World of Wonder Co-Founders Reflect on 2020—the Biggest, Wildest Year in ‘Drag Race’ Herstory

You cannot keep a drag queen down. 2020 was an unbelievably bad year, one that separated people all across the world from everyone else, even the people right next door. But through it all, as our collective spirits dimmed, drag performers showed a level of resilience that was as entertaining as it was inspirational. Truly, 2020 was—somehow!—The Year of Drag. It’s not hyperbole to say that during the darkest stretches of this nightmare year, drag content was a beam of glittering light.

So many of those major moments were made by World of Wonder, the production company behind the Drag Race franchise and WOW Presents Plus streaming service. Co-founders Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey started off 2020 with a busy schedule: there was the first-ever DragCon UK, and seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, and Canada’s Drag Race getting prepped to debut.

And then 2020 decided to start being 2020. The pandemic hit, conventions were canceled, productions were rethought, shows were reedited—just an unprecedented amount of drama rocked the world all year long. But, just like the drag queens they champion, the tenacious World of Wonder pushed ahead and created the content they wanted to make and we needed to see. To sum up this truly unpredictable and unprecedented year, Decider spoke with Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato about, well, all of it! And if you think 2020 was something special, just wait for 2021…

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2020 did not shake out how anyone expected. How did 2020 upend what World of Wonder had planned for 2020, in regards to content?

Randy Barbato: From a content perspective, a lot of 2020 looks like what he thought it would look like. From a process perspective, it’s unlike anything we’ve ever imagined.

“Drag finds a way” is kind of the theme of 2020. You pivoted quickly with the “Stay the Fuck Home” initiative on WOW Presents Plus. Can you walk me through the creation of that?

Fenton Bailey: One of the staggering things about this pandemic has been the way Americans have reacted to it. In some ways, some take it pretty seriously. Then, others are just running around town, licking lampposts. We were all having a meeting, one of our group remote meetings, [and] Stay the Fuck Home came out and we were like, “Oh my gosh, we should program around that whole idea.” And I think that’s pretty much what we did. We also did a show for BBC Three with How’s Your Head, Hun? with Michelle Visage, a remote talk show. It was all about pivoting really quickly to working remotely, and it was amazing how everyone at World of Wonder was able to do that — to be flexible and able to work, overnight, in a completely different way.

Barbato: It’s interesting, because I think the drag ethos is that notion of resilience, adaptability, survival. It’s what makes drag queens our heroes. World of Wonder is not like the North Pole, with a whole bunch of little drag queens working behind the scenes. So many people who work at World of Wonder and who’ve been here for a very long time, I think, have those sort of same — not core values, but the same way of moving through life. And 2020 was the year that those kind of tools became super important and valuable.

That resourcefulness started literally right before the pandemic, when RuPaul’s Drag Race disqualified a contestant due to allegations of sexual assault and had to re-edit the season as it aired. It worked, and resulted in the a positive season of the show for a stressful spring and another batch of Emmy awards. Kudos for pulling that off.

Bailey: It was a bit like, I mean — with the urgent need to re-edit the series, literally as it was airing — to think that we thought that was our biggest problem. Little did we know what was gonna happen [with COVID-19]. But I think you’re also right. I think a show like Drag Race, the spirit and the energy of that show is what you need in a time of national crisis, in a time of pandemic when people are locked up at home. And as Randy says, it’s the resourcefulness of drag, the ability to make something out of nothing makes it well suited to a total shit show [like 2020]. And I certainly think the remote finale and the remote reunion were especially successful.

We also did a whole bunch of virtual events, like Bring Back My Ghouls, the WOWIEs were a great success this year, Digital DragCon and Stonewall Gives Back. So, thank goodness the technology is here that you can actually do these things because 10 years earlier, I think we would have been really up the creek.

In addition to airing seasons of Drag Race and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars on VH1, WOW Presents Plus debuted two international additions: Canada’s Drag Race and Drag Race Holland. How did Canada meet your expectations?

