Streaming ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Creates a Haven For Spoilers on Social Media
Paramount+ Reading Time: 3 minutes
Waking up and logging onto Twitter for a usual morning full of memes and catching up on news quickly turned sour for me today. In a promotion done by Paramount+, #AllStars6 sits on top of the trending page. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 was released at 3 a.m. ET on Thursday. The entire plot of the first two episodes was spoiled in a matter of hours on social media. Based on this, RuPaul’s shift to Paramount+ already seems like a bad idea.
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Premiere is Spoiled Almost Immediately After Release
Every other season of RuPaul’s Drag Race has been broadcast on cable at a set time. This is the very first season that the show is only available on Paramount+. It is common for streaming services to release new shows very early in the morning. But a show like this, with a massive following, makes it almost impossible to avoid spoilers all throughout the day. It would make more sense for the episodes to be released at a later time when people get home from work or school.
For those that did stay up until the wee hours of the morning to watch the premiere, it has been mostly positive reviews all around. However, RuPaul’s Drag Race has always been a show ready to wow people. It loses much of the wow factor when every single detail from the first challenge has been blasted over the internet before we have all had our morning coffee.
Everything from the eliminations, performances, and iconic outfits from both episodes made its way onto Twitter. There were fans talking about Jan’s gorgeous look this season, which doesn’t seem so wrong. There were other fans revealing a shocking elimination, which felt like a punch to the gut. As you can probably imagine, the comments on this particular Twitter post were full of anger.
Did the Show Actually Spoil Itself?
Gone are the days when bars hosted viewing parties for the show and everyone let out a collective sigh of relief when their favorites were revealed to be safe. Welcome to the days where the RuPaul’s Drag Race Twitter account advises you to mute words to avoid spoilers. It’s a little too late for that, Ru! The hilariously sad part is, this post gives away some spoilers on its own.
Telling us to mute the words “14th queen” might be implying that another queen is joining the competition. The Twitter account will be live-tweeting the episode at 8 p.m. ET. Um…why not just release the episodes at that time each week for everyone to actually watch together?
Is There Any Benefit to Putting Competition Shows Only On Streaming Services?
Streaming services are supposed to be convenient and allow people to watch whatever they want at any time. For a few dollars a month, it sounds like a good idea in theory. Then the few dollars start to add up for each streaming service you buy. This was a huge gripe of longtime RuPaul’s Drag Race fans. They do not want to purchase Paramount+. Paying for a show that you can get spoilers for on the internet seems a little counterintuitive.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 isn’t the first reality competition show to be spoiled after hitting the streaming platform. Fans of Netflix’s The Circle probably remember how the Season 2 winner was all over the internet before most people even got to watch the finale. Though it seems very far away, the finale episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 will most likely be spoiled on social media before most fans even hit the play button.
The first episode of the two-part premiere was actually released on YouTube for free. If fans like what they see and decide that the season isn’t going to be a flop, they might decide to purchase Paramount+. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6’s deal with Paramount+ is not really benefiting the fans or the franchise. Fewer people will have access to the show. Those of us that do have access to the show will be reaching for our breakfast while the Twitterverse unpacks each episode scene by scene after its release.
