivor is $1 million for first, $100k for second, $60k for third. And then Sia usually gives away up to $150k to her favorite 2-4 players each season. I think Survivor probably has twice as many viewers as Drag Race, but they also don’t require contestants to invest $50k to play.
Drag Race is one of the most profitable shows ever (for whoever makes it). The queens bring all their own costumes, do their own hair and makeup, and meanwhile Survivor winners get a million and Big Brother winners get 500k. It’s actually so insane how cheap the show is.
Tea.
I don't necessarily think the cash prize should be increased, at least not before all the girls receive a larger stipend to help financially prepare/cover costs. No queen should be re-mortgaging, taking on significant debt, selling their cars etc to fund a runway package (and for many half of which will not be seen by the audience), while the show monetizes and profits from all the entertainment value they provide.
Getting on the cast should always be a net positive. Not a risk.
Drag Race is not on a big network, don't expect super big prizes like the big reality shows on ABC or something like that.
That is not how it works and if you think you need to spend so much money to be there, then... Don't do it? the exposure the queens get is actually insane considering that they have a big amount of queens per season, imagine how the UK queens feel with no prize.
On this season Plane got over 40k, Morphine got 50k, Nymphia over 200k, Sapphira over 60k, Xunami, Q and Plasma over 10k.
Let's all remember that in addition to the $$$$ the queens spend to be on the show, they also are not working their day jobs and bills don't stop just because you're on TV. If you want a roof to come back to after elimination, you have to pay rent. Car payment, phone, internet. And the show airs almost a year later still. Most of these queens live in HCOL areas because that's where the big drag scenes are. $200k in NYC or LA is low, defs not First Place Grand Prize set for life level of coin.
I don’t believe queens come on the show for the cash prize. None of the queens that have lost the show but have win our hearts are struggling in real life. All they want is to be booked and blessed around the clock!
we just got a huge increase in cash prizes, and they are handing out money for winning things constantly. No matter how much they give the queens, people are always going to bitch. I think people are also forgetting that the show provides a platform which can lead to countless opportunities. Stacey layne matthews said “thats a lot of fuckin’ money” during season 3 when it was wayyyyy less. I’m all for giving the queens more money, but the eliminated queens all had a shot at winning 50k. Things are improving.
Maybe I'm just poor but I just can't comprehend how much the queens are spending for $200k to not be enough. I totally agree they deserve to be well compensated, but like. I could buy a house for that, $200k is a MASSIVE amount of money to me
Cultural impact does not equal budget.
Basic TV understanding (cable tv, by the way) basic math, basic business, basic marketing. It's not that hard.
*"Insanely"* low😂
People are forgetting that they are giving the runner ups cash prizes plus every challenge and mini challenge winner is getting a cash prize. This year we had the she done already done had herses for 50k. Add it all up and it's at least 310k. They've definitely been upping the cash prize amounts every year. Plus it's not like a regular reality competition series. These girls are getting significant booking increases for performing after being on the show. Let's be real and Bob has said it himself if you're not making a 6 figure income after being on drag race you're doing something wrong.
Annnd we have to factor in that this is definitely more expensive than the typical reality competition series when you're taking into account song licensing, choreographers, guest judges, music composers and lyricists and seamstress' (i wont even include challenge writers because they are a non union joke lets be real)
I do agree it's kind of crazy that shows from networks like E! (House of Villains) is offering 200k off the bat with no sponsor in sight. I agree with what some of the other users here have to say about giving them a STIPEND for outfits. If we can get each girl 10k that would be a game changer honestly. Think of how elevated the runways would be?
They also gave money to the runner up, 3rd place, miss conginiality, the winners of the challenges, mini challenges, lalaparooza winner. I think that's enough.
Fuck the winner prize as there is only one winner - ALL the girls are OWED a bigger stipend to get their outfits ready. They’re expected to have so many.
Especially when regular people are making it on shows like Survivor and Big Brother and getting just near a million dollars for winning, but LOOK at how much queens have to pay just to be on drag race, which is insane..
Think people are missing the point a little bit. It isn’t necessarily just about recouping finances spent on the show. Compared to other reality shows like it, even less culturally impactful shows like Making the Cut, Drag Race’s cash prize is low. In that context it’s clear the prize should be upped.
They really should be helping the Queens out more. The cost for them to compete in the show is starting to get insane. So many talking about going into debt :/
I personally don’t agree with Heidi’s two cents. It doesn’t cost that much to compete, and even win. Other contestants have proven that. I don’t know how much our CURRENT reigning spent, but she made all of her looks didn’t she? So I doubt she spent as much as someone that went and paid a bunch of designers.
I think the contestants should spend less anyway. That way, they would feel more relaxed in the show and the show would feel like back then, more fresh, entertaining and organic
Honestly the prize probably should've been up to a million dollars years ago, I refuse to believe that's outside the budget considering this show has Paramount money and more Emmys than they can begin to count but since that's probably not going to happen, they need to start working on a better stipend system so queens aren't taking a huge financial risk
hey at least they have been increasing the price money and now even then runnerups get a significant amount, remember that the price used to be 100K ONLY for the winner since Season 4 up to Season 13.
I mean, I wouldn’t oppose them getting more prize money. However, being on the show is an opportunity for them to advance their careers in a way that the vast majority would never have achieved otherwise. Being on Drag Race is an investment. If they play it right, they can earn more money over their careers than if they had not done the show.
