RuPaul's Drag Race (season 1)
The first season of RuPaul's Drag Race premiered in the United States on February 2, 2009, on Logo. Nine contestants were selected to compete in the running of becoming "America's Next Drag Superstar." The first season was filmed during the summer of 2008. The winner of the first season won a cash prize of $20,000, $5,000 worth of MAC Cosmetics, was featured in an LA Eyeworks campaign, and joined the Logo Drag Race tour. One of the nine contestants to compete on RuPaul's Drag Race, Nina Flowers was determined by an audience vote via the show's official website to be the season's Miss Congeniality. The results were announced in early September 2008.
| RuPaul's Drag Race | |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | |
Promotional poster for season one | |
| Hosted by | RuPaul |
| Judges |
|
| No. of contestants | 9 |
| Winner | BeBe Zahara Benet |
| Miss Congeniality | Nina Flowers |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 9 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Logo TV |
| Original release | February 2 – March 23, 2009 |
| Season chronology | |
| List of episodes | |
The theme song playing during the runway every episode was "Cover Girl" from RuPaul's album Champion. This season and season one of All Stars are the only seasons to not feature the "Snatch Game".
The winner of the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race was BeBe Zahara Benet, with Nina Flowers as the runner-up.
In late 2013, Logo re-aired the first season, which was titled RuPaul's Drag Race: The Lost Season, and featured commentary from RuPaul.[1][2]
Contestants
Ages, names, and cities stated are at time of filming.
| Contestant | Age | Hometown | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| BeBe Zahara Benet | 28 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Winner |
| Nina Flowers | 34 | Denver, Colorado | Runner-up[a] |
| Rebecca Glasscock | 26 | Fort Lauderdale, Florida | 3rd place |
| Shannel | 29 | Las Vegas, Nevada | 4th place |
| Ongina | 26 | Los Angeles, California | 5th place |
| Jade[b] | 25 | Chicago, Illinois | 6th place |
| Akashia | 24 | Cleveland, Ohio | 7th place |
| Tammie Brown | 26 | Long Beach, California | 8th place |
| Victoria "Porkchop" Parker | 39 | Raleigh, North Carolina | 9th place |
Contestant progress
Legend:
| Contestant | Episode | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1[3] | 2[4] | 3[5] | 4[6] | 5[7] | 6[8] | 8[9] | 9[10] | |
| BeBe Zahara Benet | SAFE | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | BTM | WIN | Winner | Guest |
| Nina Flowers | WIN | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | Runner-up | Miss C |
| Rebecca Glasscock | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | BTM | WIN | BTM | Eliminated | Guest |
| Shannel | SAFE | SAFE | BTM | SAFE | SAFE | ELIM | Guest | |
| Ongina | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | WIN | ELIM | Guest | ||
| Jade | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | ELIM | Guest | |||
| Akashia | BTM | BTM | ELIM | Guest | ||||
| Tammie Brown | SAFE | ELIM | Guest | |||||
| Victoria "Porkchop" Parker | ELIM | Guest | ||||||
Lip syncs
Legend:
| Episode | Contestants | Song | Eliminated | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1[3] | Akashia | vs. | Victoria "Porkchop" Parker | "Supermodel (You Better Work)" (RuPaul) | Victoria "Porkchop" Parker |
| 2[4] | Akashia | vs. | Tammie Brown | "We Break the Dawn" (Michelle Williams) | Tammie Brown |
| 3[5] | Akashia | vs. | Shannel | "The Greatest Love of All" (Whitney Houston) | Akashia |
| 4[6] | Jade | vs. | Rebecca Glasscock | "Would I Lie to You?" (Eurythmics) | Jade |
| 5[7] | BeBe Zahara Benet | vs. | Ongina | "Stronger" (Britney Spears) | Ongina |
| 6[8] | Rebecca Glasscock | vs. | Shannel | "Shackles (Praise You)" (Mary Mary) | Shannel |
| Episode | Contestants | Song | Winner | ||
| 8[9] | BeBe Zahara Benet | vs. | Nina Flowers | "Cover Girl (Put the Bass in Your Walk)" (RuPaul) | BeBe Zahara Benet |
Guest judges
Listed in chronological order:
- Bob Mackie, fashion designer
- Mike Ruiz, photographer
- Frank Gatson, director and choreographer
- Michelle Williams, singer and actress
- Howard Bragman, writer and lecturer
- Debra Wilson, actress and comedian
- Gordon Espinet, make-up artist
- Jenny Shimizu, model and actress
- Lucy Lawless, actress and singer
- Robin Antin, dancer, choreographer, and actress
- Jeffrey Moran, Absolut Vodka marketing/branding executive
- María Conchita Alonso, singer-songwriter and actress
Episodes
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Drag on a Dime" | February 2, 2009 | |
| Nine drag queens enter the workroom for the first time. The queens are then thrown into their first mini-challenge, in which they must take a sexy photoshoot on a car while getting doused with buckets of water from the pit crew. For the main challenge, the queens will make an outfit out of items from the thrift store. On the runway, Nina Flowers and Ongina receive positive critiques, with Nina Flowers winning the challenge. Akashia, Rebecca Glasscock and Victoria "Porkchop" Parker receive negative critiques, with Rebecca Glasscock being safe. Akashia and Victoria "Porkchop" Parker lip-sync to "Supermodel (You Better Work)" by RuPaul. Akashia wins the lip-sync and Victoria "Porkchop" Parker sashays away.
