This week ‘Queen of the Universe’ has finished airing in Spain, the new reality/talent show produced by RuPaul that originally aired at the end of 2021 on Paramount+ and that has been broadcast in Spain by the MTV Spain network. .
The program is presented by Graham Norton and has four stars on its jury: the singer Leona Lewisthe drag queen Trixie Mattelthe actress vanessa williams and the presenter michelle visage.
The Eurovision of the drags
RuPaul Charles, producer of the well-known contest ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ and all its derivatives, opted for this new format that bears similarities to others from his factory, although this time also taking another mass event as a reference: Eurovision.
Thus, ‘Queen of the universe’ tries to go one step further at least in terms of scope. The goal of the talent show is crown the best international drag voiceso the 14 contestants come from all over the world and come to demonstrate their talents as singers to win the $250,000 prize.
no lip sync
The program never boring. Starting with the duration: the season consists of 6 episodes of 45 minutes that don’t go long and don’t use absurd tricks like making the jury do supposedly funny random things to lengthen the duration (yes, I’m looking at you, ‘Your face rings a bell’).
That is another of its strengths: the jury. It’s not just that the judges are charismatic and have criteria to assess the actionsbut also know how to give these assessments in a short and fun way, always highlighting something positive and making constructive criticism when they are needed.
As for the challenges, if it’s not the first drag show you’ve seen, it may be a bit limited for you as everything is reduced to singing tests. However, it does you can see the effort to give them some variety by marking different themes for each gala and introducing slight variations in the execution of the tests, such as singing in pairs or interpreting an unreleased song.
The part of knowing more about the drags (what in ‘Drag Race’ we would call “Untucked”) it is quite small although it is gaining a little more space as fewer contestants remain. Perhaps it would have been more interesting to expand that part and cut out the presentations of each queen (the moments in which they appear on camera before each performance) since there does come a time when they do not contribute much.
Highlight as a curiosity that ‘Queen of the universe’ It was the first recent example of a drag queen reality show broadcast on a free-to-air channel in Spain. (with some very isolated antecedents that went unnoticed like ‘Dragnificas’ in DKISS). Something that is to be appreciated, considering that this type of program reaches us by the dropper, although perhaps it would have made more sense to have broadcast it not so separately from its original premiere because surely many “dragfans” will have already looked for other means to see it at the time.
‘Queen of the Universe’ is a good alternative to calm the post-Eurovision hangover and make waiting for new episodes of Drag Race less burdensome. Although its dynamics have aspects to polish, as entertainment it fully complies and allows us to enjoy the “charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent” of some of the best voices in the drag world.
Now that it’s complete (excellent news considering that the episodes ended on a cliffhanger and we had to suffer the weekly wait to discover those eliminated from one gala to another), you can watch the entire season on any on-demand service if you have contracted the MTV Spain channel or from WOW Present Plus.