Loni Love, a recurring judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, has addressed the controversy that’s currently plaguing season 15.
Although Drag Race’s move to MTV is major in terms of queer visibility, the series has been cut from its standard 60 minute runtime to 40 (without ads) in order to make room for another LGBTQ+ series, The Friends of WeHo.
With the runway and judges’ deliberations being significantly shortened as a result, the decision was met with fierce opposition from fans, who launched a change.org petition for Drag Race “to return” to one-hour episodes.
In addition, commentary from the queens during their runway walk has been cut and – this part is sacrilege – RuPaul’s signature call-to-action, “Bring back my girls”.
Drag Race alumni also shared their distaste, with season 15’s Salina Estitties tweeting that the cast “worked two hard and invested too much” for the edit to be slashed and, “I just wanted to see more of the gals.”
Loosey LaDuca wrote: “These short runways are AC-TU-AL-LY killing me. All that time, money, and effort. Yeeeesh.”
Aura Mayari also highlighted how viewers missed “out on a lot of fun chaotic things that happened that day for this week’s episode.”
Now, former recurring judge Loni Love – who memorably competed on RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race – has spoken out against the edit, offering her “apologies to the queens” of season 15.
On Twitter, the comedian wrote: “You spend time making these fabulous looks and deserve more then under two minutes to show them off…”
Love’s tweet was co-signed by hundreds of fans, as well as season 13 alum Denali, who wrote in response: “SAY IT LONI!”
The cast of The Real Friends of WeHo responded to the controversy in an interview with Out.
Brad Goreski, who has served as a judge on Canada’s Drag Race since season two, said: “The [Drag Race] fanbase is always super passionate. That’s why we love them.
“They’re right to be upset if they want to be upset, but as talent on the show, we’re not responsible for where the show ends up. I love the Drag Race community. […] I will continue to love them, no matter what.”
Self-proclaimed “superfan” Jaymes Vaughan said he would tune into “120 minutes” of RuPaul’s Drag Race and “if there’s anything I can do to get that, that’s what I would like”.
Neither MTV or World of Wonder have made a statement on the matter.
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