| ||||
| 2 | 2 | "Girl Groups" | February 9, 2009 | |
| The eight remaining contestants were given a mini-challenge in which they acted out certain emotions and took pictures of themselves with a digital camera. RuPaul then deemed Akashia and Ongina the winners and made them the group leaders in the next challenge, a girl group battle. The groups were each responsible for their own hair, makeup, costumes, and choreography and they each had to perform to a Destiny's Child song. Ongina chooses Nina Flowers, Rebecca Glasscock and Shannel for her team and are chosen to perform "Say My Name". Akashia chooses BeBe Zahara Benet, Jade and Tammie Brown for her team and are chosen to perform "Independent Women Part I" On the runway, Team Ongina is the winning team, with Ongina winning the overall challenge. Team Akashia is the losing team, with BeBe Zahara Benet and Jade being saved. Akashia and Tammie Brown lip-sync to "We Break the Dawn" by Michelle Williams. Tammie Brown chooses not to lip-sync and just stands there and dances. Akashia is declared the winner, leaving Tammie Brown to sashay away.
| ||||
| 3 | 3 | "Queens of All Media" | February 16, 2009 | |
| This week's challenge was to channel Oprah Winfrey. Each contestant was allowed to pick a costume from a bin supplied for them, choose a costume they brought, or make their own on the spot. The challenge was in three parts, representing three stages of Oprah's career. The first task was a newscaster challenge where they had to read mock news stories from a teleprompter. The next task was to try to sell products, reminiscent of Oprah on her "My Favorite Things" specials. The third task was to interview Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott. On the runway, BeBe Zahara Benet, Nina Flowers and Ongina all receive positive critiques, with BeBe Zahara Benet winning the overall challenge. Akashia, Jade and Shannel all receive negative critiques, with Akashia and Shannel landing in the bottom two. Akashia and Shannel lip-sync to "The Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston. After an amazing performance, Shannel is declared the winner, and Akashia is eliminated after her third time landing in the bottom two.
| ||||
| 4 | 4 | "Mac-Viva Glam" | February 23, 2009 | |
| For the mini-challenge, RuPaul paired everyone up and gave each person 30 minutes to do their partner's makeup, with Jade being declared the winner. The main challenge involved the girls putting together a commercial for Mac's Viva Glam makeup, a cosmetics line which Ru has once modeled for. The winner of the challenge would become the new face of Viva Glam. The girls were told that they must use the commercial to explain who they are as queens, to explain why they are beautiful, and to inform people of Viva Glam's help for those living with HIV. On the runway, BeBe Zahara Benet, Nina Flowers and Ongina receive positive critiques. Ongina is revealed to be the winner of the challenge, and emotionally reveals that she has been living with HIV for the last 2 years of her life. Jade, Rebecca Glasscock and Shannel are the bottom three queens, with Shannel being saved. Jade and Rebecca Glasscock lip-sync to "Would I Lie To You?" by The Eurythmics. Rebecca is saved, and Jade sashays away.