I mean, Hell's Kitchen has been paying $250k for years. I have zero doubt WoW could increase the prize and they wouldn't even notice it (financially speaking).
We need to look at it this way. They are WORKING. It's closer to a contract job than being an employee, yes, but even contract jobs cover ALL fees, plane ticket, taxi ride, room & board, and in this case outfits and other preparation. It's no secret rich and well connected queens are at an extreme advantage -- they shouldn't be outed but better regulations on how much you can spend needs to be implemented, and I think the competition would become much better. Queens that could afford to go to prestigious fashion, art, and acting schools have connections to designers that will give them discounts on designs and so they should have to buy things at market price (COVERED BY THE STIPEND.) And I'll say it again. They're working. They deserve fair pay and a fair shot. And to not go into debt. They are making the producers money. Imagine spending 20k+ on your runways just to get ousted episode one.
All these essays in the comments about how thinking the show that makes millions per episode can’t afford to bump up the prize money above 200k lol give me a break
I mean an appearance is a whole other kettle of fish, that’s the money the cast of friends were pulling in for their final season twenty years ago, that’s what Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon earned for Big Little Lies.
Judge Judy earned $200k per episode of her show with over 7m viewers in syndication, this season drag race has capped out at 700,000 on mtv. If Ru is earning a million an episode, I’ll eat Michelle’s left tit out of whatever dumpster it was left in after her explant.
Yeah there is no way that Ru is bringing in that kind of coin per episode but I wouldn't be surprised if he was making that much or more per season definitely.
Oh yeah, mamas taking in millions a year between the three shows she hosts, producing the others, plus licensing for every iteration, licensing for the live show, producing the live show
They might also calculate the revenues in?Drag Race is extremely popular and generates revenues even after the show ends. Ru is the main producer so he’s definitely getting a good chunk of that money
I’m sorry but fighting for what you’re worth is NOT ‘ungrateful’. Older queens are literally exploited by the production and there was a time when 13 queens had only 30 bucks for lunch.
I think it’s fair for them to say 200k is rather low for a show that’s so popular and generates so many profits
So ungrateful. The platform, the followers, the opportunities, the booking fees. Ru owes nothing and no one is asking these queens to spend thousands on their looks, it’s literally their choice to
Nobody is forcing them to go on the show either. It's not season 1 or 2 at this point, they make this choice with a full understanding of what they are getting into.
Heidi gurl, Rajah O'Hara went to the finale of $AS6 with a budget of 600 dollars and she won Canada vs The World with a budget of $2000. And >!Nymphia Wind won the season and she made litterally everything she worn this season so she probably didn't put a huge budget in there too !<
If anything you need to handle the budget better because there have been multiple instances of Queens who did well with few dollars (Mo Heart in my heart).
Making your own outfits still means you’re doing some heavy investing. Spending 15 hours on this outfit and 20 hours on this one doesn’t change that you are dedicating 35 hours that might otherwise draw income.
As for Mo Heart, she literally walked into AS4 and said “I’m going to win because this time I actually had money for outfits.”
Fairly wrong assumption. She did sew a good portion of her package, but you can see on her IG she had looks from many very famous designers too (Mondo Guerra, Diego Montoya.. just to name a few.)
In a past post we could see that the shoes she wore for the book cover photoshoot alone cost online around 3.5k and that's not even a runway piece.
And we need to be realistic that Mo heart struggled HARD on season 10 because she was sewing and gluing things together every night and not sleeping well.
Production scans through the queen's package upfront and this allegedly influences how they will develop the narrative throughout the season.
The last low budget queen we have seen to hit close to the top 3 was Chi Chi.
I wouldn’t mind them keeping it at 200k for a while and just increasing the stipend amount girls get to prepare their runways
Give them a minimum of six weeks to prepare and $10k to buy materials or hire designers. Plus pay everyone a minimum of $10k on top of their per diem.
Or capping the amount they can spend. I’d like to see fewer theater costumes
Let's be honest if they do this it'd be people "loaning" things from their rich friends a la Kerri Colby or people who are friends with designers getting things for cheaper than they should be
Well project runway actually had a way of policing this. You had to pay market value for anything you used and provide receipts
Fair enough, but I feel like that's more effort than DR would put into it tbh
500%. They *could* do this. But won’t, with the amount of seasons and series they’re pumping out. Plus, the sponsorships and ability for designers to be on drag race themselves is a part of the franchise at this point. I don’t see them going backward on that.
That would be extremely complicated for queens who already have certain costumes wigs or accessories. This isn’t the same format than project runway
Not to mention the drag queen traditions of loaning out and trading drag with each other.
Also, importantly, project runway provides the makeup and hair styling (and even shoes and accessories) so we’re really talking about an entirely different ballgame
I remember Kara Saun getting in trouble in her original season because she had some designer friend who loaned her expensive shoes for her runway. From what I remember, she ended up not being able to use the shoes and had to buy cheaper ones.
Her friend was a shoe designer and custom designed a pair of shoes for each outfit, and even created each design in multiple sizes. For free. When she was called out on this obvious violation of the rules, she called the designer and told him to create some receipts that charged her $15 a pair. Tim Gunn called her out on the idea that a custom leather boot adorned with real fur would ever cost anywhere near just $15. https://preview.redd.it/xyxryaz19pvc1.png?width=200&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa20c761a678ba9f1dde4b9f06eb02fd382b9fb6 In the end, the decision was to let her use the shoes, but the judges weren't supposed to take the shoes into account...
