Charity Begins at Home: Why the 'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars' Season 9 Twist Is No Good

We barely got a weekend with our new RuPaul’s Drag Race queen supreme, Nypmhia Wind, before word was dropped of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 9.

This time around, eight members of Drag Race royalty - Angeria Paris VanMichaels (Season 14), Jorgeous (Season 14), Gottmik (Season 13), Nina West (Season 11), Plastique Tiara (Season 11), Roxxxy Andrews (Season 5 & All Stars 2), Shannel (Season 1 & All Stars 1), and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo (Seasons 10 & 11) – will stomp their heels back-back-back into the famed pink workroom to remind everyone of their charisma, uniqueness, nerve, talent for something very different in the Drag Race world: altruism.

TV Line reports that instead of battling one another for a possible $200,000 payday, that money will instead go to the winning queen’s favorite charit. The funds come by way of The Palette Fund, a private organization “dedicated to breaking down barriers and advancing social change in communities that are under-resourced and facing significant challenges.”

Oh, y’all wanted a twist, eh? Let’s get… benevolent?

Now, don’t get me wrong: I absolutely admire the idea. As our country continues to regress to the 80s – and by that, I mean, the 1880s – I think it’s great for a platform as powerful as RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars to show that queer folks care just as much about the world and those in it as others who claim they do, but continue making choices for us that clearly prove otherwise.

Still, I can’t help but feel the honorable move to have these Drag Race alumni step up their game for charity's sake is… well, kind of crass.

As of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16 and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 8, which premiered on Paramount+ last May, contestants were in the running to take home $200,000. This is a vast improvement from the franchise’s 2009 opener, which ended with champion Bebe Zahara Benet winning just one-tenth of the current pot ($20,000).

While the current prize amount may pale in comparison to what others on less-niche reality competition series, like Survivor and The Amazing Race, can garner from a winning season, it still a great help for RuPaul’s Drag Race queens to cover lost career opportunities while competing on the show (especially as they're legally obligated to participate). But with no one playing for keeps this time around, is the price worth it?

Days after the All Stars 9 announcement, Heidi N Closet, who beautifully chose her peace over production-related shenanigans during All Stars 8, tweeted that the AS9 queens will receive “a lovely appearance fee and stipend.” Believe what you will, but it’s doubtful those fees and stipends will cover what most of the queens have spent for their appearance.

To say that it’s costly for a queen to appear on a season of RuPaul’s Drag Race or RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars is an understatement. World of Wonder usually covers airfare and room and board. However, everything else comes out of the queens’ pockets.

A feature from Out a few years back says that it’s not unusual for queens to spend anywhere from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to stand out and show out on their seasons. For example, Mistress Isabelle Brooks of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 fame revealed during a 2023 Instagram Live that she spent $100,000 to compete, with $40,000 going toward her Grand Finale looks alone.

Paramount Global, the media conglomerate that owns the Paramount+ streaming app, as well as MTV, VH1, and Logo – all three networks that aired Drag Race at one point or another – is currently worth (if I’m Googling correctly) $9.8 billion. According to Growjo, World of Wonder, the production behind the Drag Race franchise, pulls in around $123 million annually.

I won’t begin to assume or allege Grand Dame Ru’s net worth. Nevertheless, I’m sure it’s safe to say that as the name attached to a massively-successful global franchise, the host of a popular game show revival, the co-owner of a online book store, a New York Times best-selling author, and whatever he gets from the fracking situation we’re not supposed to talk about, Mama’s also got some money, honey.

So, why aren’t any of these million-to-billion dollar entities mentioned footing the charity bill and paying the queens simultaneously? Why is it falling on the queens, who may never have another $200,000 opportunity, to be the charitable ones?

For every queen that breaks the bank to appear on Drag Race, there are those who, naturally, can’t. Fan favorite Heidi N Closet, who first appeared on Season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, tweeted in May 2023 that she spent nearly $4000 during her first run in 2020, and ten times that amount for All Stars 8 run.

“[And that was] after canceling $60,000 worth of gigs,” she further shared.

I would be remiss not to mention Joe Black, a contestant from Season/Series 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. While not a contender for this or any other past season of Drag Race All Stars, which should change immediately (more on that later), Black is best known for infamously stoking RuPaul’s ire by admitting the dress she wore for a runway challenge had been purchased from H&M.

“I don’t want to see any fucking H&M,” Ru fumed at a visibly embarrassed Joe, which was filmed and aired.

To this day, it is one of the most unfair callouts in RuPaul’s Drag Race history.

Black had originally been the first queen eliminated from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Series 2. After his departure, the entire world – including production of RPDR UK S2 - shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak of 2021. During this time, Black, like many other queens around the world, could not perform, which meant that no income was coming his way. To bring in some money, Black chose to sell most of the garments he had made for the competition.

"Everyone was trying to make money where they could," Joe told Capitol FM in February 2021. "I was doing online shows and stuff. And then I sold quite a lot of my stuff.'"

When production of Drag Race UK started up again, contestant Veronica Green was forced to bow out due to contracting COVID-19. Black, with two other eliminated competitors, was invited back to the show with the chance for one of them to be voted into the competition. Joe would end up winning the vote.

Black revealed that he only had three weeks to prepare for his return – without most of his original wardrobe.

“There were some runways and things [I wasn’t prepared for],” Joe continued, “and I was like 'Oh, I don't own those costumes anymore.”

Worst of all, because Black and his fellow RuPaul's Drag Race UK competitors were part of a BBC production, they were not allowed, by law, to be paid for their time on the show or receive a cash prize at the end of the series (the BBC is public programming, much like PBS is in America).

And now, you all understand why Joe Black deserves a RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars run – and not one for charity.

Queer YouTube content creator and occasional drag queen Bussy Queen (who goes by he/they/her pronouns) gave further detail on the high-risk/low-reward turn as a RuPaul’s Drag Race or RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars competitor in a recent video.

“It’s no secret that many queens will spend tens of thousands of dollars, or go into debt if they have to prepare runway packages to compete,” they said, “which is crazy. No one should be going into debt to compete on a reality TV show. Those runway packages should be paid for and comped by the producers.”

If charity truly begins at home, all eight RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9 competitors are worthy of the price. One can only hope that by the end of the season, they'll have more to show for their time and talents than just a photo on the RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Hall of Fame.