Bailey: Oh my god — Canadian drag is so strong. It’s so fabulous. Great queens. I mean, Priyanka, obviously who won, and Jimbo and Ilona [Verley] — I mean, they’re all so good, different. And I think going into it, on the Canadian side, I think there was a little anxiety that they didn’t have the talent base. But we were like, “No, you guys have this. You have this.” Sometimes Canada sort of compares itself with America and thinks it’s always lacking — which is a shame, because it’s not true, especially with drag.

Barbato: I think the reality is that the format of RuPaul’s Drag Race is so strong, combined with what it’s all about — the cast, the queens — that iterations of it around the world exceeded our expectations. Because there’s the framework, but then there’s the room for each cast to define the voice of that particular iteration. So you know, whether it’s Canada’s Drag Race, or RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, or Holland, we’ve found so much joy watching and participating in them. I guess exceeding our expectations is the best way to explain it. It exceeded our expectations, and it reminds us what Drag Race is really all about, which is the heart and soul of these queens, of these warriors, of these survivors.

I believe Drag Race Holland was the first season of a Drag Race competition to film during the pandemic. What was that like?

Bailey: Oh no, hats off to them. I mean, they perfectly timed it in a lull in the pandemic. I think if it had started filming any weeks later, it probably might not have happened. They just came in between that first wave and second wave, and they were quick, they were really fast. So hats off to them.

We weren’t so lucky in the UK because we were filming Season 2, when the pandemic struck. We had to stop. The studio we were shooting at closed, and we weren’t able to get back for eight months. And in fact, we literally just finished a few weeks ago, shooting the second half. We put the whole cast on ice and managed to get them all back and tested, and finish shooting the series. So that was pretty incredible. An eight month gap halfway through production, that’s not ideally what you want to do. But it was pretty amazing because — obviously [the pause in production is] part of the story. And seeing the queens come back into the Werk Room was such an amazing moment, and it makes you think of all that everyone has been through these past few months.

Season 1 of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK was such a moment—specifically the debut of the Frock Destroyers. And now there’s a real Frock Destroyers album out in the world. Did you know that was going to happen back when they took the stage in Season 1?

Bailey: Well, actually yes. It’s really hard to believe, but DragCon in the UK was in January, and it seems like an era ago. But there we were at Olympia in Kensington and when the Destroyers hit the stage, the mass frenzy, the enormous crowds, packed cheek by jowl. I mean, talk about a super spreader event — but again, this was before COVID had arrived in the UK. But it was then that we were like, “Oh my gosh, we really should get on and do an album.” It worked out that we were able to record the whole album and we shot the music video on the Drag Race UK set. It was just perfect timing, and the album’s fantastic.

Now that Drag Race has produced its own spinoff girl group and album, is there a template in place to make that happen for other contestants in the future? 

Barbato: Absolutely. In fact, I think you’ll see some coming very soon. But yeah, absolutely. Fenton and I are huge music fans. And Leland has a huge musical career himself, who we work with on lots of the music for RuPaul’s Drag Race. He produced the Frock Destroyers album and is an amazing collaborator. So I think increasingly, you’ll see more World of Wonder record releases. And I can’t share a spoiler, but some exciting stuff is coming up very soon. You know the Frock Destroyers album is number two on the UK Apple chart?

They’re The Beatles of Drag Race.

Barbato: Totally. Beatles meet Spice Girls.

World of Wonder also produced a lot of content for other streaming services, like Freedia Got a Gun which debuted on Peacock in the fall. What’s it like working with other streaming services?

Barbato: We love working for other streaming services, and we love working for our own. The big difference is that sometimes you get a little bit of a budget [working with another streaming service]. World of Wonder is sort of an anomaly when it comes to Hollywood. I think we’re one of the last independent production companies of our size. We’re fiercely independent, so whether we’re working, scraping up pennies to produce stuff on our own — I mean even the Big Freedia film, we independently financed that, and then we brought it to a streamer. We do a lot of that. We have [the David] Wojnarowicz film which was directed by — Chris McKim directed both of those. Again, we independently produced that. We’re endlessly independently producing stuff, because we’re a production company that’s built on a foundation of passion.

