The third season of RuPaul's Drag Race began airing on January 24, 2011. Thirteen drag queens competed for the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar", a headlining spot on the Absolut Tour, a lifetime supply of Kryolan makeup, and a cash prize of $75,000.
This season had Michelle Visage replacing Merle Ginsberg at the judge's table and Billy Brasfield (better known as Billy B), Mike Ruiz, and Jeffrey Moran filling in for Santino Rice's absence during several episodes. Billy B, celebrity makeup artist and star of the HGTV mini-series Hometown Renovation, appeared as a judge in five episodes. Whereas Mike Ruiz only judged for two episodes, and Jeffrey Moran for one, Moran only appearing for promotional reasons. Due to Billy B's continued appearances, he and Rice are now considered to have been alternate judges for the same seat at the judges table, both appearing side-by-side in the reunion special to announce Yara Sofia as the season's Miss Congeniality.
Other changes made included the introduction of a wildcard contestant from the past season, Shangela Laquifa Wadley; an episode with no elimination; and a contestant, Carmen Carrera, being brought back into the competition after having been eliminated a few episodes prior. A new pit crew was also introduced consisting of Jason Carter and Shawn Morales. The theme song playing during the runway every episode was changed to "Champion" while the song playing during the credits is "Main Event", both from RuPaul's album Champion. As with the previous season, each week's episode was followed by a behind-the-scenes show, RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked. On December 6, 2011 Amazon.com released this season on DVD via their CreateSpace program.
The winner of the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race was Raja, with Manila Luzon being the runner-up.
Alexis Mateo, Manila Luzon, Mimi Imfurst and Yara Sofia competed on the first season of All Stars. Mimi placed 11/12th overall with season 2 contestant Pandora Boxx, Manila placed 7th/8th with season 4 contestant Latrice Royale, and Alexis & Yara placed 5/6th overall together.
Shangela will be competing on the upcoming third season of All Stars.
Video RuPaul's Drag Race (season 3)
Contestants
Maps RuPaul's Drag Race (season 3)
Contestant progress
- The contestant won RuPaul's Drag Race.
- The contestant was the runner-up of RuPaul's Drag Race.
- The contestant was eliminated without qualifying to lip-sync in the finale.
- The contestant was voted Miss Congeniality by viewers.
- The contestant won a challenge.
- The contestant received judges critiques and was ultimately chosen to be safe.
- The contestant was in the bottom two.
- The contestant was eliminated.
- The contestant returned as a guest for the finale episode.
Lip-syncs
- The contestant was eliminated after their first time in the bottom two.
- The contestant was eliminated after their second time in the bottom two.
- The contestant was eliminated after their third time in the bottom two.
- The contestant was eliminated after the final lip sync of the season.
Guest judges
(In alphabetic order by stage name and/or last name)
Episodes
U.S. television ratings
1Based upon point/share system for Nielsen ratings. The first number represents the percentage of households within the population viewing the program (known as points). The second number (known as shares) is how many households were expected to view the program, within the population. For example, Episode 8 has a point/share of "0.3/1". This means .3% of households viewed the program from the expected 1%, showing .7% of the show's audience were watching a different program.
References
External links
- Official website (U.S.)
- Official website (Canada)
- Official Facebook page
Source of the article : Wikipedia