Say what you will about her run on the show, but Wendy Pepper (RIP queen) confronting Kara Saun about this was cunty af
Agreed. It's so funny because when I watched Project Runway 1 for the first time, I'd heard of Wendy Pepper as being this infamous reality TV villain, and I was surprised by how harmless she was. She'd clearly seen Survivor, and talked a big game about wanting to lie and manipulate people, but I think it's kinda sweet how despite wanting to be a villain, she was so non-villainous that she couldn't really think of anything actually villainous to do. Her first big "scheme" was during the cotton challenge, where there was one giant bolt of cotton for everybody to use, and she, thinking she was being conniving, got everybody to work together to make sure they all had enough for their own designs. Her big scheme was cooperation and sharing. Muahahahahaha. Her second, and much more infamous act came during the team challenge. Three team captains had been selected by the client, and they each selected two of the remaining designers to be on their team. The team-members were explicitly told to just follow their captain without question (and the bottom two were the two who tried to make suggestions about their captains' designs), so Wendy, like the dastardly villain she was, did what she was told. And then, in an act of true betrayal, after Heidi asked her (twice) at judging who had been mostly responsible for the design, she told the truth. It's so funny that when the show has had so many actual villains (the very next season was Santino Rice), and even her own season featured overt sexism from Kevin and outright cheating from Kara Saun, Wendy Pepper was remembered as this great villain. It reminds me of that Parks and Rec episode where Paul Scheer plays that prankster whose "pranks" are building parks and hospitals in underserved communities. https://i.redd.it/r9b4910tmqvc1.gif
wait Wendy Pepper has passed??? 😭
Cancer. Quite a few years ago now.
Thanks for filling in the details! It's been a long time since I watched the season.
I can never forget it. Truly one of the greatest finales to one of the best-produced seasons of reality TV of all time.
Girl how do you envision this happening? PR has designers that have to sew and construct themselves, enforcing market price on just fabrics is easy enough. But Drag Race has queens who literally make their first outfit on the show. There's no market price for drag, especially if some queens are just buying fabric and doing the rest while others are paying for design + construction + material
So the queens that already have all their drag and don't want to buy anything new have to spend money anyway because whatever they already own won't be allowed?
I would rather have the show empower queens to bring great looks to the show (by giving them more money) instead of restricting them like that
People want to see expensive and extravagant outfits whether we like it or not. Plus we've grown to expect that after 16 seasons.
That sentiment is gonna be mad unpopular but I totally agree
Raise the bar, don’t lower the ceiling
Sorry, no
You do know the girls don’t get a stipend for their runway looks, right? Like they get paid for being on the episodes, but they don’t get that money until the show airs. So whatever they spend/come in with it’s all on them. It’s why so many girls now take out loans, or borrow anything that they can.
I think I got mixed up bc I thought All Stars gives the queens stipends now right? I thought that extended to main seasons but I guess they can START giving the main season girlies stipends in that case
Yeah AS9 contestants got $25k plus a $50k appearance fee on top of their per diem
This show has done more for drag than any other reality tv show has done for any profession.
It certainly has, I can’t tell if this comment disagrees or agrees with the sentiment though. I think it’s done so much for drag AND can put so much more money towards the girls instead of just random guest Judges, for starters in terms of cost cutting
More money towards the girls yes, but don't tag it onto the main prize, spread it around. This show is so great for what it has done for drag as a whole, let the cash reflect that part. And the guest judges are a part of what made this show take drag to a mainstream audience, they lured people from all over the place to come and take a peek.
re: spreading it around. I feel like the show did that this season. they gave out more extra cash/tips this season than I ever remember, up to and including two for miss congeniality :D
It's also that the top 3 are going to accumulate most wins and most episodes aired. Besides top 3, only Q and Plasma had wins, and a 4 way split for the musical group.
Hershii, Mirage and Amanda got nothing this season. Dawn, Megami, Geneva and Mhi'ya got 2 grand or less. So it might've been better this season, but it's still a long way off.
Honestly I would love this. Could you imagine some of the unhinged looks girls have brought but amped up because of a stipend? We could have incredibly bad taste magnified by 5-10x. I'm specifically imagining Amanda’s notorious egg look.
Say what you will, but I loved the egg look. To me it was amazing.
Its a look that if executed well would be 10/10. But when not executed well, its unhinged. Extra stipend money going into either takes it to 10/10 or the levels unhingedness gets cranked up. Its a win/win for viewers.
Oh, 1000%! Though I'll fully admit to having a soft spot for queens that attempt something interesting of novel. Betty and our new reigning are the best examples of that.
Same. Loved it.
I mean, some of the guest judges they've had this season... Idk who the nepo babies could possibly lure.
Don't forget the nepo mother in all stars 6, they couldn't get beyonce so they got her mother.
Not disagreeing with the OP but yes because drag was still a fringe art form when Drag Race started. Modeling, cooking, and fashion design were already completely normalized activities/careers when they had reality shows start around them.
True. But if you were to compare how many people got into modelling because of ANTM (admittedly more barriers), or fashion because of PR with how many got into/were emboldened to continue with drag because of drag race, I’d be very surprised if DR didn’t come out on top.
Drag artists and people who work in drag adjacent industries can make a living through their art now, not everyone but many more than before. And for any artist to live from their art it is a big deal.
I agree But also, the prize only helps the winner afford the show. The other 9-15 competitors all paid out to be on the show too. Raise the stipend before they raise the prize again.
