‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ 7 Twist Is a Total Game Changer for the Queens and the Franchise

It’s not a season of RuPaul’s Drag Race if there ain’t a twist or twelve locked, loaded, and ready to go. Season 14 included stunts galore — and if a regular season of the series was that extra, just wait until you find out about what RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars has in store for us. SPOILERS ahead for the Drag Race All Stars 7 premiere, which is now streaming on Paramount+, BTW.

You know All Stars 7 had to go hard or go home with the rule change, considering all the twists and turns All Stars has dished out in the past (teams, Lip Sync for your Legacy, the jury vote, a tie, Lip Sync Assassins) — and I think it’s safe to say that they succeeded in coming up with a gag of a format change. On All Stars 7, the first-ever all-winners season of Drag Race, no one is going home.

You read that right. There are no eliminations this season. Decider got the chance to interview the crowned queens of All Stars 7 ahead of the show’s premiere, and you bet we just had to ask about this game-changing rule and how they felt about it. Their reasons were many, but they all had the same undertones. Take it away, The Vivienne: “My favorite part about the rule change is that, you know, no one goes home,” said the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 1. “We all get to stay till the end and show every single piece of fucking gorgeous drag that we put so much into. I think I’m more excited for the fans to see it. You know, I can see [my drag] in my house anytime of the day. But we got to show the fans what they love to see.”

Not only do the queens get to show every single runway look they prepped for the season, they also get to compete in every challenge. This means that the audience will get to see every queen show off every bit of their charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. “I love that we all got to show our full selves the entire time,” said Monét X Change, one of the winners — or twinners — of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 4. Monét pointed out that when queens don’t compete in every challenge, they miss out on the opportunity to show off different sides of themselves and fans miss out on seeing those sides. “The fact the we all get to stay the whole time? Love it.”

There is, of course, still a game to be played, but the rules are a little different. When it comes to judging, RuPaul will announce the top two queens of the weeks just like she has in past seasons. Those queens will each receive a Legendary Legend Star, and then they will lip sync against each other to determine who gets a $10,000 cash tip (doubled from previous seasons) and the opportunity to block a competitor from the possibility of receiving a Legendary Legend Star next week. That’s a big deal because in the season finale, the four queens with the most Legendary Legend Stars will compete in a lip sync smackdown for the crown.

There’s still a lot at stake, including that $200,000 prize — the most money ever awarded to a single queen in a season of Drag Race. And y’all, the queens need the coin. Take it from Raja, winner of Drag Race Season 3 (and $75,000). “Honestly, you know, all of us will say that Drag Race costs a lot of fucking money, 11 years after [I competed],” said Raja. “We spend enormous amounts of money to get these things together. So it was really nice [to be able to show our looks on the runway].”

And no, posting a look to Instagram after you’ve been sent home is not the same as getting to showcase it for an audience of millions in an episode of Drag Race, an episode that will live on long after followers have scrolled past a post. “There’s nothing worse that when a queen gets sent home and they post all the looks on Instagram,” said The Vivienne. “And you’re like, ‘Aw, this would’ve looked so good on the runway!'”

In addition to justifying all the money spent, the twist had certain emotional benefits for the queens as well. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 5 winner Shea Couleé loved being part of this sisterhood, one unlike any other in Drag Race herstory. “I feel like we also got the opportunity to become so much closer as a cast because no one was going home,” said Couleé. “We just really had the ability to encourage each other, to challenge each other, and grow as a cast and as a unit every single week.”

Even Raja, she of Heathers vs. Boogers fame, could feel the difference between her original season and this one: “[The twist] took away, like, this sense of like meanness, I guess.”

There’s also just the TV production standpoint to consider. All Stars is now in its seventh season, and this is a spinoff that’s been about wild rule changes from Season 1, Episode 1. This new format allows for the show to low-key reinvent itself, thus keeping viewers — and the queens themselves — guessing. As Monét’s All Stars 4 twinner Trinity the Tuck said, “I liked the fact that it’s just something different. The audience is gonna get a different kind of show, but still the same nuances that they love about RuPaul’s Drag Race. But it makes it different, it twists and turns things, and it still keeps you on your toes because you want to make it to the end with those stars.”

But even this twist has a dark side — and leave it to Season 11 winner Yvie Oddly to point it out in her own weird way. “Oh, my favorite part about [the twist] is that no matter what, there is no loser. Like, we’re all winners because we are all forced to be there to the deadly end,” explained Yvie, like a Bond villain gleefully explaining how the Death Ray works. “Even if you suck, even if you suck every week, you have to be there. And RuPaul just laughs at you every week — and not her funny laughing-with-you way, but in her I’m-keeping-you-around-because-this-is-torture [way].” And then, followed by a cacophonous cackle, Yvie concluded, “I won’t spoil too much, though.”

We’ll just have to see how this twist plays out in the long run but, for now, it looks like a twist for the better. For now…

The first two episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 are now available to stream on Paramount+