| ||||
| 5 | 5 | "Drag School of Charm" | March 2, 2009 | |
| For the episode's mini-challenge, Ru brought in five female fighters to put the contestants through an exercise and endurance challenge. The last person standing would win the challenge; Rebecca won. Ru then told the contestants that their main challenge would be for each of them to make over one of the fighters in their own image and teach them the secrets of drag. Rebecca got to select her partner as well as whom the others had to work with. They also had to coach the fighters on how to give a lip sync performance, which they had to do to Beyoncé's, "Freakum Dress". On the runway, Rebecca Glasscock and Shannel are the top 2 queens, with Rebecca Glasscock winning the challenge. Nina Flowers is criticized on her runway looks, but is ultimately saved, leaving BeBe Zahara Benet and Ongina as the bottom two. They lip-sync to "Stronger" by Britney Spears. After an amazing performance, Ru walks off stage to collect her thoughts on who to send home. She ultimately saves BeBe Zahara Benet, leaving Ongina to sashay away.
| ||||
| 6 | 6 | "The Absolut Ball" | March 9, 2009 | |
| The contestants met Ru on the runway for a vogue battle mini-challenge, which Nina won. For their main challenge, each contestant had to come up with three looks: Swimsuit, Executive Realness, and Evening Wear. Ru also informed the girls that Absolut was sponsoring the event and thus, they had to each portray one of four pre-selected flavors: citron, mandarin, mango, and raspberry. As the winner of the mini-challenge, Nina selected her flavor and paired everyone else up. Ru later revealed that they had to use their assigned fruits as part of their runway presentation.
On the runway, BeBe Zahara Benet and Nina Flowers receive the best critiques, with BeBe Zahara Benet winning the challenge. Rebecca Glasscock and Shannel are the bottom two, and they lip-sync to "Shackles (Praise You)" by Mary Mary. Rebecca Glasscock wins, and Shannel sashays away.
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| 7 | 7 | "Extra Special Edition" | March 16, 2009 | |
| RuPaul takes a look back to the best moments of the season. Including unaired clips, the audition tapes of the queens that did and didn't make it to the show, and the Top 10 most memorable fashion looks of the season.
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| 8 | 8 | "Grand Finale" | March 23, 2009 | |
| Merle and Santino came in to inform the final three that their last challenge would be to appear in RuPaul's latest video for her song, "Cover Girl (Put The Bass In Your Walk)". They would do a group dance, record a verse with rapper Cazwell, and film a solo for Ru's video. To get them prepared, choreographer Ryan Heffington took the final three through the planned dance routine. None of them adapted easily, but Rebecca in particular struggled with the dancing required. Afterward, each queen got an impromptu sit-down with Ru. On the runway, Rebecca Glasscock is eliminated, leaving BeBe Zahara Benet and Nina Flowers as the final two queens. They are told they are going to be lip-syncing to "Cover Girl (Put the Bass in Your Walk)" by RuPaul for one last challenge. It is then revealed that BeBe Zahara Benet is the winner, leaving Nina Flowers as the runner-up.
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| 9 | 9 | "Reunited" | March 23, 2009 | |
| The nine contestants gathered once again to chat about the season behind them and their current lives with RuPaul, Merle, and Santino with questions from the viewers. Discussions include, Jade and Shannel's issues with Rebecca Glasscock, Ongina's HIV story, and an argument between RuPaul, Santino and Tammie Brown. Nina Flowers is then crowned with this season's Miss Congeniality.
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References
- ^ Shumaker, Jason; Jake Slane (August 18, 2013). "Gentlemen, Re-Start Your Engines...and May the Best Woman Win...Again!". Logo Press Room. Logo. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ "&"set=a.156472877827.118955.31772462827&type=1&comment_id=9992661&reply_comment_id=9992723&total_comments=15 "Callie, dear..." RuPaul's Drag Race Facebook page. September 23, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
Callie, dear...
- ^ a b "Drag on a Dime". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 1. Episode 1. February 2, 2009. Logo TV.
- ^ a b "Girl Groups". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 1. Episode 2. February 9, 2009. Logo TV.
- ^ a b "Queens of All Media". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 1. Episode 3. February 16, 2009. Logo TV.
- ^ a b "Mac-Viva Glam Commercial". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 1. Episode 4. February 23, 2009. Logo TV.
- ^ a b "Drag School of Charm". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 1. Episode 5. March 2, 2009. Logo TV.
- ^ a b "The Absolut Drag Ball". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 1. Episode 6. March 9, 2009. Logo TV.
- ^ a b "Grand Finale". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 1. Episode 8. March 23, 2009. Logo TV.
- ^ "Reunited". RuPaul's Drag Race. Season 1. Episode 9. March 23, 2009. Logo TV.
External links
- Official website (U.S.)
- RuPaul's Drag Race at IMDb