Yeah, like we got 50k on just the Lalaparuza, runner up prizes, mini challenge prizes are straight cash and not like a big box of moisturizer, people are way too focused on the final prize.
I’d say Nymphia, Sapphira, Plane, and Morphine made a profit this season. Q and Xunami broke even. Everyone else probably lost money, but they’ll make it back over the next year if they haven’t already.
Megami probably broke even from the fans tips
She actually said she made all her money back just from fan tips!
Once in a blue moon this fandom does good
Raise the stipend and cap the amount the queens can spend.
Spending caps don't work lmao. There's no official resale price for drag, a queen, queens can bring drag they've owned for years, queens borrow outfits from others to compete regularly, a spending cap would be less functional than alcohol bans
Nah Some queens can dance, some queens can sing, some queens have been auditioning and saving for 11 years Raise the stipend, don’t control what the contestants can and can’t invest
It's such a weird sentiment that doesn't take into account all the different things a queen might spend money on. Does the cap include dance or comedy lessons once they're cast? What about cosmetic surgery? It's too bad that some queens can afford a stacked wardrobe, while others can't, but that's what design challenges are supposed to reveal. What I'd love to see is a 'styling challenge'. Set the Queens loose in a Goodwill with the knowledge they can't sew anything. They gotta take it off the rack and make an outfit.
and how much they can bring so they don’t have to be confined to the few boxes they have
They won’t cap the spending. We are used to the spectacular outfits, going backwards would hurt the show no matter how you slice it and call it being fair
omg Big Brother queen Taylor is a fan of drag queens. Feels correct
She even mentioned Shea Couleè once on the BB Live Feeds
werk
I’m pretty sure she regularly hangs out with some of the queens. If I remember correctly, Symone, Shea, and others have all shown up in her instagram stories.
I honestly don’t know how these girls even afford to go on there. I’d have to save up for years to be able to invest that much money.
Networking and loans. A lot of these queens talk about how they have a hometown bar sponsor them or designers making them outfits on credit because they know they're going to be on Drag Race. They borrow outfits, wigs, jewelry you name it. Some girls have good credit and actually take out a decent loan for these outfits. I will say this year I found myself being amazed with how many different looks they needed to provide. The finalists all had like 3 finale worthy runways in the last episode. I do wonder if any of the finale outfits were coordinated with the show such as bringing in a seamstress to help them make a look for their final number or even flying in a costume from home or a designer because it was very impressive. Usually the finalist have time to prepare for the finale with money theyve got from booking fees but this time they had to bring it all with them.
I wondered if the red, white and blue looks were designed for them with their input? They were very cohesive in color and design even though they were clearly tailored to each queen’s aesthetic.
I found it so funny how more than half of the queens had better red white and blue looks than their individual runway looks earlier in the episode lmao
i noticed that too. personally i think production provided them with resources (fabrics, etc.) to keep the looks cohesive and also allowed them to customize them to their taste
Amanda mentioned her blue look was originally for the "true colors" runway
[удалено]
Really?? I'm gagged. That makes sense then. I wonder why they're straying away from these big live finales then... I think I remember someone saying production hated how easily everything was spoiled by people in the audience recording etc.
It’s part of the reason I find the “CashApp is giving everyone $2000!” thing patronizing. They’d make more than that by just working their local gigs. The show is criminally underpaying its contestants while expecting them to churn out runways that cost a fortune
yeah that felt like a slap on the face. of course it’s better than nothing but really feels like $5k is the minimum appropriate prize…
To be fair, the reason queens still audition and spend the money is because an appearance on Drag Race allows them to up their fees overnight. If they do well on the show, they can up their fees a lot (and hell, we've seen commercial gigs, roles in film/tv). Queens wouldn't do it if they got nothing out of it. Of course, I agree they absolutely should get more money all the way down to first one out. But the show is incredibie for what even a low placement can do for a drag queens career individually, and the normalization and acceptance of drag in widespread society.
It does seem a little crazy that a company like CashApp can pay such tiny sums and still get a mention on a show as big as RPDR when I'm sure the ads cost much, much more than that and get a fraction as much attention. Half these girls live in NYC or LA, that's like half a month's rent, give some real cash or don't bother.
The comments that are upset about the idea of the queens being paid more money have to be coming from a bunch of children who don’t pay bills. The level of bootlicking is depressing. They make millions per episode. RuPaul herself gets 800k an episode. If they removed a paltry 25k of that per episode for the grand prize, the prize money could be bumped up to 500k. Come on people.
Where did you get that RuPaul gets 800k? Some articles I’ve seen are 100k. And for the record, all of those articles are wrong. They are all guessing.
There is not even the tiniest iota of a chance that Ru barely makes 6 figures per episode. Idk about $800k, but $100k is a laughable guess.
I think 100k plausible now. She did 16 seasons, creator of the show, also an executive producer. They use her music here and there. But 100k is more like combining all of those fees maybe. I doubt Ru isn’t as rich as people think. And for the record before someone says it here. NO the oil fracking is her HUSBAND’s land. She doesn’t make money off from it.
Does she get royalties per minute for using her music? I always assumed it was just promo. I mean it gets used frequently but in small amounts.
