The fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race started with fourteen queens – five hailing from Central Florida – and as of March 11, we’re down to seven.
“We’re no longer just drag queens,” Jinkx Monsoon said during a tearful ending of the March 11 airing. “We’re now seven sister queens.”
On an otherwise mundane Monday night, we caught up with Roxxxy and her Roxxxstars at her weekly RuPaul’s Drag Race viewing party at Pulse.
“It’s surreal,” Andrews says of watching herself on-screen each week. “I feel like I’ve been PhotoShopped into the scenes.”
Already at the halfway point in the season, we’re now down to three Central Florida queens. Serena Cha Cha from Tallahassee was the first to “sashay away.” Then, we saw the giggly with a bite, Jade Jolie from Gainesville sent packing.
The three remaining Florida natives include: Detox, originally from St. Petersburg, who now performs in Los Angeles; former Watermark cover girl, Flamingo Resort star, Miss Gay America 2010 and Alyssa Edwards nemesis, Coco Montrese; and former Miss Continental Plus, Pulse Nightclub headliner and member of Team Ro-Tox, Roxxxy Andrews.
If RuPaul’s Drag Race her-story repeats itself, looking at Drag Races past might allow us to see if the remaining Florida queens’ stats will win them the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar.”
1. The queen who wins the most challenges wins the season.
While ultimately, RuPaul is going to choose who RuPaul chooses, BeBe Zahara Benet, Tyra Sanchez and Sharon Needles all won the most challenges in their seasons. The only exception to that rule involves Raja and Manila Luzon, who tied for number of challenges won.
This season, nobody has yet to win two challenges, making it anybody’s game. That also makes this season unique – it’s never taken this long for a queen to win two challenges. Sharon and Alexis Mateo did it by the third competition episode, and Tyra did it by episode five. Of the remaining queens, Alaska is the only one yet to win a challenge; everybody else has one win.
2. No team captain has ever won her season.
BeBe, Tyra, Raja, and Sharon were never team captains. While being a team captain isn’t directly damning to your chances of winning, RPDR has a high sashay-rate for its captains.
Through seasons one through five, there have been a total of 12 team challenges. In four of them, the captain was eliminated.
Being a captain doesn’t necessarily hurt your chances of winning, but captaining a team hasn’t deemed statistically favorable to your chances of surviving the challenge, either. Now that we’re past the “Snatch Game” challenge, team challenges have concluded. Of the remaining Season Five queens, Roxxxy is the only one who has never served as a captain.
3. In the last two seasons, the winner of the first challenge won the season.
This is more coincidence than indicator, but interesting nonetheless. Raja and Sharon both won the first challenge of their respective seasons; and while Morgan McMichaels won the first challenge of season two, Tyra was a high-scorer, too.
With that said, Roxxxy won the first challenge of season five.
4. Unless you’re gunning for Top Three, nobody survives their third lip-synch.
While many excellent queens have survived two “Lip-Synch For Your Lives” (Raven, Sahara, Shangela, Delta, Jiggly, Milan), each of those queens was eliminated on her third lip synch. The only two queens to survive their third lip synchs were Jujubee and Alexis Mateo, both while moving from Top Four to Top Three.
Of the remaining season five queens, Coco has already survived two lip synchs, so it doesn’t bode well for her. Detox has survived one.
5. So, who’s winning season five?
We’re laying down our prediction now. Based on the win/high/safe/low stats, from the critiques they’re getting, and from the gut, we’re looking at a top three showdown between Detox, Jinkx and Roxxxy – with Alyssa close behind.
As Alaska said in the last episode, “It’s open season.”
The second half of this season is when we’ll get to really know and choose who we love among the final competitors. We’re going to watch these seven queens really reveal their claws and alliances divide – as already proven this last week, when Alaska separated herself from Team Ro-Laska-Tox. Roxxxy has also gone from being the quiet one and taken off her sequin gloves and started opening up and even throwing some shade.
And who isn’t tiring of the seemingly faux feud between Alyssa and Coco? Can I get an Amen?
To quote RuPaul herself, “I can’t wait to see how this turns out.”
More Info:
What: RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 5
When: Mondays, 9 p.m., LOGO