We’re used to people saying no to us, frankly. I’m not saying that from a complaining perspective. If there’s an opportunity for us to produce for someone, and they’re helping finance, we love that. Producing for our own platform we really love, because we don’t have any bosses. We’re the boss, and that’s always nice because we can do whatever we want. With WOW Presents Plus, in 2021 we intend to invest a lot more money on original content. In the very near future, you’ll be hearing some announcements about more ambitious — we have a big competitive reality program with some marquee names attached that you’ll be hearing about shortly. It’ll be exciting for us to do this stuff.

Also as your own bosses, you’re more able to move quickly and have an active dialogue with the community. I’m thinking specifically of the PSA that Drag Race produced that directly addressed some of the racism within the show’s audience. 

Barbato: I mean, I appreciate you just even acknowledging that. It’s so great that the fans engage at such a level, but it is upsetting, at times, to see a small, small minority, a small fraction behave in ways that are completely disconnected from what the show and the spirit of the show is all about. It does feel important at times to remind people what the show is about, what we are about, what we should all be about. And also, to remind people that in the world we live in, it’s easy for one person’s voice to be amplified to create a false impression that they represent more than what they represent, you know what I’m saying?

Bailey: I think the message of the show is love and inclusiveness, and I just think that sometimes the fandom can be super passionate and sort of cross a line. And I think that we always need to remember why we make the show and what it’s for.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to mention UNHhhh’s big Streamy Award win for Unscripted Series. UNHhhh’s comeback in the fall was so welcome. I loved Trixie & Katya Save the World, but I loved seeing them again in that white void.

Bailey: When you think about it, [UNHhhh] was almost conceived for a socially-distanced world. That is a void. It doesn’t matter if there’s 12 inches between them or six feet. It just is fine!

The only difference is Katya can’t hit Trixie anymore. What can y’all say about UNHhhh’s journey towards becoming a Streamy winner?

Barbato: In many ways, UNHhhh and its success embodies so much of what World of Wonder is all about, which is putting stake and trust into the vision of artists. Katya and Trixie are amazing artists, nd so are the people who work on UNHhhh: the editors, and Pete Williams, the producer. They do their thing. There are no notes on UNHhhh. UNHhhh is the manifestation of amazingly talented artists. Its success flies in the face of he way Hollywood traditionally works, and that makes us super happy. The reason people love it is because they love those artists. Those guys, they leave it on the floor. They come and they just spew it out, and that’s what’s so amazing. It’s a really authentic and intimate experience.

2020 was a big, if strange, year. What’s coming up in 2021? 

Bailey: There are two amazing things coming in 2021 that aren’t actually announced until 2021. We’re going to be beginning the year with quite a bang. I wish I could say more, but it’s going to be a good year. There’s going to be lots of stuff to watch,

Barbato: I would say, and I think I said it before, but for us: really doubling down on content for WOW Presents Plus and expanding the original content for WOW Presents Plus is really important for us. Expanding our WOW doc slate this past year — we created and were devoted to documentaries. Part of the thinking there, with Big Freedia and Wojnarowicz, we’re just completing the Michelle Visage explant documentary, which is directed by Emmy Award winning director Jeremy Simmons that will come out in 2021. But a big part of WOW Docs is really to create a vehicle to ultimately feed WOW Presents Plus. A lot of the content — obviously, if you liked this, you’re going to like that. All of that subject matter, all the stuff that we are motivated to make a doc about, we tend to think is going to be subject matter that our tribe would be interested in. Jamal Sims directed When the Beat Drops, we independently financed that. Ultimately that now lives on WOW Presents Plus, so we’re really doubling down on giving Netflix a run for their money.

Where to watch RuPaul's Drag Race

Stream RuPaul's Drag Race UK on WOW Presents Plus

Stream Freedia Got a Gun on Peacock