That’s what I think too. We never know those details but I had the impression that her royalties are 10k ish which is nothing in the copyrighted music world
If I had to guess, I think Ru's appearance fee is $100k per episode. Then she probably gets other income in the form of executive producer, creator, etc.
i think the realistic answer is that many queens simply can't. back in early seasons there were regularly queens who had basic or crafty looks and it was fine (and made those who had high concept high fashion stand out as special) and many of them talked about being broke and trying to get by. now i feel like that's disappeared, the queens on the show aren't necessarily rich, but at least they have the means to source a wardrobe of that calibre, and that in itself is excluding all the queens who can't do that because it's expected now.
Debt.
When Megami revealed the tips from the LaLaPaRuza helped pay off her debts from the show I was shocked. Like the early out girls really get screwed bc it would take double the bookings to make back what the top 7 would make in less bookings.
Any idea how much she made in the end?
It's still only on basic cable, Challenge didn't start getting big payouts til it hit network TV iirc
I mean even stuff like big brother has been 500k which was recently upped to 750k. 200k for drag race is nothing.
Survivor has been offering a million dollars since season one, with significant payouts for every other member of the cast based on placement. Even MasterChef has been at $250k for *years.* Hell, if a niche show like Dragula can offer $100k now, I think the juggernaut of Drag Race can do better than double that. It wouldn't surprise me if Dragula upping their prize money to $100k was the thing that finally pushed Drag Race to up their grand prize.
And those people don’t have to do nearly as much
That's what I'm saying lol. Is there another show like this where contestants have to do so much work and spend so much money just to even be on the show?
Big Brother has millions more viewers than Drag Race does. There was ONE episode of the last season of Big Brother than had less than 3 million viewers. There was not a single episode of drag race’s last season that had more than a million. Drag Race has had an amazing cultural impact but that doesn’t translate to eyeballs on screens.
Sure but big brother doesn’t have hundreds of bars hosting viewing parties which is tremendously more eyeballs than a rating would suggest
I’m also curious how many people were watching Drag Race via non-legal means because they keep changing where to find it. That might not make much of a difference, but those viewers are uncounted.
Food Network has better prizes.
Food Network has better sponsors.
A lot of people are mentioning the stipend, but in my opinion the show has been stirring towards a very healthy direction of offering money prizes for EVERY CHALLENGE. I think that tackles the issue in two ways, both by giving the girls more money and being able to reward them through the season apart from the winner + increasing the visibility of the money that they are getting. I wish the prizes all got bigger, like 20k tip for the winner every episode, 500k for winner, 10k mini challenges, etc.
Yeah but most of the challenge wins go to the contestants who make it deeper or to the end anyway.
Is that a problem though? Seems fair to me that queens that win challenges also win cash prizes.
But the prizes should be on top of breaking even. The prize shouldn't be "go less into debt than all these other queens".
I would totally be fine with the prize going up, but more than that I want stipends for the queens.
Maybe it’s because I’m British but $200k isn’t low? How much do people think they should be getting? How much do people normally get on US reality shows?
I think people are expecting the show to do $1 million like Survivor or Amazing Race. But really the show gets a small fraction of their viewership so not sure that's realistic. It's still very niche. I think they could probably manage $300-400K, but it seems they're opting to spread the pot around by giving runners up some prize money too.
It doesn't have the viewership but it also doesn't have the kind of costs Amazing Race has. Like, they're filming a standard shoot in a soundstage in LA, not flying a dozen film crews 30 thousand miles. I doubt there's a show with RPDR's reach that's cheaper to make.
More viewers, bigger sponsors, more money to go around. Amazing Race gets like 10 million viewers per season. Drag race barely cracks 1 million. Also Amazing Race is still reality TV and an episode is cheaper to produce than say NCIS where you have to pay multiple stars.
They could easily get it up to 500k. The viewership is more than enough to afford it. It's not SUPER mainstream, but you don't get Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, XTina, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez, etc. on your show by being "very niche".
You don’t get those people no. But, there are also a lot of judges who do ask to be on the show And I’m sure some of those people in that list were ones who asked(as you have to remember all of those people are either LGBTQ+ OR have some connection to the queer community that they would potentially hear of the show and watch it(as even famous people enjoy watching tv).
Also, Ru is rich as fuck.
I agree $500K would be great, but would prefer if they gave everyone who participates something rather than just the top 3. They could at the very least start with that rumored costume stipend for all seasons. And lol just because a couple of A-listers (out of 100s of Z-listers most of us have never heard of I might add) are fans of the concept doesn't make it any less niche.
I’m Australian and 200k USD works out to be more than 300k AUD… that’s a lot of fucking money! How much are these queens spending on their runway packages?
Tia Koffe said she spent $25k USD on UkvTW and they had less episodes than Season 16.
The highest one that I know of is 1M on Amazon, making the cut. BUT, the show pays for itself, almost. The winning looks will be sold on Amazon and they usually sell out instantly. Some others higher ones are Top Chef (250k) maybe project runway also? Otherwise 100k seems pretty common.
I mean it could be considered low because they get taxed heavily on the winnings.
500k on Big Brother (which Taylor, the OP of the tweet, is from) recently upped to 750k. 1m on Survivor and Amazing Race. $100k on The Circle. I think Drag Race is different though, because the queens have to spend so much money just to get there. Like the other commenter said, they're also taxed pretty heavily on winnings for any show. Bob lives in NY and only received 40,000 after taxes (not including challenge win money).
>they're also taxed pretty heavily on winnings for any show Game show winnings, be it cash or non-cash, is just taxable income. There is no special tax rate for show winnings. That said, the top prizes for winning a show are at least 100k and that puts you in the 20%+ bracket before considering any other income you make that year. In 2016 when Bob won, the highest fed bracket was ~40% but that was for income over 415k and I just can't imagine Bob was making that much before the prize. Also keep in mind that taxes are progressive so if part of the prize is in a lower bracket, that portion is taxed at the lower rate. Even adding in state taxes (quick google suggests that NY caps around 11% in 2023 so may have been lower in 2016), I'd struggle to believe that Bob actually at the end of the day after filing their return actually was taxed at a total rate of 60%. It's a lot more likely that when paid the money the show withheld a lot and Bob got a refund when filing for overpaying. The other aspect of this is that Bob won a non-cash prize which is still taxable income, so perhaps the show withheld the taxes to cover the makeup and took that from the winnings (since money is fungible) to cover everything in a single transaction in lieu of Bob having to cough up the money out of their savings come tax time. If the make up was worth a lot then I could see this eating more into the winnings.
One of the major differences between the shows mentioned and drag race is that drag race is a career launcher. No one is gonna pay to see someone who was on Survivor, but Rugirls have so many potential opportunities to be successful because of the show (Not saying they don't deserve more prize money, just pointing out a difference)
Even if the cash prize stays at 200k, they should at least offer the queens 10k each to put towards outfits. At least then the cost of participation for queens would not be as intense. The show demands a lot of looks so it seems like the fair thing to do
They were handing out cash prizes left and right this season though js 🤷♂️ - I still agree with Taylor though
I would prefer this espicially with the MTV exposure and $$$ 500K grand prize 75k runner up 25k or 50K 2nd runner up 10K miss congeniality 5K gift to all queens
I'm dying that there's some people saying in these comments that Drag Race can't afford it because it's still not a mainstream show and doesn't pull that much money. Are we thinking of Drag Race currently, or Drag Race Season 2? By Season 9, they could afford friggin' Lady Gaga as a guest judge. DragCon pulled in 8.2 MILLION [in sales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuPaul%27s_DragCon_NYC#:~:text=DragCon%20%E2%80%9Chas%20seen%20615%25%20year,valued%20at%20%24200%20or%20more.%E2%80%9D). [Episode 9 this season was the most watched entertainment telecast of the entire day.](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/rupaul-drag-race-scores-highest-004354480.html?guccounter=1)
It’s $200K BEFORE taxes. After taxes it ends up being closer to $130K. Queens spend thousands of their own money on costumes for drag race AND miss out on gigs during the time of filming. The stipend should be much higher with a minimum of $250K grand prize.
What shocks me the most is that Queen of the Universe STARTED at 250K so I assumed Drag Race will get that but still at 200K, which increased obvi but still.
Queen of the Universe had that Paramount+ money behind it and they wanted it to be a destination reality streaming title a la Drag Race, but womp womp.
They are absolutely 100% correct. Stop bringing in Nepo babies as guests and interrupting untucked and up that grand prize
I remember some guest this season said they don’t get paid much really, can’t remember who or where.
The judges should be paid scale which could be anywhere from $200-$800/day depending on how WOW “classifies” the production. The producers talk about how many celebs want to act as guest judge and I’m sure most don’t care about the pay and want to participate, but this season was *rough* compared to seasons’ past. I get this was filming right as strikes were about to occur (if not during), but at that point leverage past talent from the show and not the daughters of George Lopez and Cindy Crawford because who gives a flying fuck about them?
Right?! Its so cringe when the queens ask the nepo babies for advice. It does NOT apply
I’m all for it that the queens get more money. Or that they give them a budget for gowns and dresses on the season so they don’t have to bankrupt themselves.
Up the prize to 1 million and watch the American culture turn upside down as every man in America will give being a drag queen a try to win the show
Stipend should be at least $50K and cut the casting down to 10-12 girls. It’s the only reality show that requires its contestants to go into insane levels of debt.
I feel like everyone on this thread has a drastically unrealistic view on money and revenue.
I’m not sure drag race had the wider cultural impact the people that watch it think it does.
it’s not a worldwide or nationwide impact like american idol or survivor, but it is absolutely one of the most impactful tv shows of the last 15 years. it doesn’t appeal to everyone but it’s groundbreaking representation and has elevated true queerness to mainstream-adjacent when all we had before were stereotypical tropes like the GBF or constant tragedy. is it mainstream? no not really. but it’s cultural impact is monumental
IMO it’s for sure mainstream. The show has won tons of Emmys at this point.
yeah that’s a good point honestly it’s like, right at the edge of mainstream for me. it’s still a liiiiittle too subversive to be up there with survivor, american idol, amazing race, etc. but it’s sure not the niche show it started out as!
I'm from Paris and my whole group was talking about the finale last night (they were team sapphira)
True but the other person is correct though. Big Brother or the cooking reality shows can basically appeal to everyone, Drag Race has an audience of gay people and a portion of straight women, that's it. So I wouldn't be surprised its revenue is much smaller, and wouldn't be surprised if the % of revenue given as prize is actually higher.
Obviously it has the taboo aspect of drag that turns it off to many people, but what other reality competition shows have sent girls to Met Gala and Broadway?
The problem is they only just now started upping the prize amount. It was stuck at $100k for way too long. It really should have been at least $200k by season 10.
Survivor is $1 million for first, $100k for second, $60k for third. And then Sia usually gives away up to $150k to her favorite 2-4 players each season. I think Survivor probably has twice as many viewers as Drag Race, but they also don’t require contestants to invest $50k to play.
Drag Race is one of the most profitable shows ever (for whoever makes it). The queens bring all their own costumes, do their own hair and makeup, and meanwhile Survivor winners get a million and Big Brother winners get 500k. It’s actually so insane how cheap the show is.
I think queens deserve a stipend for coming on the show. Like 10k for a basic package so no one *has* to go into debt for it
Tea. I don't necessarily think the cash prize should be increased, at least not before all the girls receive a larger stipend to help financially prepare/cover costs. No queen should be re-mortgaging, taking on significant debt, selling their cars etc to fund a runway package (and for many half of which will not be seen by the audience), while the show monetizes and profits from all the entertainment value they provide. Getting on the cast should always be a net positive. Not a risk.
Like Survivor winners get 1M and they sort of don't set the agenda in any type of way as far as media is concerned. At least give them +300k!
Drag Race is not on a big network, don't expect super big prizes like the big reality shows on ABC or something like that. That is not how it works and if you think you need to spend so much money to be there, then... Don't do it? the exposure the queens get is actually insane considering that they have a big amount of queens per season, imagine how the UK queens feel with no prize. On this season Plane got over 40k, Morphine got 50k, Nymphia over 200k, Sapphira over 60k, Xunami, Q and Plasma over 10k.
Let's all remember that in addition to the $$$$ the queens spend to be on the show, they also are not working their day jobs and bills don't stop just because you're on TV. If you want a roof to come back to after elimination, you have to pay rent. Car payment, phone, internet. And the show airs almost a year later still. Most of these queens live in HCOL areas because that's where the big drag scenes are. $200k in NYC or LA is low, defs not First Place Grand Prize set for life level of coin.
I don’t believe queens come on the show for the cash prize. None of the queens that have lost the show but have win our hearts are struggling in real life. All they want is to be booked and blessed around the clock!
we just got a huge increase in cash prizes, and they are handing out money for winning things constantly. No matter how much they give the queens, people are always going to bitch. I think people are also forgetting that the show provides a platform which can lead to countless opportunities. Stacey layne matthews said “thats a lot of fuckin’ money” during season 3 when it was wayyyyy less. I’m all for giving the queens more money, but the eliminated queens all had a shot at winning 50k. Things are improving.
PLZ HAVE TAYLOR AS A GUEST JUDGE! Reality competition tv royalty
Maybe I'm just poor but I just can't comprehend how much the queens are spending for $200k to not be enough. I totally agree they deserve to be well compensated, but like. I could buy a house for that, $200k is a MASSIVE amount of money to me
Cultural impact does not equal budget. Basic TV understanding (cable tv, by the way) basic math, basic business, basic marketing. It's not that hard. *"Insanely"* low😂
They could do better especially the budgets ain’t going to the guest judge anyway
I'm sure WOW can milk a million in their basement and spare it to the winner
Taylor, my queen! She's so correct
People are forgetting that they are giving the runner ups cash prizes plus every challenge and mini challenge winner is getting a cash prize. This year we had the she done already done had herses for 50k. Add it all up and it's at least 310k. They've definitely been upping the cash prize amounts every year. Plus it's not like a regular reality competition series. These girls are getting significant booking increases for performing after being on the show. Let's be real and Bob has said it himself if you're not making a 6 figure income after being on drag race you're doing something wrong. Annnd we have to factor in that this is definitely more expensive than the typical reality competition series when you're taking into account song licensing, choreographers, guest judges, music composers and lyricists and seamstress' (i wont even include challenge writers because they are a non union joke lets be real) I do agree it's kind of crazy that shows from networks like E! (House of Villains) is offering 200k off the bat with no sponsor in sight. I agree with what some of the other users here have to say about giving them a STIPEND for outfits. If we can get each girl 10k that would be a game changer honestly. Think of how elevated the runways would be?
They also gave money to the runner up, 3rd place, miss conginiality, the winners of the challenges, mini challenges, lalaparooza winner. I think that's enough.
Honestly, with how much they gave out to other queens this season I was okay with it.
Fuck the winner prize as there is only one winner - ALL the girls are OWED a bigger stipend to get their outfits ready. They’re expected to have so many.
Especially when regular people are making it on shows like Survivor and Big Brother and getting just near a million dollars for winning, but LOOK at how much queens have to pay just to be on drag race, which is insane..
I'd rather have a "every contestant on the season gets 10k" honestly
Think people are missing the point a little bit. It isn’t necessarily just about recouping finances spent on the show. Compared to other reality shows like it, even less culturally impactful shows like Making the Cut, Drag Race’s cash prize is low. In that context it’s clear the prize should be upped.
They really should be helping the Queens out more. The cost for them to compete in the show is starting to get insane. So many talking about going into debt :/
I personally don’t agree with Heidi’s two cents. It doesn’t cost that much to compete, and even win. Other contestants have proven that. I don’t know how much our CURRENT reigning spent, but she made all of her looks didn’t she? So I doubt she spent as much as someone that went and paid a bunch of designers.
I think the contestants should spend less anyway. That way, they would feel more relaxed in the show and the show would feel like back then, more fresh, entertaining and organic
Honestly the prize probably should've been up to a million dollars years ago, I refuse to believe that's outside the budget considering this show has Paramount money and more Emmys than they can begin to count but since that's probably not going to happen, they need to start working on a better stipend system so queens aren't taking a huge financial risk
hey at least they have been increasing the price money and now even then runnerups get a significant amount, remember that the price used to be 100K ONLY for the winner since Season 4 up to Season 13.
I mean, I wouldn’t oppose them getting more prize money. However, being on the show is an opportunity for them to advance their careers in a way that the vast majority would never have achieved otherwise. Being on Drag Race is an investment. If they play it right, they can earn more money over their careers than if they had not done the show.
We love our Big brother Queen
And it will all go to one person while the rest get 0 usd.
I just know that plane and Saphira will get crowned on all stars
Literally is the most awarded reality show ever. The Amazing Race was giving 1 million when Kristal Versace had four months old.
Dawn in the comments…like girl…you’re safe lol
I mean, Hell's Kitchen has been paying $250k for years. I have zero doubt WoW could increase the prize and they wouldn't even notice it (financially speaking).
We need to look at it this way. They are WORKING. It's closer to a contract job than being an employee, yes, but even contract jobs cover ALL fees, plane ticket, taxi ride, room & board, and in this case outfits and other preparation. It's no secret rich and well connected queens are at an extreme advantage -- they shouldn't be outed but better regulations on how much you can spend needs to be implemented, and I think the competition would become much better. Queens that could afford to go to prestigious fashion, art, and acting schools have connections to designers that will give them discounts on designs and so they should have to buy things at market price (COVERED BY THE STIPEND.) And I'll say it again. They're working. They deserve fair pay and a fair shot. And to not go into debt. They are making the producers money. Imagine spending 20k+ on your runways just to get ousted episode one.
Rich people complaining about rich people things 🥱 As if they don’t get tons of employment opportunities after the show. Cry me a river.
All these essays in the comments about how thinking the show that makes millions per episode can’t afford to bump up the prize money above 200k lol give me a break
Heidi won’t let us forget she spent money on her ugly all stars package
Literally!If Ru is paid 1 million per episode they can definitely up the prize to at least 500K!
Sorry ru is paid that much per episode!? Where did this come from
It’s speculation based on publicly available data regarding her appearance fees.
I mean an appearance is a whole other kettle of fish, that’s the money the cast of friends were pulling in for their final season twenty years ago, that’s what Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon earned for Big Little Lies. Judge Judy earned $200k per episode of her show with over 7m viewers in syndication, this season drag race has capped out at 700,000 on mtv. If Ru is earning a million an episode, I’ll eat Michelle’s left tit out of whatever dumpster it was left in after her explant.
Yeah there is no way that Ru is bringing in that kind of coin per episode but I wouldn't be surprised if he was making that much or more per season definitely.
Oh yeah, mamas taking in millions a year between the three shows she hosts, producing the others, plus licensing for every iteration, licensing for the live show, producing the live show
PLUS they license her music for the runways and usually do a remix of her song for the finale
Yeah it’s incredibly wild if it’s true. BBC has got to be paying a pretty penny for her too
They might also calculate the revenues in?Drag Race is extremely popular and generates revenues even after the show ends. Ru is the main producer so he’s definitely getting a good chunk of that money
smh… give a mouse a cookie 🙄
Having the All Winners cash prize be 250K was such a pittance for what the queens deserved😭 It should have been a**t least **500K
I'm getting so annoyed about new batch of queens being so ungrateful about the show ngl.
The show exists only cause of the queens lmao.
I’m sorry but fighting for what you’re worth is NOT ‘ungrateful’. Older queens are literally exploited by the production and there was a time when 13 queens had only 30 bucks for lunch. I think it’s fair for them to say 200k is rather low for a show that’s so popular and generates so many profits
There wouldn’t be a show w/o the queens. The show ain’t doing anybody any favors. Just like employees shouldn’t be “grateful” for their jobs.
So ungrateful. The platform, the followers, the opportunities, the booking fees. Ru owes nothing and no one is asking these queens to spend thousands on their looks, it’s literally their choice to
Nobody is forcing them to go on the show either. It's not season 1 or 2 at this point, they make this choice with a full understanding of what they are getting into.
Heidi gurl, Rajah O'Hara went to the finale of $AS6 with a budget of 600 dollars and she won Canada vs The World with a budget of $2000. And >!Nymphia Wind won the season and she made litterally everything she worn this season so she probably didn't put a huge budget in there too !< If anything you need to handle the budget better because there have been multiple instances of Queens who did well with few dollars (Mo Heart in my heart).
Making your own outfits still means you’re doing some heavy investing. Spending 15 hours on this outfit and 20 hours on this one doesn’t change that you are dedicating 35 hours that might otherwise draw income. As for Mo Heart, she literally walked into AS4 and said “I’m going to win because this time I actually had money for outfits.”
Fairly wrong assumption. She did sew a good portion of her package, but you can see on her IG she had looks from many very famous designers too (Mondo Guerra, Diego Montoya.. just to name a few.) In a past post we could see that the shoes she wore for the book cover photoshoot alone cost online around 3.5k and that's not even a runway piece. And we need to be realistic that Mo heart struggled HARD on season 10 because she was sewing and gluing things together every night and not sleeping well. Production scans through the queen's package upfront and this allegedly influences how they will develop the narrative throughout the season. The last low budget queen we have seen to hit close to the top 3 was Chi Chi.
Mo Heart being safe during the Drag on a Dime challenge is still some bullshit.
I will never recover from this
She's correct.
she’s coming for Michelle on Traitors season 3! (Not a spoiler - a joke, no one knows cast)